“Robin!” Jackie waved to someone across the room and made her way over, leaving Carolina standing there alone.
Carolina quickly searched the room for a familiar face. Her gaze landed on Audrey. She picked up a glass of wine and made her way over.
“Audrey, hi.” She smiled brightly.
“Carolina.” Audrey’s smile slid off her face and she glanced out the doors that led to the swimming pool. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“Yes, sorry we’re a little late. Seems like a good turnout for a party.” Carolina looked around.
“Look, I don’t think you should be here.” Audrey’s expression hardened.
Carolina blinked. Surely she’d not heard correctly. “I’m sorry, it sounded like you said…”
“Carolina, you really shouldn’t be here.” Audrey cast a nervous glance out the window. Her face went pale. Without a word she quickly stood up and took Carolina by the arm, urging her toward the door.
Carolina’s body felt like marble. She couldn’t move and felt heavier than her normal pudgy self. Humiliated, her eyes stung with unshed tears. She wanted to sink into the floor, beneath the rich earth where no one could see her.
“You’re hurting me,” Carolina whispered, hoping no one was watching.
“I’m trying to help you.” Audrey hissed.
At that moment, Chris burst into the room with a young woman dressed in a scantily clad black dress and high heels. She grabbed Chris’s arm, reached up on her tiptoes, and kissed him square on the mouth.
Carolina couldn’t move. She couldn’t trust her eyes. Surely she was hallucinating. Her legs went weak and she feared she might actually pass out. Dear Lord, did she have a brain tumor?
“Kylie, stop.” Chris gently shoved the woman back, his face red with embarrassment.
“But this is great news, sweetheart. We’re going to have a baby.” The perfect specimen of a woman, who was everything Carolina was not, twirled in his arms.
Good Lord, now she was having audible hallucinations. Was it early dementia? Psychosis? Was she schizophrenic?
Just then, as if Kylie sensed Carolina’s presence, she turned and their eyes met. She was beautiful, thin, young, with a perfect body. “You must be the old wife. I’m Kylie, the soon-to-be new wife.”
Carolina reached for Audrey’s arm. “Something’s wrong with me, Audrey. I think I need a doctor.”
The next thing she remembered of that horrid night, was Audrey’s breath on her ear as her words rang out in her muddled head. “No sweetie. You don’t need a doctor. You need a lawyer.”
Chapter 2
“Mrs. Johnson, do you understand everything I’ve read to you?”
Carolina blinked and tried to concentrate on what John Rithers, her attorney, was saying.
“The judge is awarding you alimony for three years, unless you remarry before that time, then you forfeit any alimony.”
“I won’t be getting married again.” Carolina pressed her hand to her stomach.
“And your husband gets the house.” John shook his head. “I don’t like it. The judge should have ruled that Chris should sell the house and split the proceeds.”
“He won’t sell. That’s his dream house. He had everything custom-built.” She wanted to lay down and go to sleep for a week.
Since discovering her husband’s affair, she hadn’t slept, nor had she eaten. Minutes had bled into days which seeped into weeks.
She’d cried and begged Chris not to throw away their marriage for someone he hardly knew.
But it had been clear from the way he stared blankly into her eyes that he had already made his choice.
He had chosen Kylie.
