The Affair: Week 8 by Beth Kery Read Free Book Online Page A

“I thought I heard you out here. You’re not leaving already? It’s not even seven yet, and I heard you up last night. You can’t have slept much. Again,” Amanda added pointedly.
    “I’m sorry if I kept you up,” Emma apologized woodenly.
    “Don’t worry about it. But why are you leaving so early?”
    “I have some paperwork I can get a jump on at the office,” Emma said. She reluctantly met Amanda’s stare. “It’s better than just lying in bed . . . thinking.”
    Amanda’s mouth tightened. Amanda knew what her sister was thinking about, but Emma doubted Amanda knew how she was feeling. At times, she just felt numb, but at other times when she wondered if she’d ever see Vanni again, a great wave of pain would surge into the empty hole inside her.
    And what if that witch told him about Cristina and Laurel, despite it all? The thought made her physically ill.
    “It’s just better for me to keep busy,” Emma said, feeling that wave of misery rising even now. She turned and twisted the doorknob.
    “But you look so tired,” Amanda protested.
    “This is better,” Emma assured before she plunged out the door.
    Much better than just lying there, stewing in my misery.
    Ten minutes later, she paused at a stoplight in a right-hand-turn lane, preparing to turn onto the road where her hospice was located. She’d driven briefly on this very same road on the day she’d been with Vanni going to Cristina’s funeral. It must have been a hell on earth for Cristina to spend those final weeks in Vanni’s home, knowing her son was there in the house, living off his charity, knowing he refused to see her because of their tragic history. It’d literally been a hell, and yet she’d chosen her fate. Did she think she deserved to be punished? Is that why she’d done it? She needn’t have gone to the Breakers if she didn’t want to. She could have spent her last days alone in her condominium with someone like Emma or one of her coworkers dropping in on her for an hour or two every day.
    No, Cristina definitely had chosen to spend her last days near Vanni, knowing it would be bittersweet and painful. She hadn’t been weak, in the end. She embraced the pain.
    Was embracing the pain what Vanni did every day of his life? He certainly hadn’t run from it. If anything, part of him had thought he’d deserved that pain.
    Because when he was struggling, and I was trying so hard to keep him above the water . . . he was very afraid.
    The memory of Vanni saying those words made her flinch in agony. He’d blamed Cristina all these years for the loss of his other half, but he blamed himself perhaps even more elementally. His unrelenting anger at Cristina had been the surface, obvious emotion, a shadowy reflection of the deep fury he had for himself for not being able to save Adrian.
    Tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t seem to control them for the past few days and nights. They sprung up at the most inopportune moments.
    The light turned green. She’d pull into the parking lot just past the intersection and wait until her tears had passed.
    She didn’t know what hit her. One second, she’d been turning right, and the next she was jarred forcefully. She heard a loud bang, and everything went black.

Chapter Forty-one
    Vanni jogged up the stairs to Emma’s apartment and looked over the ledge on the second floor of the stairwell, getting a bird’s eye view of the parking lot. He grimaced, not seeing her car. Had she already left for work? He rethought his strategy for finding her. He’d talk to Amanda first. This time, he was better prepared to talk to her than he had been several days ago, when he’d still been be sideswiped by Emma’s refusal to see him again.
    This time, he knew what Amanda needed to hear in order to become his ally in getting Emma to talk to him, and Vanni was ready to say it.
    He approached Emma’s apartment and drew back his fist in order to knock. The door flew back before he’d ever made