Fidelity (Infidelity #5)(49)

It was as if they were alone in their own bubble until Alexandria answered.

“No, Momma, Chelsea told me that you needed me.”

Adelaide turned toward Chelsea, her expression souring and neck straightening as it had when Chelsea first entered the dining room. “I suppose I owe you my gratitude.”

“No, Mrs. Fitzgerald, you don’t owe me anything. Alex needed to know what was happening with her mother.”

“Thank you.”

As the women spoke, my eyes met Lennox’s. Adelaide was right. My son was the younger reflection of me, the better parts of me, the parts before I’d sold my soul. In his eyes was my prize. He’d been spared so much.

“We’re all here—” Lennox began.

“Who else needs soup?” Silvia asked. “I may have made it a little spicier than the doctor recommended and for those of you not on restrictions, we have bread and…”

“I wish,” Alexandria said. “Silvia, it’s amazing, but…” She looked to Lennox. “…Deloris just called. I need to find my handbag.”

“And Chelsea, the three of us need to head back to Savannah,” Lennox added.

“No.” The word came from nearly everyone besides Lennox and Alexandria.

“Why?” Adelaide asked.

“It would be better to give our statements and get out of Savannah before Bryce makes bail.”

Adelaide’s head shook back and forth. “Alexandria, Oren was just saying something about a marriage license?”

“I didn’t marry Bryce. Alton tried to force it. He had a judge in his office. I didn’t say yes. If there’s a license, it’s forged.”

“We can’t let him get away with ruining any more lives,” Adelaide said. She looked at me. “Too much time has been wasted.”

Alexandria sat between Lennox and Adelaide. “We have a few minutes before Deloris gets here. Momma, help me.” She motioned between Adelaide and me. “How do you two know one another?”

Silvia was still standing. I reached for her wrist. “Let’s not worry about the food yet. Sit with us. This involves all of us.”

Chelsea began to stand. “I’m intruding.”

“No, Miss Moore. You’re here because you chose to help Alexandria. Sit.” I took a deep breath as all eyes turned to me. “We have too much to discuss to ease into any of it. Let me start. I first became acquainted with Adelaide—”

She reached for my hand. “It was a Christmas party…” Her smile shone, telling me to begin our story there, not years before. She turned to Lennox. “…your father’s first Christmas as a single man.”

“What?” Alexandria said before Lennox reached for her knee, pulling his chair closer to hers.

“Let them talk. I heard this from Oren about two weeks ago and it still hasn’t sunk in. Just listen.”

She nodded, turning back toward us. “Okay. I’m sorry. Can you define acquainted?”

Pink returned to Adelaide’s cheeks. “No, dear.”

“Holy shit,” Alexandria murmured.

“We spoke…” I emphasized the word. “…for the first time at that party. We were surrounded by other guests. I’d planned all these fantastic business pitches. That was why I was there. The guest list was exclusive. However, fate had other plans.” I turned to Adelaide. “Everyone else disappeared. It was only the two of us. I’d never been so attracted…” My eyes closed in memory and reopened. “…I had, but I never believed that I deserved to know that same kind of love for a second time in my life.”

Adelaide squeezed my hand as Lennox tensed. The muscles of his face flexed as he clenched his jaw, just as he had in his office when I’d explained this for the first time.

“It was a few months later before I tried to contact Adelaide again. I couldn’t get her out of my mind.”

As had happened decades ago at the Christmas party, the rest of the table disappeared. I was recounting our story to the only woman whose opinion mattered. In her gaze I saw the love I’d feared was gone. Was it because we were walking down memory lane or was it still there?

“He tracked me down at a luncheon,” Adelaide said. “Of course I hadn’t gotten him out of my mind either, but I never thought… when he stood there at that restaurant for a moment I thought he was a figment of my imagination.” She reached out and caressed my cheek. “But he was real, just as he was when I woke this morning.”

“Amore mio.”

“My love.”





NOX’S HAND ON my thigh kept me seated, kept me quiet as I listened to one of the most unbelievable stories I’d ever heard.

How is this possible?

How can it be true?

After the shock eased a bit, I tried to take in the scene. I focused not only on their words but also the way my mother and Oren stared at one another. They were well into their private history and stories of stolen moments and secret rendezvous when it hit me—my momma had an affair.

My mother screwed around on Alton.

I suppose that should have upset me. After all, shouldn’t I look to my parents as a moral compass? But the reality didn’t upset me. I’d known most of my life that Alton cheated on my mother. After the last two weeks, I believed it had happened right under her nose. What I never imagined was that my mother had done it too—that she’d actually experienced happiness.