Chapter 24
Mackenna had never seen her best friend so angry. It wasn't she'd never seen her angry. She'd just never seen her this angry. Her blue eyes were blazing, and her hair was bedraggled like she'd been pulling i and her lips were full and round. Her cheeks so red it reminded Mackenna of the time she'd gotten so sunburnt it had hurt to even breathe. Which she thought might have accounted for Savannah's short breath if she hadn't known she'd been working eighteen hour shifts for the last week and likely hadn't seen the light of day.
"Savannah? What's wrong?" Mackenna was amazed she wasn't even looking in her direction.
Savannah managed to get across the room before Carlos or Nuncio knew what she was doing, and she landed a solid right hook to Alessandro's cheek and the sound of it echoed in the room. In seconds Carlos had her pinned to a wall and Savannah was screaming for him to let her go because she was going to kill him.
"Savannah!" Mackenna was horrified. "What the hell are you doing?"
"You put her through all kinds of hell for nothing you insensitive bastard!" Savannah screamed.
"How could you? You said you loved her and yet you tortured her when you knew the one thing to have eased all of her pain!"
Alessandro wiped a drop of blood from his nose with a handkerchief and took a long slow breath, his eyes cold and angry. "I did no such thing Savannah."
publicity you purposefully allowed the charade to continue and encouraged Dulce in it. You, lying scum!" Savannah's feet were off the air as she wrestled against the wall to lunge at him, but Carlos held her firm.
"You knew!" Savannah said bitterly, her eyes narrow and furious as she took in the arrogant stance as he moved to cross the room in her direction.
"Savannah, I'm sure you think you've uncovered some glorious truth, but you are mistaken."
"No, I'm not." She looked to her best friend who was staring at the pair of them. "I went to her, Mac. I went to Dulce. When we had coffee this morning you were so torn, and it broke my heart. You are the only family I have Mac. I have nobody else and yet you love me like a sister. You don't care where I grew up or about my past or my present or even my sexuality." She snickered then.
"Oh, that's a big one. My sexuality." She looked back to Alessandro. "I bet you Mac told you I was bisexual." She saw the man holding her against the wall lean back with his eyes big and wide. "I used to be ashamed of it, but Mac taught me it shouldn't matter to anyone else except me and my partner. She never judges me." She lunged again at Alessandro as a thought occurred to her. "You should have trusted her, and you put her through hell instead!"
"Savannah, I don't understand. Why did you go to Dulce's room?"
"You were crying this morning Mac and it killed me." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I thought maybe if I appealed to Dulce, for the sake of your baby she would back off. She's been calling reporters all week and yapping to the staff, and I just wanted her to back off a bit. Hell, the paparazzi outside were probably given your coordinates by her, she's been so damn vocal."
Mackenna knew no good was coming of this and she sat down on the edge of the sofa.
"Savannah, I already know she won't. She wants Alessandro and he wants her. I'm just a filler. I hate it but in the end my baby is all who matters, and I'll get around it."
No." Savannah spit angrily. "There's the problem. You shouldn't have to get and start over but we both know all you want is for Alessandro to give you the love and respect you deserve. Instead, he lies to you
even now."
"Savannah, are you in love with my wife?" Alessandro asked coldly, trying to change the subject.
Savannah grimaced. "No, you pompous ass. I love her like a sister, like a best friend but not like a lover. We just don't click sexually."
Mackenna waved her arm. "Alessandro, stop changing the subject. Savannah, spit it out."
"Dulce refused to back off. She loves the publicity and the headlines. It makes her a lot of money and Giordano even more. She said as long as the tabloids would print the rubbish she was selling, she was selling it."
"She told you it was rubbish?"
"No. At first she said it was all true. She said she and Alessandro had been having s*x for years but then I caught her in a lie. He," she pointed to Alessandro," didn't tell her where he disappeared to for two days during fashion week in Paris. She gave me some crazy story about how they hooked up in a room every night they were there and slept in until noon, having crazy wild s*x until the hotel complained." She managed to have relaxed enough Carlos released her and she walked to Mackenna. "He was with you. You made a baby on your trip. There is no way on earth they were having s*x if he was having s*x with you."
Mackenna nodded to her friend, encouraging her to continue. She feared, looking at Alessandro, knowing he would be impassive and cold.
"It's in her contract Mac. She's gay. She's terrified it will ruin her in the tabloids so she as it in her contract Giordano Fashion House can never publicize her sexuality and will protect her at all costs," Savannah glared at him, "to the point of providing her a handbag."
"I don't get it, what's a handbag? Why does she need a purse?" As soon as she spoke, she realized the intention of Savannah's words. "Oh my God, they give her a decoy lover?" She turned and pointed at Alessandro. "You, you behave as her lover "No," he denied, a flush rising on his cheeks as he struggled to contain the rage at Savannah for interrupting the evening.
"Yes," Savannah corrected him glaring with pure hatred, "your wife sat home night after night wanting only for you to love her and you were out hamming it up for every damn tabloid and camera to protect your little money maker. Because there is a clause in the contract Alessandro cannot tell anyone, nobody, even you Mackenna, of his prized Dulce's sexuality, he wouldn't tell you. He just let you wither in misery." "I didn't know Dulce was telling you we were lovers Mackenna, this is the truth."
Mackenna wrapped her hands around her middle as she sat rocking back and forth on the sofa.
"All this time, all this time you knew the one thing to make it all better for me and you kept it from me." Her voice cracked and she shook her head." How did you get her to admit it to you Savannah?"
"I got in her face and was yelling at her for being cold and insensitive and she laughed, and things got weird," Savannah ran her fingers through her hair in embarrassment.
"Savannah, you kissed her, didn't you?" Mackenna would have laughed at her friend's antics if she truly weren't messing around with the enemy.
"Yeah, and she kissed me back and it was something, I'm not going to lie. I'm sorry Mac, I know you hate her, and I crossed a line. But then a nurse walked in, and she went ballistic someone caught us," Savannah moaned and covered her face.
"Someone saw you?" Alessandro muttered shaking his head. "Are you kidding me? Do you know the damage you have done Savannah? Your temper and your lust have probably cost my company millions of dollars. Get out." He pointed to the door.
"This is what you care about Alessandro?” Mackenna felt her eyes pooling with unshed tears as the betrayal seared her soul. "You knew, all this time, you knew. Now I know, the first thing you can come up with is my friend, the only person who is trying to protect me and keep me safe, the only one who genuinely loves me, has cost you some money? Of all the billions of dollars you make annually, this would be a blip on your radar and yet it's where we are?"
reveal her secrets Savannah," Alessandro ignored Mackenna's harsh words.
"Uh, quite sure she was all in where the exposing was concerned. It wasn't my hand on my boob when the nurse walked in and it sure as hell wasn't my own hand holding the back of my head while she devoured my face."
Alessandro blanched at the description and Mackenna didn't miss it. Asshole, Mackenna thought angrily.
"Wow, she really went for it huh?" Mackenna quipped smartly.
"And then some," Savannah exhaled slowly, "until the nurse walked in on us. She didn't seem to get there is a patient confidentiality thing, and she went off the deep end. She was screaming about calling her lawyer and her publicist and him," she thumbed her hand in Alessandro's direction.
"If it wasn't for your friend Mackenna, then this would never have happened. Dulce can twist all of this and say it was a set-up to get rid of her. She has a forty-million-dollar contractual buyout.
This is a nightmare, and you are both taking this much too lightly."
Mackenna stood up and moved to her friend and hugged her tight.
"I love you Savannah, thank you. Thank you for thinking of me and trying to protect me and for punching him in the face," Mackenna held her friend's eyes, not missing the hiss of Alessandro's breath at her last words. "You've done what I so want to do but don't have the balls."
Savannah rested her forehead against her friends. "I'm sorry, I know how much this must hurt.
I'm sorry I kissed her. I know how much you despise her."
"I do despise her but I'm thankful for you going through all of this for me. You are the best friend anyone could ever ask for."
"Did you plan this Mackenna? Did you know she was going to expose Dulce?"
Alessandro's accusation came out of left field and Mackenna was left speechless for a moment."Are you insane? You saw how upset she was when she came in. This sure as hell wasn't planned!" Mackenna raised her eyebrows incredulously.
them. "I want you both gone when I get back."
Mackenna paled, "Excuse me?"
"You want your divorce, you got it. I don't know how the pair of you came up with this plot but to selfishly expose someone's deepest secrets just so you can get your own way and feel better about yourself and your situation. You took advantage. * He pointed at Savannah, "you'll lose your medical licence for taking advantage of a patient."
"She wasn't my patient, and I don't care how you want to spin it, this isn't on me or Mac. This is all you and Dulce," Savannah hissed back angrily.
Mackenna felt sick to her stomach as Alessandro slammed out of the hotel room. She moved back to the sofa and put her head in her hands. "What the hell just happened?"
"I'm sorry Mackenna," Savanna whispered. "I didn't mean to ..."
"No," Mackenna held up her hand. "You did mean to, and you meant well and I'm grateful.
You're the best friend a girl could have. Can we go back to our place now?"
Nuncio shook his head. "No, there's no way I'm letting you out of my sight."
"Nuncio, you heard him. He wants me gone and we're getting divorced. You no longer need to watch over me."
"At the very least, I will take you to the place you want to go, and I will stay there until Alessandro tells me otherwise."
Mackenna nodded. "Fine."
It was a quiet drive back to the apartment Mackenna shared with Savannah and the two girls held hands in the backseat, comforting each other. When Nuncio walked them to the door, he did a sweep of the apartment before letting them inside and if he had any opinion on the living quarters, he made no comment other than to wish them goodnight.
Mackenna had changed from her robe to a pair of velvet pants and a hoodie, obviously a choice Alessandro in his shopping of clothes for her he had chosen this next.
"Mac, you need to get some sleep." "I need to leave," she corrected quietly. "He said he'd give me my divorce." "What about the baby?" Savannah swallowed the lump in her throat.
"He can't take from me what he can't find." Mackenna whispered rubbing her belly.
"Mac, I don't know about this. You love the guy. You have always loved him, and I'm not convinced you will ever stop. Raising a baby by yourself will be hard."
"He loves his precious Dulce more and worse, he loves the money most. You heard him tonight, all he cared about was his precious model's secrets were potentially exposed." Mackenna looked at her friend." would rather spend the rest of my life alone than with him and his selfishness.
He knew all this time Savannah. All this time, he had the key to saving our marriage in his hand.
I would not have liked their relationship being all over the tabloids like it's been but at the very least, I'd have understood. He just kept it from me. He kept me hidden from the world because he was embarrassed by me, never wanted anyone to know I existed. She knew our secret. I wasn't allowed to know hers?" Mackenna wiped angry tears off her cheeks.
"Where will you go?" Savannah asked quietly.
"More importantly, how do I get past his goon outside?" Mackenna grumbled as she plunked on the sofa.
"I might know of a way to help," Savannah offered with a wink more playful than she was truly feeling, her heart breaking for her friend.
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