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She could feel the city change as she left downtown behind her, turning onto a quieter residential street lined with aging brownstones and marbled apartment complexes. But she was too anxious to admire the architecture as she neared Henry’s building. She was still twenty feet away when she realized that the man at the door wasn’t Maurice, but Henry himself. The sunlight gleamed off his slick hair, and the dark grey of his suit coat stretched across his broad shoulders. He was turned away from her, his posture slightly stiff and his head cocked to one side .
As she shifted closer to the street, Sophie could see the elder Medina glaring up at Henry from his wheelchair, sharp glints of light sparking off the silver oxygen tank at his side. Standing beside the old man was the lithe and gorgeous blonde form of Nicole Rossi. The beautiful woman’s short skirt revealed about a mile of smooth, tanned leg. She had one hand on Jorge’s wheelchair.
Nicole was the only one facing Sophie, although she hadn’t seen her yet. But the expression on the blonde’s face as she looked at Henry sent a chill down Sophie’s spine—her wide eyes and mischievous grin were nothing short of greedy.
Nicole moved a step closer to Henry, her lips moving as she spoke to him, and he lifted his head away from his father to look at her. Sophie tensed as Nicole’s mouth curved upward into a coaxing smile, the kind of smile a woman gave a man when she was trying to cajole him into something he didn’t quite want to do.
Sophie’s fingers tightened around the bouquet of poppies as Nicole lifted her long slim fingers to fiddle with his lapel, looking up into his face from beneath her pale lashes. Her lips were still moving as she argued whatever case she was making.
There was nothing overtly sexual in the touch, and yet it was curiously intimate for an employee and her employer’s son. Henry wasn’t removing her hand. He appeared to be listening to what she had to say. Finally he nodded, and Nicole stretched up on tiptoe to brush her mouth against his cheek.
Sophie’s breath caught in her throat, but she forced it out as she tried to convince herself that she was jumping to conclusions. Overreacting. There was some explanation, she just had to go ask Henry.
But he was bending forward, his mouth touching Nicole’s. Not flush on the lips, not the way he kissed Sophie, but at the corner. Still, it was too familiar for a casual acquaintance, and she knew it couldn’t be good when Jorge started grinning. The sight of a smile on that skeletal face was chilling. Sophie’s chest grew tight with dread.
Henry slid behind Jorge’s wheelchair, and a man Sophie didn’t recognize opened the door for the father and son. Jorge turned his head and said something to Nicole. She gave the old man a wide grin and shook her head, shooing them on.
Nicole stayed on the sidewalk as the men went inside. She crossed her tanned arms over her perky chest and grinned at Sophie, who went rigid with the realization that Nicole had known she’d had been standing there all along. Sophie approached the woman, aware that she couldn’t turn around now. She’d been spotted and she didn’t want Nicole spinning some story about her to Henry later.
“Oh, flowers. How precious. Is this prom?”
“Nicole. How are you?” Sophie tried to keep the ache from her voice but the flare of delight in the blonde’s gaze said she failed.
“I don’t want to be rude,” though her tone said she didn’t mind at all, “but clearly someone has to make this clear to you.” Nicole slipped closer and took Sophie’s elbow in her cool hand. “This isn’t real, this thing with you and Henry. He’s protecting his business. Just like you are.”
“But—”
“Sophie, don’t be naive. You’re hardly the type of woman Henry normally dates. If the tabloids hadn’t splashed your picture all over the front page, none of this would be happening.” She drew Sophie to the side of the door. Through the smoked glass, they could see Henry and Jorge waiting for the elevator.
Jorge’s wrinkled hand was thumping the arm of his wheelchair, and Henry was nodding at whatever he was saying, face placid. She even saw the flicker of a smile. Nicole was right. If that picture hadn’t gotten out Sophie would have never gone to that black tie event with Henry. He may have called her the day after she’d run out of this very lobby, but she’d been too upset to talk to him let alone see him.
“It’s not like that.” But even Sophie thought her voice sounded thready. Nicole shook her head, her pink lips curling downward in an exaggerated frown.
“Look, Sophie, you’re cute. No one’s denying that. You’ve got that wounded bird thing going for you. But Henry is the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. A little girl whose tragic slip-and-fall robbed her of her big Buenos Aires dreams doesn’t exactly fit into that world. I mean, honestly, did you feel comfortable at that cocktail party the other night?”
She hadn’t, but she wasn’t about to admit it to Nicole. “What do you know about my accident?” Only a handful of people knew the ridiculously random nature of her injury, and she knew her parents and Darren hadn’t been talking to this ice princess. And Christian was halfway around the world at a competition in Dusseldorf.
That left Henry. Bile burned in the back of her throat as she realized that he’d been talking to Nicole about her. Nicole sighed as if she was getting tired of the conversation. “I know you managed to ruin your career by tripping over your own feet. It makes you less than graceful on the dance floor.”
Sophie swallowed. “Did Henry tell you that?”
Nicole’s smile was kind but her blue eyes were sparkling with triumph. “Henry’s a man. He’s still going through that rebellious phase, rejecting his father’s lifestyle. Thinking with the wrong head. But we both know that in the end he’ll marry a woman who fits into his world.”
“You mean a woman like you.” Sophie felt numb with dread.
“Of course. He’ll come back. He’d already be back if you hadn’t managed to get yourself on the front page of the Post.” Nicole sniffed, nostrils narrowing. “Henry can’t be seen with a has-been dancer with a gross hole in her leg. It’ll be better this way, more fitting. Don’t you think? ”
He’ll come back? The sight of that kiss Henry had pressed to the corner of Nicole’s mouth burned in her brain like a brand. Sophie almost whimpered. Was she just some fling, something to throw in Nicole’s face?
She didn’t want to believe that. The way he’d been in the limo and at the condo building yesterday, that wasn’t just dalliance. That laughing, passionate, intense man wasn’t just playing with her. But the way Nicole had touched him was familiar, and Henry hadn’t acted as if it was out of the ordinary. And Nicole was right, she didn’t belong in Henry’s world. She’d even been thinking it at the black tie event.
Sophie swallowed back tears, feeling inadequate in the presence of a woman who seemed more intimate with Henry than Sophie was. “I wish you all the best of luck with him then.”
The words seemed to fall from her quaking lips. Nicole was talking again but Sophie ignored her; it didn’t matter what she was saying. God, she’d been so stupid! She’d thought that Henry cared about her in a way that Christian never had. She’d made the mistake of thinking each small gesture meant something—the necklace, how he’d opened up about his mother, sharing the unfinished building with her, even talking about his work. There was no way Nicole could have known that much about her injury if Henry hadn’t told her. He had used Sophie to get back at her.
Just minutes ago she’d been relishing in the warmth of the day, but now the air felt humid and sticky against her skin. She spun slowly on her heel and took two faltering steps. Nicole’s hand touched her arm, and Sophie jerked away from the woman’s frigid touch. She glanced through the windows one final time, but Henry and Jorge had disappeared into the elevator.
Sophie’s hands trembled as she stuffed the bouquet of white poppies into the trash beside the big glass doors. Nicole was calling after her, but Sophie charged forward, keeping her spine straight although it felt like it would crac
