LITMIR.BIZ

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think of all this. He had been a simple man. She wondered if he would be impressed by it all or think it was crazy to spend this much. Deep down she knew the answer.

      She hated to think that her father might be disappointed in the way she was leading her life, but she knew that he had just wanted her to be happy. In the end, Ava was happy when Maxime was happy.

      A knock on the door distracted her from her musings. She thought it might be her sister in-law, Virginia, bringing her six-month-old by for a visit. Ava would happily quit wedding planning for an hour or two to spend time with her niece. She had been there when Virginia had given birth and for every little milestone that Bria had met. She loved being so near the next generation of her family and seeing her oldest brother, Carlos, being a father.

      She zipped the garment bag up and headed to the front door. Only she didn’t see her sister-in-law with her adorable little baby standing there. There was a woman that she’d never seen before. She was older, probably nearing forty, with plain brown hair and nondescript features. Ava had never had a visitor outside of her family and the delivery people since she’d been there.

      “I don’t mean to be rude,” she started, “but I am very happy with my current faith at the moment.”

      “Oh, I’m not here for that reason, Ava.”

      She knew her name?

      “You are Ava, aren’t you? I recognize you from your pictures.”

      Maxime wasn’t quite a celebrity, but because of his massive business holdings and his family’s last name on a string of luxury hotels he was well known and sometimes his picture was snapped by the paparazzi. She was sure she had been photographed with him a few times, but that didn’t explain why the woman was there.

      “How can I help you?” Ava tried not to let her nervousness show. There was a strange woman at her rental home, and she was alone. She had taken some self-defense classes, but right now that information had flown out of her head while other more troubling thoughts had crashed around into it.

      “I’m Ingrid.”

      She studied Ava’s face for some kind of reaction.

      “You don’t know who I am, do you? Max never told you,” she said sounding disappointed.

      “Told me what?” Her stomach dropped. Sick was the only way she could describe how she was feeling.

      “I think it might be better for me to show you rather than tell you. May I come in? You’re probably going to need to sit down.”

      “I don’t want to sit down, and I don’t want to go inside. I want you to tell me why you are here.”

      Ingrid pulled a small photo album out of her oversize handbag and handed it to Ava. Ava opened it slowly. The first picture was of Maxime with a newborn swaddled in a blue blanket in his arms. His eyes were adoring. She had never seen that look in them before.

      “That was nearly sixteen years ago now,” Ingrid said softly.

      Ava flipped to the next page to see a younger Ingrid with two small children, a boy and a girl, her head thrown back in laughter. Max sat next to her, a grin on his face and love in his eyes.

      Ava wanted to ask if Ingrid was his long-lost sister, if those two children were his niece and nephew, but she already knew the answer. And yet she kept turning the pages. There was Ingrid with yet another baby, in a hospital bed, Max’s arm wrapped around her. Ava walked back inside then and sat down heavily on her couch. She couldn’t think. She just couldn’t muster one coherent thought. But she kept turning those pages. Family vacations and birthday parties. Smiling faces. Happy times. She had hoped that this was a past relationship, but as she turned the pages she could see that Max was still very much a part of their lives. It was clear that when he wasn’t with her, he was with them. He had the kind of life with them that she hoped they would have together.

      She was more than stunned, more than shocked. She was paralyzed as she sat there.

      “Our eldest is going to be sixteen in a few months. His name is Hugo. My middle’s name is—”

      “I don’t want to know their names!” Ava pushed the photo album back at Ingrid, who had followed her inside. They were supposed to get married, spend the rest of their lives together. There were hundreds of people coming, some of them already there, and yet she was sitting next to the woman the man she loved had made a family with.

      It was all going to waste. All the money that was spent that could have helped people. All the time she spent loving him, her career, it was all gone. Sacrificed for him.

      “I’m not here to hurt you. I just thought you should know before you walked down the aisle that you would be sharing him with us. He said he was going to tell you. I had hoped he would tell you before you were married...”

      “I don’t understand.” Ava shook her head. “Why are you a secret?”

      “Look at me.” She shrugged.

      “What are you talking about? There is nothing wrong with the way you look.”

      Ingrid smiled at her. “He’s right. You are sweet. I didn’t think you would be from your pictures. I’m plain. I’m uninteresting. Uneducated. I was working as a waitress when we met. I always knew when I took up with him that I was never going to be the main woman in his life. He needs someone like you. Someone beautiful and graceful. You look like the wife of a billionaire. Plus he really does love you.”

      Ingrid had said so many things that Ava was having a hard time focusing on just one of them.

      “How do you know he loves me?”

      “He told me. We talk about you. He tells me everything. Max is my best friend.”

      “He doesn’t tell me everything. I’ve spent three years with the man, and he couldn’t be bothered to tell me that he was leading a double life.”

      “He was wrong for that. He should have told you from the beginning. I didn’t want you to start your marriage off that way, and I didn’t want you to find out by accident. But now that things are out in the open, you can discuss it with him and get past it.”

      “Get past it? There is nothing to get past. There’s not going to be a marriage.”

      “Oh no!” Ingrid looked truly dismayed. “That wasn’t my intention. You have to marry Max. He adores you. He’s waited so long to get married. You’re perfect for him.”

      “Do you think I’m the type of woman who would lower myself that far for a man?” Maybe it wasn’t such a stretch, Ava had already given up a lot to be with him—what was the rest of her self-respect?

      “Maxime isn’t just any man. He’s special and powerful, and millions of women would give up their souls to be where we are. He’s so kind to me, and I know he’s kind to you. There’s no one else in the world who’s going to give you what he can.”

      “I don’t want what he can give me. And I’m sure as hell not willing to give up my soul to be with him.” She stood up and walked to the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a wedding to cancel.”

       Chapter 2

      There was something big going on next door, Derek Patrick thought as he walked over to his window. He was a busy guy and usually nothing could tear him away from his work of making custom furniture and being the mayor of Hideaway Island, but the words “I’m going to kill the slimy bastard” had punctured his career-related fog.

      Ava Bradley was staying next door to him. He hadn’t realized it at first, because for the last week all he had seen were delivery trucks going in and out of her tiny driveway, but it certainly was her. Sister to his island’s richest resident. Future wife of the man who’d tried to destroy Hideaway Island with a disgustingly large resort. As mayor Derek had done

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