The Billionaire’s Prodigal Wife
Chapter 7

She knew Derrick was waiting for an answer. He was such a great guy. Smart, accomplished, and insightful.

“Mob?” She gave a little laugh. “No, there is no mob, mafioso or anything else.”

“But are you afraid of him?” He wasn’t letting it go.

She took a big breath. How do you explain Alessandro and his crazy behavior to a rationale and sane person? “Let’s just say he’s not good at taking no for an answer. His whole life has been about doing what he wants when he wants and how he wants it done. When we got married, not one person other than our immediate family knew. This was a man that spends every waking minute in the public eye. He told me it was to protect me from the paparazzi. I realized later it’s simply because I embarrassed him. He was ashamed of me. I’m the orphan of a middle-class accountant and a stay-at-home mom and the granddaughter of a subway engineer and a librarian. Not exactly the stuff someone in his situation would want the public to know he’d married. His protégé on the other hand has a father who is a politician and a mother who is an advocate for every damn charity on the planet and so it made more sense for him to be seen with her than with me.” She realized that she was rambling and bit her apple to shut up and gave him the short answer. “I’m not afraid of him. He just won’t let me go.”

Derrick studied her quietly not saying anything.

He wasn’t saying anything, and she wondered if she had said too much. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to vent at you. You have more important things to worry about like a major surgery to do tomorrow.”

“You seem very angry about all of this,” he commented quietly.

Was she? She was and she knew it. Alessandro was affecting her even now. She nodded slowly, acknowledging his words. “Maybe I am. If I am though, it’s only because it’s fresh all over again. I flew to Milan to file the paperwork and I ran into him,” understatement of the century, “and he’s making a big deal out of it. Normally I function with nary a thought of him, and I live a happy peaceful existence.” She knew she was not telling the full truth, but it was what she wanted to believe. She had almost convinced herself they hadn’t had s*x either, unless she was sleeping, and her subconscious was absolutely and completely not letting it go.

“So, you’ve avoided your grandparents for five years because of this guy?” Derrick shook his head. “It seems to me you’ve spent too much time in hiding.”

“Well, I did go back once when I knew he would be out of town,” it had been the Brazilian show where he’d met Dulce in the beginning, “and I spent five incredible days with my folks three years ago but then I stupidly answered their phone, and it was him. He said he was on his way home and I caught the first flight out.”

“But you’re not afraid of him,” Derrick’s statement proved he wasn’t convinced.

She needed to make him understand. “Derrick, I was nineteen when I met him, and he swept me off my feet. I would have believed he was God himself if he’d have said it. I bought everything he said, hook line and sinker. Then his protégé came along and he brought her into the mix.” She gave an unhappy sigh. “Rumors flew they were sleeping together. I told him to choose between us and he laughed at me. Somehow I wound back in bed with him thinking it meant he loved me and chose me.” The notion she’d been so naïve stung. “I believed everything he said until the night when I realized the truth and how much of an i***t I was. I woke up at two in the morning, alone in our bed. When I went downstairs, one of his security members was still at the house. I asked him where he was. He had gotten up from our bed after having s*x with me to go take her dancing in the clubs.”

“Are you kidding? Who does that?” Derrick was horrified on her behalf. “What did he offer as an explanation to his behavior?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t ask for one. I knew when I’d been beat. I packed my stuff and bailed. I made one phone call to my grandparents from the house and left. I knew if I stayed and confronted him, I’d have listened to his lies until the next time and then the next time and then the next time.”

“Are you still in love with him?” He asked quietly, his blue eyes holding hers and watching them change from slate to pale blue. Her ex was an i***t.

“No,” Mackenna hoped she sounded convincing, “but according to Doctor Savannah Kirkland, who really should have been a shrink instead of an emergency room doctor, I’m a naive woman with little self-esteem and deep down I want to believe he wouldn’t have done such a thing to me. She says I want to believe I wasn’t so stupid to marry such a man.”

“And what do you think?”

“I was really stupid to believe the load of garbage he fed me for a whole year. I think the real reason I haven’t gone back is simply because I’m ashamed I bought into his slick lies and suave innuendoes. My mother would have yelled at me for days for being so stupid and I know it. She was a very fierce woman.” She smiled at Derrick.

“She was tough, was she?” he asked with a wide grin, enjoying she was open to sharing so much with him.

“The toughest. She knew what she wanted, and she took it. Maybe it’s an Italian trait,” she grinned suddenly. “My parents met when my dad was travelling with some college buddies, and they fell in love instantly. She told him she was marrying him and going back to the States with him. The story goes, he told her he couldn’t support her, she called him a coward and told him to decide in the moment and gave him an ultimatum. Marry her or she’d marry someone else, and he would spend his lift with the regret of never having her. He married her the next day and they lived in a dump of an apartment for four years until he found a better job. She then decided she wanted a baby and there was nothing he could say to change her mind. She got pregnant the first month they tried. She was strong and single-minded, and she’d kick my a*s for being such a damn doormat.” She chewed around the apple core and shook her head when Derrick held out the other apple, but she refused it. “Gosh, I’ve yakked your ear off. I’m sorry for monopolising your lunch.

“I would spend every lunch hour talking to you,” his eyes were sincere as he held hers. “I still have more time.”

“Actually, I’ve got to get back to my office.”

“Should we wake her?” Derrick stood up but Savannah opened her eyes after one last snort.

“I’m awake.” She sat up, pushed the two chairs under the table and stood up as if she’d just slept for twelve hours. “I’m good for the rest of the day.” She grinned at Mackenna. “Hey, don’t leave without me. We can walk home together. I’m off at five.”

“Fine,” she smiled sheepishly at Derrick. “I’m sorry I bored you all through your lunch.”

Derrick dropped his arm over her shoulder. “Well, you can make it up to me by letting me walk you to your office.”

She laughed and pushed his hand off her shoulder. “Fine but keep your hands to yourself, there Doc Portman”

“What fun is that?” He asked with a wide smirk. “A man’s gotta try.”

He had dimples in both of his cheeks, and she wanted to k**s them both. It made her heart happy to feel the attraction she had for this man. Perhaps she could move on from Alessandro. She smiled and touched his cheek, tapping it lightly. “Be careful. It’s like reaching for a rose before checking for thorns. You could get hurt.”

“You know, you have a thing for analogies, right?” He teased her as he dropped his hand back over her shoulder as Savannah dumped their trays.

“And apparently pushy men,” she flirted with him for the first time, enjoying the way he pursued her. Her heart feeling happier and happier with every passing second. She could do this. She could forget Alessandro Giordano and move on. Someone like Dr. Derrick Portman who was strong and smart and very attractive.

“Ah, so you do like me,” he hugged her to his side, laughing in her ear. “So, you’ll have dinner with me on Thursday?”

A tingle went down her spine at the feel of his breath near her ear. “Nope,” she laughed at his indignant expression.

He threw his hands up. “Why not? You like me. I like you. It’s meant to be. Say yes.”

“It’s not so simple Derrick. I need to clean up my mess before I start dragging anyone else through it. I mean it.” She gave a tight smile. “With luck, I’ll be in front of a judge in two weeks and the divorce will be signed and I can be happy to pursue who and what I want.” Her eyes were staring directly at him, hoping he took the hint.

“Well, like you said, I’m pushy.” He held the door to her office open for her. “I’m not giving up on you.”

She turned to face him; her eyes soft as she stared up into his suddenly very serious eyes. “What if you replace out that I’m not worth the wait?”

He stepped closer to her and tilted her chin. “Mac, I haven’t even considered that possibility. I know this guy has put you through the ringer. He didn’t deserve you and you certainly didn’t deserve what he’s put you through. You are worth the wait. I will wait for as long as you ask me to.”

She searched his eyes for any sign he was lying, curiously wondering if she was incapable of seeing when a man was lying.

“Mac, stop overthinking. I mean it. Sort out what you need to sort out but I’m not going anywhere. Besides,” he said with a wink, “I know where you work. I can hound you at your desk.”

For a moment she thought he would try to k**s her but then his hand fell away, and he stepped backwards, respecting her request for space. “Now, I have to go focus on my next patient who is being flown in tonight. Stupid woman fell six feet wearing a pair of eight-inch heels and managed to fracture her leg in eight places because she bashed it three times on the way down and then landed on it. Who the hell wears eight-inch heels?”

“Fashion models and hookers,” Mackenna answered with a grin earning her a hoot of laughter as he shook his head and walked away.