the tape because he made it.”
“Made it as in…”
“He had a year-long affair with Elena, which happened to overlap both your marriage to him and my relationship with her.”
It had been my father’s shirt she’d been wearing when I showed up at her apartment two years ago.
My mother looked down at the teacup in her hand for a long beat, then hurled it against the wall. Conversation in the room cut off. It looked as if we Russos were starting to have trouble controlling our tempers.
“Is everyone okay?” Linus asked slowly, approaching with caution.
Mom gave him the circle the wagons smile. “Everything is fine. Just dropped my tea. It’s time for something harder anyway.”
“Mom.”
She held up an index finger, effectively shushing me. Russos didn’t discuss things. We certainly didn’t admit to being betrayed. And we definitely didn’t show weakness.
“Come inside, Dominic. We’ll figure out what direction we should go in.”
On a sigh, I followed her inside and pulled out my phone.
Me: It’s going to be a late night. I’m with my mother in an emergency strategy session over the May cover story.
Ally: Elena? I am officially staying up for an update. I’ll put your dinner in the fridge and take Brownie for his walk. Let me know if you need anything.
Maybe I should tell her. Secrets only seemed to fester.
I grabbed a carton of drunken noodles and settled in with the rest of the team.
An hour later, we were still nowhere near a solution.
Linus sat up from where he reclined on the couch. “I’ve got it! Why don’t we put Ally on the cover? It seems her star is rising,” he joked.
My mother relaxed with a laugh. “It was a striking photo,” she agreed.
“What photo?” I demanded.
“Christian James’s Instagram,” Linus said, fingers flying over his phone screen. “I can’t believe you didn’t see it yet.” He slid the phone to me.
I felt my heart clumsily miss a beat as a chill settled in my chest. “What is this?” I asked, glaring at the photo.
“You didn’t know about it?” my mother asked.
“I had no idea,” I said, feeling the knife twist in me. Betrayal was the theme of the day. How many times could a man have his legs swept out from under him before he didn’t get back up?
“I need to take care of something,” I said, abruptly rising.
“You look comfortable,” I said, my tone too bland for her to pick up on the anger I was choking on.
Ally looked up from her cocoon on my couch and grinned. “Your fault for having such comfy furniture,” she teased. “Want to bring your dinner in here and snuggle while you fill me in on all the gossip?”
This charade of affection turned my stomach.
I tossed my phone in her lap.
She picked it up, grinned. And that knife in my guts twisted again.
“Wow. I don’t look half bad.”
“Care to explain?” I asked, my tone was deceptively mild. I wanted her to lie to me so I could call her on it. Because there were only two reasons why she’d be in Christian James’s photo on a bed, in an unzipped dress staring at the camera as if it were a lover. As if it were me.
“Well, I can’t explain all of it yet,” she said. “Because it’s a surprise. But this is what I was telling you about Wednesday at lunch. Faith and I went to his studio for that shoot.”
“Are you fucking him or using me?” I asked, my throat raw.
Ally blinked, and I watched the color slowly drain from her face.
Good. I wanted her to hurt like I hurt.
She took a breath and let it out. “You’re stressed and exhausted. I’m going to give you one free pass. But, Dom, you don’t get to make accusations like that,” she said quietly.
“Oh, I don’t get to ask why you were in his bed, half-dressed? So which is it? Fucking him or fucking me over.”
She unwound herself from the blanket and came to her feet. “Nothing happened,” she said icily. “Where is this even coming from?”
“Insta-fucking-gram. That’s where. Seems you’re becoming quite popular.”
“There is nothing going on between me and Christian. We’re friends. He did me a favor, and I did one for him.”
“Was the favor posing half-naked on a bed or fucking him?”
Ally wasn’t the kind of girl to bitch-slap someone. And thanks to my red tunnel vision, I didn’t even see her fist fly until it connected with my face.
The new pain was a welcome relief from the wound inside me.
“How