Venice Nights by Ava Claire Page B

“Allegra.”
    I sat back. “Allegra was your best friend?”
    Isabella took a long drag and held out her arm. Her hand hovered a few feet from the ground. “Ever since we were this high. Allegra was always more concerned with books than boys. For awhile, I thought maybe she didn’t like boys at all—especially when she didn’t bat an eye when she met Carlton.” Isabella flexed her fingers. “They only spoke for a moment. I remember Allegra hadn’t even bothered to change out of her work clothes. She worked in her father’s auto shop and she wore these horrible overalls. Her hair hung in a greasy locks down her back and she didn’t even shake Carlton’s hand.” Isabella chuckled. “I was mortified that she was so rude, thinking she was sticking up for me somehow, but Carlton was amused.
    Later that night, when I was ready to go, I saw him watching her. The way he looked at her...it put the moon and sun and stars to shame. He looked at her like she was the universe. Everything he ever wanted.” She crossed her ankles uncomfortably. “I thought sex would make him forget about her, but he started asking about her constantly. He wanted to know everything. And once she started seeing him, that was the end of us.”
    Isabella stomped out her cigarette in vicious, shallow jabs. “Not even a baby could pry him away from his precious Allegra. Allegra and I didn’t talk again until I broke down and asked her to speak to him for my little girl. My Lucia.”
    “Lucia,” I murmured sadly. “It’s a beautiful name.”
    She flickered a look in my direction and nodded. “She was a beautiful child. Born too soon.” She swiped at her cheeks again. “Taken too soon.”
    I could not even begin to fathom her loss. “Did you love Carlton?”
    Isabella pulled down the brim of her hat. “Does it matter? He made his choice—and it was Allegra.”
    I guess in the grand scheme of things, it did not matter.
    “And you and Allegra?”
    “What about us?” she said with a snort. “How could a friendship survive that? There was nothing left to salvage.”
    She talked tough, like she could care less, but the truth was in her voice. She lost three things: her daughter, her heart, and her best friend.
    She brought her eyes to mine, her lips curling into a snarl. “Don’t pity me. I don’t need your pity.”
    I saw right through the facade. Saw the broken, lonely women underneath. She stormed inside without another word and I leaned back, replaying everything she told me. Would things have been different if she never introduced Carlton to Allegra? Would he have learned to love her?
    I guess we would never know. One chance meeting, one look...and everything changed.
    I narrowed my eyes, suddenly understanding why she hated me so much.
    Out of a string of guests, women that came and went out of Jacob’s life, I was the exception.
    I was Allegra.

Chapter Thirteen
    Blanka looked down at the envelope I held out, her eyes bulging from her skull.
    A flash of guilt rippled over me. Poor girl—she’s probably thinking I am about to get her in trouble. Again.
    “All you have to do is hand this to Jacob,” I assured her. “That’s it.”
    She peered up at me skeptically. “Why can’t you give it to him?”
    It was a good question. Honestly, I doubted he would accept it from me. Every time I tried to have a conversation involving more than a few words strung together, he bolted from the room.
    That morning he uttered a few clipped sentences, telling me had a meeting in Venice all day, but would be home around eight. The first step had been taken, and we were talking again, but my smile was met with him leaving the room without another word.
    I had slumped in my chair, pushing eggs around my plate, trying to figure out a way to bridge the distance between us when it hit me. I would get the muddled mess in my head down on paper, and wait for him downstairs. He would read my words and know that I was trying, as hard as that