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Adriana shifted uncomfortably. “Of course. You know Stan and I are happy. Why do you ask?”
Why? Because there was love, and then there was love. Regardless of Adriana’s denials and protests, did she still care for Jonah?
Although Francesca had been reluctant to discuss him with Adriana for fear the truth would ruin their friendship, she felt compelled to finally broach the subject. She wanted to hear what Adriana had to say about Jonah and Stan, needed to know why what’d happened ten years ago had happened—probably because it no longer seemed fair to place so much of the blame on Jonah. She supposed she’d originally done it because his betrayal hurt more. And doing so made it possible for her to save at least one of the two relationships that meant so much to her. But the time she’d spent with him this week had convinced her that he couldn’t be defined by that incident alone.
In order to be fair—to Jonah, to Adriana and to herself—Francesca felt she needed to look at the past a little more objectively.
Realizing the answers to the questions she had to ask wouldn’t be easy to hear, she took Adriana’s hand as if physical contact might thwart an emotional separation. “What happened that night?”
Adriana’s fingers remained limp in her grasp but she didn’t pull away. “I—I told you. We’ve gone over this.”
“You told me you made a mistake. That because of the alcohol you’d both consumed, things got out of control. You said you were sorry and never meant for it to happen.”
“That’s true.”
“How did things get out of control? Why? What part did you play in sleeping with my boyfriend? Did you two care about each other? Was I keeping you apart? Did you give him up for my sake? What?”
Adriana stared at their joined hands but didn’t speak.
“Are you going to tell me?” Francesca prodded.
When Adriana lifted her eyes again, they were filled with misery. “He never cared about me. You were everything to him—”
Francesca let go of her hand. “Don’t you dare do this again!”
“What?”
“Say he loved me just because it’s what you think I want to hear!”
“I wish that’s what I was doing, but…you’re giving me too much credit.”
Because her best friend had always been such a Goody Two-shoes, Francesca had assumed Jonah must have been the aggressor, but… “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s true. He loved you.”
She struggled to accept that. “Then why’d he do it?”
“Who knows? He never responded to me before.”
Francesca caught her breath. “What do you mean by ‘before’?”
Adriana’s shoulders rose in a weak shrug.
“Addy?”
Tears rolled unheeded down Adriana’s cheeks. “I don’t have all the answers. What he was going through. Whether or not he was as drunk as he seemed. I believed what I wanted to believe, okay?”
“Which was…”
She jumped off the bed. “Do I have to spell it out? There’s only one thing that could make me betray you, Fran.”
The truth hit with surprising clarity. “You were in love with him. It wasn’t an ‘accident.’ It was an opportunity.”
She managed a pitiful smile. “In a way, I’m still in love with him.”
All the excuses she’d received—the apologies, too—passed through Francesca’s mind. None of it was sincere? And now Adriana claimed she still had feelings for him? “You’re married! You have kids!”
Adriana closed her eyes. “Have you ever read The Bridges of Madison County?”
