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“Something like that,” Elise said. She forced her voice to brighten. “I’m pretty newly divorced, so...”

“I see! So you’re trying to get your groove back and all that,” Anna said. Her eyes sparkled with humor.

Elise had never felt further from laughter in her life.

“He’s a good guy. I hope one day he gets over all the stuff he’s gone through,” Anna said.

“I hope so, too,” Elise breathed. “I can’t imagine it.”

Mostly because I still don’t really understand it.

“Tracey and Alex were saying something about your mother and their family at my wedding, weren’t they?” Anna interjected then.

Elise wasn’t prepared to get into that. Not now.

But she did have an eager audience.

“Do you know anything about Alex being really sick when he was younger?” she asked.

Anna’s lips parted in shock. “That’s not really common knowledge.”

Elise shrugged. “Is it true, then?”

She wanted to be hard-edged with this woman who had apparently been so bored this evening that she’d wanted to press a final nail into the coffin of Elise and Wayne’s non-existent relationship.

“Yes. Alex had cancer up to the age of ten or something. He fought several rounds of chemo. I think it’s made him an angry person, to be honest with you. It’s normally meant to be the other way around; at least that’s what I always thought. That you were supposed to be grateful for the gift of life or whatever, but Alex lost a lot of his childhood—he spent years in hospitals. His mother usually went with him for these rounds, and Dean, Cindy and Tracey stayed here while Dean made his millions,” Anna continued.

“I see,” Elise said.

Anna chuckled. “I just remembered. Alex said something about you coming to steal all their money. Is that what you’re up to? Or are you just trying to steal Wayne from all of us?”

Elise grabbed a twenty-dollar bill from her purse and slid it across the counter. Maybe the woman meant no harm; maybe she did. But regardless of either possibility, Elise wanted to get as far away from her as she could.

“To be honest with you, Anna... I have zero interest in the Swartz wealth. Do you want to know why?” Elise felt volatile, like a snarky teenager ready with an insult.

“Um. Okay?”

“I made my own wealth. I sold screenplays all through my twenties and have worked on multiple TV shows. I own my house in Calabasas, Los Angeles and even though I know this little island is teeming with beauty, charm and goodwill and all that—I’m about up to here with the idea that I’ve come here as some kind of hurricane to ruin all of you.”

Elise grabbed her purse and stormed out the door. Minutes later, when she appeared in her bedroom, she blinked at the newly-purchased suitcase, the swimsuit she had bought for that afternoon on the sailboat with Wayne and the green dress that hung in the closet.

She cursed all of it.

Why was she still there? Why was she wearing an autumn jacket?

Allison had known better than to dip her feet into whatever disaster this was.

Elise’s curiosity had gotten the better of her.

Now, before she got too hurt or ruined too many lives, she was ready to distance herself from the whole affair.

It was time to look for flights back home.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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