Our Wicked Lies Gledé Kabongo (summer reading list .txt) 📖

wine later. There was no need for you to come into the city and disrupt my workday. I don’t have time on my hands like you do.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, mi amiga,” Alicia said sweetly. “I had to make a special trip. You see, I wanted to be able to take a good look at you when I called you a two-faced, backstabbing tramp. You were never my friend. You were just a cunning predator, who spotted my weakness and moved in for the kill. Yes, I know you were sleeping with my husband, and hid behind your ‘Faith’ alter ego.”

Kat got up from her chair and took deliberate steps toward Alicia, a cruel smile tugging at her lips. She folded her arms and said, “Well, well, well. What do we have here? Mousy little Alicia must have stocked up on some courage this morning. Bravo.”

“That’s all you have to say to me, after all the lying, conniving, the fake friendship? It was all for nothing.”

“You know what your problem is?” Kat asked.

“Please, do tell.” Alicia gestured.

“You’re too naïve for your own good. You can’t win this game. Why do you think Eliot and I fooled you all these years, right under your nose?”

“Give me some credit. You never counted on me finding out, let alone who Faith was. You got away with it for two years.”

Kat smirked. “Still pathetic. And naïve.”

“Meaning what?”

“Alicia, I don’t have the time or inclination to explain this to you. What does it matter, anyway? Eliot and I are the same. That’s why we’re compatible. You’re old news, Alicia.”

“Wrong again,” she said. “Eliot isn’t going anywhere, Katalina. You betrayed me repeatedly for a shot at him. You played your last, desperate card by telling him about the abortion. You thought that would be the last straw, didn’t you?”

Kat glared at her. “You have no idea what Eliot and I mean to each other, how deeply connected we are. It’s about time that farce you call a marriage is finally over.”

Alicia stood up, her eyes glued on Kat’s thunderous expression.

“You know what your problem is? You’re too arrogant for your own good. Think about it. Your connection with Eliot was so deep that not once during the time you were together did he ask me for a divorce? Instead, he went to great lengths to hide the affair. You were his dirty little secret from the beginning. He continued to lie, even after I found out.”

“Can you blame him? He was afraid that weak little Alicia would spiral into another depression. Nobody wants that. It was ugly enough the first time around. By the way, how are you feeling these days? Pretty useless, huh?”

Alicia bit down hard on the inside of her cheeks until the salty, metallic taste of fresh blood invaded her mouth. She never wanted to go back to that place—the darkness, the fatigue, the despair. She’d been fearful that’s exactly where she was headed once the truth about her marriage was laid bare. But she had been a fighter all her life, a survivor. Kat would not have her victory lap.

“Eliot never confessed the affair, Kat. I gave him chance after chance to come clean and he denied it, he denied you every single time. He never asked for a divorce. He never said he loved you or that he wanted a life with you. He told you the opposite in those emails and, I’m sure, to your face, as well. If I hadn’t uncovered the betrayal, Eliot would have continued to see you on the side. And that’s all you were, would ever be—the side salad he occasionally picked at. Get this through your head, tramp. Eliot will never be yours. Fake pregnancy or not.”

“You’ve lost, Alicia. Get over it.” The vindictive edge to her voice felt like fingernails scraping against a chalkboard. “So why don’t you run along, crawl back to the ghetto where you came from.”

Fueled by a blinding rage Alicia didn’t know she possessed, she reached out and shoved Kat. She crashed into the desk and screamed from the force of the impact, before falling to the ground. Alicia stood, unable to move, paralyzed by the shock of what she had done.

Moments later, the office door flew open and Kat’s assistant rushed into the room. “Oh goodness, Kat, are you okay?” he asked.

Kat pointed at Alicia and said, “Get this piece of trash out of here!”

“After you, mi amiga,” Alicia said with a smile. “You’ll get what you deserve. I promise.”

CHAPTER 37

When Alicia arrived home, Richard DeLuca was standing in her driveway. What could he want? Did Kat tell him what happened and he’d come to inform her that they would file assault charges? Why had she lost control so badly?

“Richard, what a surprise to see you here,” she stammered as she stepped out of the Range Rover and shut the door. “What’s going on?” She hoped he couldn’t detect the anxiety in her voice.

“May we speak inside?” he asked gravely.

“Yes, of course.”

Alicia’s hand shook as she unlocked the front door and led Richard into the living room. She gestured to the sofas.

“I would prefer to stand,” he told her and began pacing the floor, jangling his keys in his pocket.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked.

“Katalina called me, said she went to the hospital to have herself checked out because you shoved her hard and she may have injured herself.”

“Richard, I’m so sorry, I—”

He held up his right palm to silence her. “You don’t need to apologize. I have an idea what the fight was about.”

Her breath snagged on the fear and worry that had filled her chest like a boulder. Richard’s face remained expressionless, his amber brown eyes almost vacant.

“Are you sure? I’m not sure she’d tell—”

“I’ve known for a while, Alicia.”

Alicia’s eyes widened. “Known what?”

“That my wife was having an affair with your husband.”

She rubbed her forehead to ward off a headache. “How?”

“Maxim overheard her on an incriminating phone call a