Mine At Midnight

Ava wanted to ask if Ingrid was his long-lost sister, if those two children were his niece and nephew, but she already knew the answer. And yet she kept turning the pages. There was Ingrid with yet another baby, in a hospital bed, Max’s arm wrapped around her. Ava walked back inside then and sat down heavily on her couch. She couldn’t think. She just couldn’t muster one coherent thought. But she kept turning those pages. Family vacations and birthday parties. Smiling faces. Happy times. She had hoped that this was a past relationship, but as she turned the pages she could see that Max was still very much a part of their lives. It was clear that when he wasn’t with her, he was with them. He had the kind of life with them that she hoped they would have together.

She was more than stunned, more than shocked. She was paralyzed as she sat there.

“Our eldest is going to be sixteen in a few months. His name is Hugo. My middle’s name is—”

“I don’t want to know their names!” Ava pushed the photo album back at Ingrid, who had followed her inside. They were supposed to get married, spend the rest of their lives together. There were hundreds of people coming, some of them already there, and yet she was sitting next to the woman the man she loved had made a family with.

It was all going to waste. All the money that was spent that could have helped people. All the time she spent loving him, her career, it was all gone. Sacrificed for him.

“I’m not here to hurt you. I just thought you should know before you walked down the aisle that you would be sharing him with us. He said he was going to tell you. I had hoped he would tell you before you were married...”

“I don’t understand.” Ava shook her head. “Why are you a secret?”

“Look at me.” She shrugged.

“What are you talking about? There is nothing wrong with the way you look.”

Ingrid smiled at her. “He’s right. You are sweet. I didn’t think you would be from your pictures. I’m plain. I’m uninteresting. Uneducated. I was working as a waitress when we met. I always knew when I took up with him that I was never going to be the main woman in his life. He needs someone like you. Someone beautiful and graceful. You look like the wife of a billionaire. Plus he really does love you.”

Ingrid had said so many things that Ava was having a hard time focusing on just one of them.

“How do you know he loves me?”

“He told me. We talk about you. He tells me everything. Max is my best friend.”

“He doesn’t tell me everything. I’ve spent three years with the man, and he couldn’t be bothered to tell me that he was leading a double life.”

“He was wrong for that. He should have told you from the beginning. I didn’t want you to start your marriage off that way, and I didn’t want you to find out by accident. But now that things are out in the open, you can discuss it with him and get past it.”

“Get past it? There is nothing to get past. There’s not going to be a marriage.”

“Oh no!” Ingrid looked truly dismayed. “That wasn’t my intention. You have to marry Max. He adores you. He’s waited so long to get married. You’re perfect for him.”

“Do you think I’m the type of woman who would lower myself that far for a man?” Maybe it wasn’t such a stretch, Ava had already given up a lot to be with him—what was the rest of her self-respect?

“Maxime isn’t just any man. He’s special and powerful, and millions of women would give up their souls to be where we are. He’s so kind to me, and I know he’s kind to you. There’s no one else in the world who’s going to give you what he can.”

“I don’t want what he can give me. And I’m sure as hell not willing to give up my soul to be with him.” She stood up and walked to the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a wedding to cancel.”

Chapter 2 (#u8995a79d-7e84-58e3-ab48-31fe8c1c2041)

There was something big going on next door, Derek Patrick thought as he walked over to his window. He was a busy guy and usually nothing could tear him away from his work of making custom furniture and being the mayor of Hideaway Island, but the words “I’m going to kill the slimy bastard” had punctured his career-related fog.

Ava Bradley was staying next door to him. He hadn’t realized it at first, because for the last week all he had seen were delivery trucks going in and out of her tiny driveway, but it certainly was her. Sister to his island’s richest resident. Future wife of the man who’d tried to destroy Hideaway Island with a disgustingly large resort. As mayor Derek had done everything in his power to rally the citizens and prevent that. This place wasn’t a resort town. It was an island full of hardworking people who wanted to live in peace. A resort of that size would have brought thousands of tourists in the summer. And he might’ve been okay with that if the billionaire was going to hire local people to build the monstrosity and to be lifeguards or housekeepers or whatever positions they had available, but that had never been an option. Vermeulen had planned to bring in foreign workers from overseas and pay them a rate that no one could live on. It was damn near evil. Derek had gone toe to toe with the man. And almost came to blows with him.

He had won, which infuriated the Belgium businessman. That’s why Derek was surprised to find out that Ava had rented the house next door. She clearly hadn’t known that he would be living beside her. She probably would have strapped on her four-inch designer stilettos and hightailed it back to Miami. But she decided that she was going to throw the world’s largest wedding right here on the island. He wasn’t exactly sure why she chose this place.

She was one of those women who was too beautiful. Almost painfully so. She had perfectly smooth brown skin, and midnight-black hair that was always perfectly styled. Her clothes were ultraexpensive, and fit to her thin body like a glove. He never saw her without diamonds in her ears, he never saw her in flip-flops or flat shoes like most people in a beach community wore. He never saw her smile warmly or look happy, for that matter. He mostly saw her as eye candy, hanging on that rich man’s arm. Nothing more than another expensive accessory.

She didn’t fit in here, and yet he couldn’t be mad at her for wanting to get married on the island. Even she had to see that Hideaway Island was one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

Some of her many, many guests had arrived early, filling up all the little inns, bed-and-breakfasts and boutique hotels on the island. They ate in the restaurants and shopped in the stores. A few of them had even stopped into his showroom in town and purchased some pieces. It was a nice little boost for their economy. The island wasn’t antitourist. No, They welcomed all people. They just didn’t want some big corporate enterprise sucking the life out of this place.

Derek saw Ava’s twin, Dr. Elias Bradley, get out of his car. He knew when he saw Elias’s face that something bad had gone down.

“Where the hell is he?” he shouted. The doctor appeared more like a football player than a surgeon as he stalked toward the cottage.

Carlos, her older brother, came out of the house, the former baseball player looking even more furious, if that were possible. “I don’t know, but when I find him. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to smash his head in.”

Carlos’s wife, Virginia, came out after him, holding their daughter. “Would you two hush?” She scolded. “This isn’t what Ava needs right now, and you’re scaring Bria.”

“Give me my baby girl.” Carlos’s voice softened as he took his daughter in his arms and cuddled her. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Your daddy and uncle aren’t going to kill that slimy bastard today. We don’t know where he is. You don’t have to worry, but he should.”

Derek knew he should step away from the window. Being in his neighbor’s business was not his style, but he couldn’t make himself move. The whole town was buzzing about this wedding. And it all seemed to be falling apart before his eyes.

Ava stepped out of the house then. She hadn’t said a word, but Derek’s eyes went to her as soon as she stepped over the threshold. She was wearing one of those tight pencil skirts and a white blouse that gently flowed over her figure. She was an absolute knockout by any man’s standards, but it was her face that caught Derek’s attention. There were no tears, no blurry eyes from what he could see. Her expression was blank, nearly emotionless, one might see her and think she was cold, but she took her niece from her brother and brought the little girl close to her, squeezing her as she closed her eyes. And just before she did, Derek saw misery there, pure, uncovered misery. It was one of those haunting looks, made even worse by the fact that it had come from one of the most beautiful women that he had ever seen.

He felt sorry for her then. He didn’t want to because he didn’t like her. He didn’t like the way she walked or spoke or dressed. He didn’t like how she let herself be used as some rich man’s accessory. She reminded him of his mother. An incredibly beautiful failed dancer turned social climber, whose self-worth came from being the woman of a rich man.

He learned from a lifetime of living with her that women like that didn’t change. Derek stepped away from the window and back to his work space. It wasn’t his business what caused that hurt look to take over Ava’s face. She would find another man. She would be all right. Women like her always managed to make it somehow.

* * *

Ava sat alone in her rented cottage that night. Carlos, Virginia and Elias had left a few minutes ago after staying with her all day. It was nice to have her family rally around her. Having two large, protective brothers threatening to tear Max limb from limb made her feel surprisingly better.

And her sister-in-law was a godsend. “You want this wedding canceled. We’ll get this wedding canceled.” As an interior designer, Virginia was used to managing large projects and calling dozens and dozens of vendors was no small feat. But she had done it all with a baby on her hip. If Ava hadn’t been so numb, she would have been amazed by her.

She could barely focus on anything; she just leaned against her twin brother, his strong body keeping her upright when she would have slumped. She and Elias usually fought like it was going out of style, but he was her twin. They had gone to college together and lived next door to each other and didn’t let more than a day pass without speaking to each other. Carlos was like a father figure to her, but Elias was like a piece of her soul. She would have fallen apart if he hadn’t ended his shift at the hospital early to get to her.

But she had sent them all away. Elias’s job as a trauma surgeon was too important for him to be away, and Carlos and Virginia needed to put their little girl to bed. And so she was truly left alone with her thoughts again.

What the hell was she going to do with her life now? She had no job. She was sure she could get her old one back, and if not, she could find one someplace else. Maybe in New York or LA, but that thought didn’t appeal to her. She didn’t want to be that far away from her family. The thought of returning to Miami also made her sick. She had so many memories of Max there. So many places where he had wined and dined her all while keeping the fact that he had three children and another woman a secret from her.

He had businesses there. She was bound to run into him over and over again, which was dangerous, because in her current mood she wasn’t sure if she could prevent herself from running over him.

Her cell phone rang, and for a moment she was tempted to ignore it, but it was probably her mother who spent most of her year in Costa Rica now that she was a widow. She hadn’t been home when she had called the first time, and she didn’t want to leave the news in a message. It just wasn’t the kind of thing you said into a machine. She reached over to the side table to retrieve her phone, but the caller ID revealed that it wasn’t her mother. It was Max. She had told half the world she wasn’t getting married, but she had yet to tell him.

“Hello?” she answered, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. She refused to cry, because she knew if she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

“Darling,” he purred in his accent. “Why am I hearing that you have canceled the cake and told the string quartet not to board their plane tomorrow?”

“Oh, that’s simple, Max. I’m not going to marry you.”

“Excuse me?” he sputtered, sounding genuinely surprised. “Why not? You’re being foolish.”

“Foolish?” She immediately felt her anger go up a tick. “I didn’t think it was foolish to not marry a man who is a cheating, lying bastard.”

“Cheating? I’m not cheating on you. I never have.”