Blame it on the Champagne (Blame it on the Alcohol)

by Fiona Cole

  I watched her chest rise, her nerves cracking her façade of strength. Her eyes flicked side to side to see if anyone was watching, but it was just us—just me, waiting for the impending doom.

  “Lorenzo,” I tried again.

  “Don’t.” He turned his ire to me. “Don’t think I don’t know who you are. I may not have at first, but your lawyer made sure to say thanks for the company on behalf of K. Rush Shipping—Knightly-Rush Shipping.”

  Every time I imagined facing Lorenzo Mariano after I stole his company, I imagined the victory. I’d close my eyes and picture the shock and ire on his face when he realized who I was. I imagined smiling the same way he had when my grandfather begged him to not dismantle the majority of the company.

  I tried to find that rush of adrenaline I’d had hints of each time. I tried to find the words he used. It’s just business. But they were nowhere to be found. Incinerated by the fire, Vera started inside me months ago. My love for her burned through my revenge and left me with a panic I’d lose her right as I was finally getting her.

  “What are you talking about?” Vera asked. She dug her hands into her hair and pinched her eyes closed, shaking her head like she could knock something loose and make sense of it all. “I married Nico so I wouldn’t have to marry Camden. I married Nico because I wanted to make my own choices and because I wanted to be valued beyond what I could provide to some man.”

  Lorenzo barked an unhinged laugh. “They always say to sleep with the devil you know, Verana. And this is why. This is why we followed those traditions and arranged a marriage. We did it to protect our company. And you ruined it by breaking the rules and fucking it all up.”

  They stared at each other. Him waiting for her to admit what she’d done and her waiting for it to make sense. When she stayed silent, realization dawned on Lorenzo, and he laughed.

  “You dumb girl.”

  “That’s enough,” I growled.

  But it was like he didn’t even hear me. His laugh turned to a manic cackle echoing off the tile floors and glass walls. “You don’t know. You don’t even know that you’re being used. Looks like I’m not the only one he stole the company from.”

  “Goddammit,” Vera growled. “Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  “Verana, if we can go upstairs, I can explain.”

  “What?” Lorenzo asked. “More lies? I don’t think so.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about. And I will not stand here and allow you to talk to my wife like that.”

  “Your wife? Or the pawn you acquired to win?”

  “She is not a pawn,” I growled, reaching my own limits of control. Vera was a queen, and I was about to lose her.

  He smirked when he saw the panic flash across my face before I could mask it. As if in slow motion, he turned to Vera, and I opened my mouth to stop it, but nothing came out. Part of me wanted to toss her over my shoulder and run, but I knew I was only fighting the inevitable. My grandpa’s words came back.

  A marriage built on lies is no marriage at all.

  “You married Nicholas Knightly Rush. Grandson to the owner of Knightly Shipping—or what used to be.” I grit my teeth at his dig. “Until his grandfather made a poor business choice—”

  “He did not,” I growled.

  “—and I stepped in to help. And when he couldn’t repay, I sold off what was owed to me.”

  “You took advantage of a suffering man, you arrogant prick,” I said through a clenched jaw.

  “It was just business,” he threw back.

  The words unveiled every ounce of anger that brought me to this moment, and I snapped. I forgot every plan I’d made over the past week to tell Vera the truth over a candlelit dinner at home—preferably naked and tied to the chair so she couldn’t run. I forgot everything beyond Lorenzo’s shitty barb. “Yeah, well, me buying up Mariano Shipping was just business, and I hope you enjoy watching me take it all away from you.”

  “You fucking shit.” Lorenzo lost his own patience and stepped closer. He tried to get in my face but was too short to come close to being as threatening as he wanted to appear. “What? You couldn’t find enough shares for your pitiful revenge, so you took my daughter? That’s not business—it’s cowardly.”

  “You practically shoved her in my face with the way you pushed her away. Don’t blame me for losing your daughter.”

  He opened his mouth, but her soft voice cut through all the macho anger spilling around us.

  “Revenge?”

  I snapped my gaze to her, her brown eyes wide and filled with surprise and hurt. The look punched me in the gut, stealing all the air from my lungs—from my need to win against Lorenzo.

  “Vera—”

  “He’d been buying shares to Mariano Shipping for years, using shell companies to hide his identity. And you, my spoiled, ungrateful daughter, gave him the final few he needed,” Lorenzo supplied.

  “That’s not—”

  “Did you know who I was?” Vera asked, cutting me off. “Is that why you hired me? Because you knew my last name the whole time? Did you know it was me under the mask while you fucked me?” Her questions got louder. “Did you plan this all along?”

  “No, Vera. I never planned—” I tried to explain again only to be cut off by Lorenzo raging against Vera.

  “Maybe if you hadn’t spent an extra week spreading your legs for the enemy, we might have fought this,” Lorenzo interjected. “We had one chance, and instead of answering your damn phone, you extend your vacation by another week, giving him just enough time to seal the deal.”

  She blinked, her brows pulling tight as she put the pieces together. “France?”

  “Oh, is that where you went? Was that before or after you gave him the inside details to our company? He knew just where to hit us, Verana. He knew exactly how to get around the clauses your grandma put into that stupid contract. Did you spill the secrets willingly, or did he steal that too?”

  She stumbled back like her father’s words physically hit her.

  “Verana.” I reached for her, but she held a hand up, warring me off.

  “Was any of it true?”

  She clutched her stomach and shook, on the verge of shattering right there, and I wanted to pull her in my arms and hold her together.

  “I was going to tell you everything. Explain it all. I was going to give—”

  “Would you do it while you seduced more information out of me? Would you use the way I care about you to get what you want?” she snarled.

  Sucking in air through her nose, she pinched her eyes shut like she couldn’t bear to look at me.

  “Verana, I never meant to hurt you.”

  “Shut up,” she snapped, her eyes opening like a blazing fire. The hurt still lingered, but it was quickly being swallowed up by anger. “God, I trusted you.”

  “You ca—”

  “No. I cared for you. I thought you actually saw me—respected me—but it was all a lie. You’re just like everyone else. Only seeing what you can use me for. A liar. A user. I actually believed you when you praised my work.”

  Lorenzo scoffed, and I wanted to punch him but fought the urge and kept my eyes on Vera.

  “You know I see how smart you are.”

  “I don’t know anything, Nicholas.”

  “Please, come upstairs so we can talk about this without your father. You have to listen to me.”

  I reached for her hands again, desperate to be connected to her any way I could, but she swiped her hand wide, slapping mine away.

  “Fuck you,” she snarled. Her lip curled like an injured animal fighting off an attacker.

  “Don’t worry, Verana. We’ll get this annulled. We can fix this.” Lorenzo tried to step close and reach his daughter, but she turned her feral attack on him next.

  “Fuck you, too. Fuck both of you.”

  She fumbled with her bag, almost dropping it with her shaking hands. I wanted to see her face, memorize it like I hadn’t when I th
ought I had at least five more years to wake up to her smile, her dimples, her fresh-faced freckles. The fear that I’d never get to lay eyes on her again flooded my veins, almost taking my legs out from under me.

  “Verana. Please, listen,” I choked. I wanted to explain it all right there, shout it out and force her to listen, but Lorenzo lingered like a virus, and the words remained locked in my throat.

  I clenched my fists to stop from going to her and brushing her hair back.

  She kept her head down until she finally got her bag over her shoulder and her suitcase handle up.

  Then she gave me my wish. She brushed her hair back and leveled me with one last gut-wrenching stare. Our eyes met for only a moment before she stormed past, but it would haunt me forever.

  The anger still swirled in the brown depths, but it bathed in the sheen of hurt she struggled to hold back. Her nose red from struggling to hold back tears. Not a single dimple in sight.

  Before we got out of the car, I imagined curling up with her and telling her the truth. I imagined telling her I loved her, and I’d do whatever she wanted with the company as long as she stayed. I imagined her naked body glowing by the fire while I promised her with my mouth and hands that she was more important.

  Instead, I was left with the reality that my revenge had got me exactly what I set out to get.

  I won the company—crushed Lorenzo. And I was just as alone as when I started.

  “You son of a bitch,” Lorenzo growled once Vera disappeared back into the car.

  But I didn’t care. The victory echoed like a shout in an empty tomb. Hollow with no one to hear.

  Exhaustion pulled at my muscles, and I just wanted to lose myself in a bottle of alcohol until I couldn’t remember the look on her face anymore.

  He followed behind me, raging obscenities and challenges, promising to fight back. But it hit against my numb back as I went to the elevator. He stood in front of the open doors, his face red with anger, but all I saw was Vera’s back disappearing beyond the doors.

  I should have been happy watching Lorenzo crumble before me.

  Instead, I stood like an empty shell. Wishing to go back and do it differently.

  Vera’s laugh flashed in my mind. The way we danced in the bathroom as she rapped Missy Elliot. The way she fit against my body when we danced in the streets of Italy. Her smile when I praised her work.

  No. I couldn’t lose her.

  Committed to wallowing in my misery tonight, I grabbed the bottle once I reached the empty apartment and fell to the couch in the dark. I took a long pull from the bottle, staring at the dark screen of the TV.

  While I did my best to wipe out the night, I also began concocting a plan to get her back. She just needed time. She had to hear me out. She was my wife.

  And I wasn’t ready to let go of that now.

  If ever.

  Thirty-Four

  Vera

  “Well, look who’s alive. I thought you—”

  Raelynn’s words cut off when she fully opened the door to my splotchy face and suitcase.

  “What the fuck?” she murmured.

  She grabbed my arm and jerked me inside, looking side to side like someone would pop out from around the corner. But by the time she shut the door and faced me, I’d already started crumbling.

  “Oh, shit,” she said before tugging me in her arms.

  In the comfort of my best friend’s arms, the cracks fissured too big to hold together anymore, and I toppled inch by inch. My shoulders shook with my silent sobs. Then my chest as my quiet sobs became loud cries of pain ripping from deep in my stomach. She held me tight, holding me up when my legs shook.

  “Who do I have to kill? I’ll fucking rip them apart piece by fucking piece. Fucking mutilate them.” Her words were meant to be dark and scary, but the way her voice cracked stole her thunder.

  She shifted us to the couch, and by the time we sat, she was crying right along with me.

  “Vera, baby,” she soothed, rubbing her hands up and down my back. “What happened? God, I can’t stand this. I don’t even know what happened, but god, your pain—I can feel it, and it hurts.”

  “I’m so-sorry.”

  “Don’t you dare. Give it to me. Let me help you carry this—whatever this is.”

  “N-N-Nico,” I choked out. Even thinking his name hurt, but saying it tore another rip in my tattered heart.

  She froze but didn’t let go of me. “Did he hurt you?” Her question held more threat than any of her promises to mutilate before. Raelynn’s mother had been abused by her father, and it was a hard line that changed Raelynn from playful to serious in the blink of an eye.

  “Not ph-physically.”

  Her body expanded in my arms with her deep inhale of relief, and her hand resumed its motion up and down my back.

  She let me cry, taking shuddering breaths with me. She rocked us back and forth and shhh’d me like a baby. It made me miss my mom but also filled me with gratitude for such an amazing friend. She was part of our tripod, and right now, she took on more weight when I couldn’t.

  When my cries softened, she finally spoke. “Was the sex that bad?”

  I choked out a laugh, tears still leaking down my cheeks. God love Raelynn. Only she could ease this ache when we were both crying with a joke.

  “Was all the excitement gone because you weren’t at a crowded party, and he wasn’t a stranger?” She mock gasped. “Does he only do missionary with the lights out and under the covers?”

  “Oh my god,” I groaned, laughing harder. I pulled back and swiped at my cheeks.

  “Say it ain’t so,” she said in a fake southern accent, her hand to her forehead.

  “Jesus, Rae.”

  She smiled and brushed back the strand of hair clinging to my cheeks. “Let me get us some wine, and then we can talk. What do you think? No glass? Bottle each?”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  With a smile, she stood up and turned to walk away but came to a screeching halt when the doorknob jiggled frantically, and hard pounding reverberated against the door.

  “What the fuck?” she whispered, turning wide eyes to me.

  “Does he know where you live?”

  “How the fuck should I know?”

  We whispered back and forth, not moving a muscle, like maybe if we didn’t move, the person wouldn’t know we were there.

  “Open this goddamn door right now or I’ll fucking kick it down. I don’t know how because I’m pretty small, but I’ll do it. I’ll find a way. You bitches let me in.”

  Raelynn snapped into action, whipping the door open. “Nova?”

  She stormed past, her long red hair flowing behind her like a fiery waterfall. “Yes, fucking Nova. Who did you expect?”

  She stood in the open space, looking between mine and Raelynn’s red eyes and splotchy faces.

  “What happened?” Sweet Nova stood tall, looking more imposing than Raelynn ever had.

  “Damn, Xena the warrior princess,” Raelynn said, looking Nova up and down. “How the hell did you get here so fast? I thought you were out of town. And why are you so dressed up? Are those…heels?”

  Nova rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh at Raelynn’s joking, only relaxing the slightest bit from her attack position. “Yes, and I just ran up seven flights of stairs because your elevator is stupid slow. I had a late meeting—”

  “A date?” Raelynn asked, gasping in excitement. Nova didn’t really date, and Raelynn constantly harassed her for it.

  “A meeting with a publisher from a magazine. I got in this morning, and when I got your message, I bolted, barely giving an excuse before tossing cash at him like a fucking stripper.”

  “What the hell did you send her?” I asked.

  Nova pulled up her phone and handed it to me.

  Raelynn: OMG OMG OMG! 911!!! EMERGENCY!! FaceTime immediately. Need you. 911!! Something’s wrong with V. Call. Now. 911!!!

  “Wow,” I said, handing her phone back.

&nbs
p; “So, just tell me. Rip it off like a Band-Aid. Are you dying? Sick? God, I don’t think I can lose you.”

  I sniffed, more tears building, and Nova stormed around the couch, pulling me into a fierce hug.

  “What the hell is going on?” she pleaded.

  “Something with Nico,” Raelynn answered for me. “I was about to grab some wine so we could talk. Want a bottle?”

  “A whole bottle?”

  “When your girl shows up at your door sobbing for the first time in all the years of your friendship, you each get a bottle.”

  “Ummm…sure.”

  “Atta girl.”

  Raelynn disappeared in the kitchen, and Nova pulled back, framing my face with both hands. “Are you okay?”

  My face scrunched at the question, my lips pinched to hold back more tears, and I shook my head. My body ached like it’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight. The sharp pain in my chest stung like a knife through my heart, making it hard to breathe.

  “I’m so sorry, Vera,” she whispered. “We’ll get through this. You’re not alone.”

  More tears leaked free, and I fell into her arms again. Raelynn always made me laugh, and Nova always soothed my soul. Despite the crushing weight of my pain, I knew I’d make it through this with these two by my side.

  “Dammit, Nova, I just got her to stop crying.”

  I laughed again. Raelynn sounded like a pissed off parent mad at her spouse for waking the baby.

  I sat back and wiped my eyes. “Sorry, guys.”

  “Stop apologizing,” Raelynn reprimanded.

  She sat a bottle in front of each of us, chips and dip, M&Ms, and a charcuterie tray.

  “Damn,” I whispered.

  “I keep a stash, and my cook made one earlier today for me to munch on. I’m skilled, but not good enough to whip up cheese and meat artfully decorated like that.”

  “Do you want me to grab glasses,” Nova asked.

  Raelynn sat in the chair catty-corner to the couch, giving Nova a bless-your-heart kind of smile. “Oh, sweetheart, no. We’re drinking straight from the bottle.”

  “Oh. Okay. This went so well last time.”