“Or maybe because I look like an elephant in this dress.”
“You look lovely,” Thomas drew her hand through his arm and kissed the top of her head. “The most beautiful woman in the room.”
“You're smitten so you would say anything,” Donna muttered. “And I need food.”
They were directed towards their table by a uniformed waiter who stood by to take their order. “Here comes Mr. Asshole,” Donna murmured as Gerald Whitley made his way over to their table.
“Try not to call him that,” Talia said with a grin as he came nearer. The dinner was being held in an upscale restaurant, rented out for the night for the occasion.
“Thomas! So good to see you here, and your lovely wife. Talia, you look so lovely.”
“Thank you,” Talia said politely.
“I'm not seeing your dear mother.”
“She had a previous engagement,” Thomas said smoothly as he shook the man’s hand.
“No matter,” he said with a braying laugh that grated on Donna’s nerves. “Please enjoy the meal and we'll talk later.”
“Like I said: an ass,” Donna muttered.
Thomas reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s for a very good cause.”
“Speaking of which, I have to go to the ladies' room.”
“Nausea?” her husband asked with a frown.
“I need to pee, as usual. Order shrimp for me, I don’t think my stomach will do well with the rubber chicken.”
She made her way through the tables and didn't notice the woman who got to her feet and followed her to the bathroom.
She'd finished and was at the sink washing her hands when she noticed the woman standing next to her.
“Caroline, I didn't know you were here,” she said casually as she reached for the warm towel to dry her hands with.
“I see that you're with child.”
“Yes I am. If you would excuse me—”
“He told me that he had to marry you because of something that his dad put in the will. Apparently the old man felt sorry for you and felt that he had to do something for you. Thomas came over that night and was so disgusted over the entire thing that I ended up taking him to bed to get the taste of it out of his mouth. Did he tell you that? He came running over to me right after the will was read.”
Donna quelled the anger at the woman’s determination to spoil what she had with her husband and sent her a sweet smile. “That was then. He's learned to live with it and then some. You might want to accept the fact that he's moved on, Caroline, and try and find yourself a man. Thomas is my husband and the father of my child and he stays mine.”
“You bitch!” she said softly. “You think you won? You aren't even his type!” She gave Donna a scornful look. “And the pregnancy has added so many pounds to you. How long do you think he'll stay with you?”
“I've actually gained only five pounds, but I think I'll be gaining even more. I'm not doing this with you Caroline, because I'm not the woman who fights over a man, even if that man happens to be the man I'm in love with and my husband. It's beneath me and beneath even you. Do yourself a favor and move on.”
The woman stepped forward and faced her, blue eyes blazing, and her red lips curled spitefully. “You are no one! A woman who had to accept charity from a softhearted man, maybe you were sleeping with him so that he could feel sorry for you and do what he did for you. You are disgusting and you don't belong to our society.”
“Bitch, if you know what’s good for you, you will step back right now,” Donna told her, her eyes flashing. “Get the hell out of my face!”
“Or what? You will ghetto slap me?”
“It’s bitch slap and it would be wrong of me to whoop your bony ass. It's no competition.”
The slap to her face took Donna by surprise, maybe because she didn't think the woman would be so brave. She touched her finger to the cut at the side of her lips and it came away with spots of blood. She literally saw red and before she could stop herself, rammed her fist into the woman’s face, sending her crashing to the floor in an undignified heap. The door was shoved open and that was how her husband and sister-in-law saw them.
“Are you okay?” Thomas rushed over to her, his eyes narrowing at the cut on her lips.
“I'm pressing charges!” Caroline screamed as she got to her feet, one hand covering her bloody nose. “She assaulted me.”
Thomas turned to face the woman he'd been intimate with several months ago. “Do whatever the hell you want, but if you ever confront my wife like this again, you'll be pressing charges against me,” he told her with a menacing look on his face.
“Go on, darling,” Talia told him. “I'll try and talk some sense into Caroline.”
“How did you know what was happening?” Donna asked as they made their way back into the room, with several curious looks sent their way.
“A few women who wanted to use the facility came rushing back talking about some kind of argument. That was when someone came over and told us that Caroline was here, and she'd followed you to the bathroom.” He sat her down and tilted her chin up to examine her lips. “I could kill her for hurting you!” he said furiously.
“Is it wrong that I'm finding your macho act kind of sexy right now and wishing that we were home so I could tear your clothes off?”
His eyes glimmered in amusement, his mood lightening. “That can be arranged.”
“Good, then let’s go home.”
“We have to wait on Talia.”
“Text her and let her take a cab, or have one of the drivers pick her up.”
“I'll do that.”
*****
“You should maybe go to the emergency room,” Talia said mildly as she leaned against the counter and watched the woman press a towel to her nose. “Your nose might be broken.”
“I'm going to sue her!” Caroline declared wrathfully as she stared at her rapidly bruising eye in the mirror.
“What were you thinking, confronting my brother’s wife in the ladies’ room?”
“She confronted me.”
“There are witnesses that said you followed her in here and you threatened my brother while we were at lunch a month or so ago,” Talia pointed out. “I'm sure that no judge will take kindly to you assaulting a pregnant woman, especially the wife of a man who contributes a considerable amount of money to political campaigns. Take your loss and bow out gracefully, Caroline. Right now you look like a pathetic loser, a woman who can't move on from a man who clearly doesn't want her.”
Caroline blinked back tears. “You used to be my friend.”
“And Thomas is my brother. I don't take kindly to anyone who tries to hurt him. Consider this my act of unfriending you.” Talia looked at her phone and saw the text, a smile on her lips. “From one woman to another—get over it and move on. He certainly has.”
*****
“How's the lip?” he asked as he pulled her into his arms. They'd barely made it inside their bedroom before she started tearing at his shirt. “Maybe I should put some ice on it.”