As I walked home, I was so happy that I felt like I was floating above the pavement. The warm streak from the previous day had turned chill and rainy, but I didn’t mind. If anything, it made
me feel closer to Alessio than ever before. I knew that what I was feeling for him was real…but I had no idea whether or not he felt the same way.
It wasn’t just the sex. Alessio had really tried hard to show me that he was changing. In addition to volunteering at the homeless shelter and food pantry, he was also donating money to charity groups all over the city. He even donated two million dollars to a charity that helped little kids with cancer get wigs during chemotherapy.
It was like he knew all the right roads to my heart…and he was choosing to take all of them at once.
I had no idea what I was going to do when it came time for his trial. What could I possibly say to Detective Aberson? It was a crime to refuse to testify – I could even go to jail myself.
But would I be able to betray the man that I was slowly falling in love with?
It was so hard to believe that in six months, my whole life had changed so drastically. When I thought of the timid little Beth Wilson who had planned on marrying Michael Bennett, it didn’t even seem like me. And knowing that had Michael lived, we’d be married by now was really upsetting. It wasn’t upsetting because that was what I still wanted. It was upsetting because I caught myself thinking more than once that a divorce wouldn’t be so awful.
By the time I got home, I was feeling anxious and worried. Alessio wasn’t the kind of guy who talked about his feelings, but I was dying to know what he thought of me. Did he still think I was some stupid, spoiled, silly little girl? Was he only wooing me so that I wouldn’t testify when the time came?
And what would happen after the trial? Would Alessio revert to his awful ways, and break my heart?
Heather was in the kitchen making breakfast when I walked in. When she saw my rumpled clothes, she gasped.
“Oh my god, I thought you’d already left for work,” she said. She smiled slyly. “But I can tell you were working on something else.”
“Ha, ha,” I said dryly. “Spare me the humor, please.”
“What happened?” Heather poured me a mug of coffee with cream and sugar and passed it over. I took a long deep breath and a big swallow before answering.
“I had to go to the police station yesterday,” I said solemnly. I shook my head and my eyes filled with nervous tears. “Aberson doesn’t believe me, I can totally tell.”
Heather raised her eyebrows. “Well, it would probably be pretty hard if you get picked up by the very man you claim to hate,” she said calmly. “I assume you were with him last night?”
I nodded. “We stayed at the Plaza.” I blushed. “We…we ordered room service and watched stupid movies all night.”
Heather snickered. “I bet you watched a lot of movies,” she said. “Didn’t have sex, did you?”
I blushed hotly. “I did,” I said. I moaned and buried my face in my hands. “I’m so sick of feeling like this!” I whined loudly. “I can’t decide whether I’m upset or happy or falling in love.” I shook my head. “It’s like I always have butterflies, but then I’m also dealing with a million other ways to feel.”
Heather nodded. She reached for the remote and turned on the television, flipping through channels.
“I know it’s hard,” she said soothingly. “But I promise, Beth, things really will calm down. Just trust me.”
I frowned. “I wish I could,” I said. “But sometimes, I feel like there’s no end in sight, you know?”
Heather nodded. “I do,” she said. “I really do.” She frowned, pausing the channels at a news station. “Hey, look, something’s going on at the Plaza.”
My heart turned to a lump of ice in my chest as Heather turned up the volume. The camera panned in on a crowd of people standing outside the Plaza Hotel and yelling.
“That’s so weird,” I said nervously, taking a shaky sip of coffee. “I was just there, like half an hour ago. I wonder if there was a fire.” Please let Alessio be okay, I prayed silently. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to him, too.
“Oh my god,” Heather said. She dropped her mug of coffee on the floor. The mug broke into tiny shards of ceramic and hot coffee splashed on my feet.
But I didn’t even feel any pain.
Staring at me, from the screen of the kitchen television, was Alessio Amoruso.
“I’m reporting with KPNG, here to tell you that Alessio Amoruso, business owner, has been arrested on suspicious charges.” A perky blonde anchor bobbed in front of the camera, oblivious to my heart breaking inside of my chest. “He was arrested shortly after ten-thirty this morning, and he’s being taken downtown to stay in custody as we speak.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks but I felt powerless to move – I couldn’t even raise my hands to wipe them away. My heart was barely beating, and my stomach felt like a stormy sea.
“Beth,” Heather whispered. “What happened? Do you know anything?”