some ways it would be like coming full circle.
She walked toward Bella Roma and didn't notice the woman lurking by the front door until she nearly ran into her. Dani hastily backed up, then stared.
'Fiona? What are you doing here?'
The beautiful redhead drew Dani to a bench by the front door. 'We have to talk.'
Dani didn't like the sound of that. 'Actually, we don't. I need to go. I'm due inside in about thirty seconds.'
'What I have to say won't take much longer.' Fiona clutched her small purse to her midsection. 'It's about Alex. Based on what I read in the paper I'm guessing he hasn't been honest with either of us.'
Dani instinctively tensed, then told herself not to be crazy. Fiona was trying to make trouble for her own reasons, but there was no way she was involved with Alex. She couldn't be. He wasn't the kind of guy to play someone. Plus, he would never forgive Fiona for cheating on him.
'He's been honest with me,' Dani said flatly.
'Oh, really. So he told you he's still seeing me? That I was over there two nights ago, and the previous week and so on?'
Dani took a breath. She would stay calm. Fiona was bluffing. 'That's bullshit.'
Fiona tilted her head. 'Don't you love the fireplace in the bedroom? How it turns on with a flick of a remote? So romantic. Have you used the jetted tub in the bathroom yet? I have.'
Cold thickened Dani's blood until it nearly felt frozen in her veins. 'You're lying.'
Fiona's expression turned pitying. 'Actually, I'm trying to save you while there's still time. My problem is I can't help loving him, no matter how much of a bastard he is. Maybe there's still time for you to save yourself. I sure hope so.' She reached in her purse, then passed over a digital photo. 'I'm about twelve weeks along. It's sort of hard to tell what's what, but everything is progressing nicely.'
Dani stared at the picture. It was a blob, but the kind of blob she recognized from Penny's pregnancy. 'You're having a baby,' she breathed.
'With Alex.' Fiona stood and smoothed the front of her shirt. There was a definite bump. 'We're reconciling. I know I'll have to live with the other women, but that's the fate of the Canfield wives. To love their men, no matter what. Look at what Katherine has gone through for Mark.'
A dig at Dani's mother. Compared to Fiona being pregnant with Alex's child, it was a poor follow-up. She handed over the picture and stood.
'I have to get to work,' she said numbly, barely able to form the words. She couldn't think, couldn't focus. None of this was real, she told herself. It couldn't be.
Of course she hadn't thought it was real, either, with Hugh or Ryan.
She'd thought Alex was different-that he wasn't like the other men in her life. She'd trusted him, given her heart to him. But she'd been wrong and he'd been nothing but a lying, cheating, weasel bastard.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Dani curled up in the corner of the sofa, Gloria holding her and rocking her back and forth.
Everything hurt. She could barely breathe because the sobs were too harsh and frequent. She felt as if she'd been beat up and left for roadkill, only this was worse. She'd done it to herself.
'I trusted him,' she cried. 'I t-trusted him. I know better. They're all bastards. Every one of them. I thought he was different. I thought he was better than Ryan or Hugh, but he's not.'
Gloria smoothed her hair. 'Shh. It will be all right.'
'Will it? Really? Can you know that?'
'I know you're too strong to let this setback break you.'
Dani tried to laugh, but the sound that came out was more of a gargle. 'I don't think so. I feel completely broken. Worse. I feel shattered. I can't keep doing this. I can't keep leading with my heart only to have it stomped on.'
She grabbed a handful of tissues and blew her nose, then began to cry again.
There was a huge open wound right in the middle of her chest. She wondered if her very essence was going to spill out onto the rug and evaporate. She was hurt on a level that was past anger. She'd believed in Alex. That's what really killed her. She'd totally believed in him.
'He said all the right things ' Dani said. 'Like Ryan, only better because they weren't about me. He always talked about his family and being so damn loyal. Like he was this incredible guy.'
'You don't know that he's not.'
'He cheated on me with his ex-wife after telling me this whole story about how she'd cheated on
'So why would he say all that if he was really still sleeping with her?'
'To suck me in.'
Gloria smiled sadly and touched her cheek. 'That's a complex plan, Dani. Do you really think you're worth all that?'
Despite everything, Dani laughed. Then she collapsed in her grandmother's arms and began to cry again.
'She's having his baby. I saw the picture. I saw her stomach.'
'Maybe she has gas.'
The sob-giggle combined into a snort. 'Women like Fiona do not have gas.'
'Everyone has gas. You don't know she's pregnant and if she is, you don't know it's really Alex's baby. Fiona has an agenda. You said she wanted Alex back. Getting her competition out of the way is going to make that go more smoothly.'
'Maybe,' Dani said, unwilling to give Alex the benefit of the doubt.
'Someone else could be the father.'
Based on how beautiful Fiona was, Dani was willing to bet there would be thousands of volunteers.
'I don't know what to think,' she admitted. 'I want to believe it's all a game she's playing, but she knew stuff about the house. Specific stuff and he said she'd never been there. So he has to have lied about that.'
'I'm sure there's a logical explanation for how she knows that.'
Dani sniffed. 'You're taking his side. That's not allowed.'
'I'm trying to help you see that you don't have all the facts. If it turns out he's betrayed you, then I'll have Walker hire some mercenary type to grind him into dust.'
There was a fierceness in Gloria's voice that made Dani feel safe and loved. It was no match for the ache inside, but it helped a little.
'I like that plan,' Dani admitted.
'So we're in agreement. In the meantime, you need more information. You have to talk to Alex.'
'Not today,' Dani said. She'd barely gotten through her shift at Bella Roma before escaping to Gloria's house where she'd collapsed. 'Not for a long time.'
'Eventually.'
'Maybe.'
Dani wiped her face and wondered how she would get over this if Alex was the cheat she suspected. Were there really no good men out there or was she just cursed to never find one of her own?
Alex waited until everyone had left the meeting. Mark picked up the phone in his office, then glanced at Alex. 'Did you want something else?'
'I want to talk about how you got the charges against me dropped.'
Mark shook his head. 'There's no need to thank me. I was happy to do it.' He looked at his watch. 'I need to make this call.'
Alex ignored that. 'I'm not here to thank you. I'm here to ask you what the hell you think you were doing,
