Faking Forever (First Wives #4)(83)

“I don’t believe that. I see how you look at me.”

She’d have to work on that. If in fact she looked at him with any longing whatsoever. She lifted her chin, calmed her speeding pulse. “Spend your energy and fight. Go ahead. Maybe it will do you some good to learn that you can’t have some things back once you’ve kissed them goodbye.” Her words were a challenge, one she was pretty sure he wouldn’t take her up on. Paul never groveled. For good measure, she leaned in briefly and lowered her voice. “Goodbye, Paul.”

He stopped her with a soft touch to the side of her face. “I’m not giving up.”

She flinched and then stopped herself. A wounded ex-wife was what he expected. So she let her lips split into a smile and calmly walked away.

“That looked intense,” Lori said once Shannon was back at her side.

“Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving.” She glanced around the room, no longer wanting to be there. “You know that when a man tells you exactly what you want to hear . . . it’s probably bullshit.”

“I think I told you that.”

“You did.”

Lori motioned for the door. “Do you want to leave?”

“Absolutely.”



When The Cat’s Away!

That was the headline, and once again Shannon found herself on the front page of several magazines, from obvious gossip columns to political satire on the pages of the local newspaper.

This smacked of a setup.

She wanted to call Paul out, give him a piece of her mind. She hadn’t seen the photographers at the event but should have smelled them the second Paul moved her to a private corner.

In all the years since her divorce, she’d never truly gotten angry with the man, but that ended the moment her e-mail flooded with Google alerts with her name in the search engine.

“Is he that big of an asshole?” Avery asked when she called early in the morning.

“I didn’t used to think so.”

“Is there a chance he doesn’t know anything about the photographers?”

“Slim to none. He needs people to think he’s trying to mend things with me. Righting his past so he can get re-elected. I bet his rating goes up in the polls by the end of the week.”

“Asshole,” Avery said under her breath. “Has Victor seen these yet?”

“I doubt it. He’s flying back today, probably in the air right now.” She glanced at a clock and tried to calculate the time he said he was leaving to the current time in China . . . it all jumbled in her head.

“Some of those pictures look really convincing. If I didn’t know you, I’d think the tabloids got this one right.”

“They didn’t. I told him goodbye and I meant it. Finally.”

“Lori told me he said he was going to fight for you.”

Shannon glanced around her kitchen. “I don’t see bouquets of flowers or half a dozen messages of his love flooding in.”

“Delete the messages and throw away the flowers.”

“That’s my intention.” Not that she thought they were coming.

Only a couple of hours later, she would have lost the bet.

A dozen red roses arrived at her door with a simple note.

I miss you.

It wasn’t signed.

Angry that he would even try, Shannon marched out to the full trash bin in her driveway, put the flowers on top of the pile, and went about her day.



After a twelve-hour flight, made longer because of delays both leaving China and arriving in Los Angeles, Victor felt like the walking dead. Much as he wanted to surprise Shannon with a midnight call, he fell into bed after a much-needed shower and didn’t wake until ten the next day.

When he did, there was a stack of magazines and newspapers on his doorstep. They were tied in a big purple bow with a handwritten note.

She doesn’t love you!

Victor spread the papers on his dining room table and looked at the pictures.

He had to be missing something.

Shannon and her ex-husband looked as if they were rekindling a flame.

Something didn’t feel right. He looked at his calls and didn’t see her number in the log.

A message from his brother saying “Call me” caught his attention.

“Hey, Vic,” Justin said, picking up on the second ring.

“Is everything okay?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.”

Victor could hear the busy noise of a machine shop in the background.

“I flew in last night.” He glanced at the tabloid on his table, closed his eyes, and shook his head.

“I thought as much. Hold on . . .”

Victor heard the noise in the background start to fade and then go away altogether. “I couldn’t hear you.”

“That’s better.”

“I wanted to see how you were doing.”

Victor scratched his head. “I’m fine.”

“And Shannon? Are you guys okay?”

Okay, none of this was in Justin’s normal conversation. “I think we’re fine.” He thought of the papers, purposely put space between him and the images of Shannon and her ex.

“I’m not one to pry, but Mom called me, said she saw Shannon in a newspaper at the grocery store. Have you seen it?”