Page 46 of Scandalously Yours

Alessia

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

I’d gone back to the one place where I could get away from all the drama back in New York City. Drama. It was the absolute last thing I ever expected myself to be caught in the middle of, yet here I was. I was a problem solver, and not one of those that played the victim card, although I was starting to see what Kristopher meant about Hayley always playing that hand. I had never planned to get in the middle of a relationship as toxic as theirs. It’d been the farthest thing from my mind, but I now found myself caught in the middle.

Hayley wanted Kristopher all to herself. If I had thought there was any chance of reconciliation between them, I would’ve bowed out and let them figure out things for themselves. He hated her. That much was obvious, and she seemed to dislike him just as much. Like what kind of person let someone abuse them just so they could pin it on someone else. Domestic violence was no joking matter, and during my residency and short time at New York Presbyterian, I had seen enough cases to make me sick an entire lifetime.

Kris was an upstanding doctor, and respected Titan in the community. None of this made sense to me, yet it seemed to be commonplace for them. Maybe it had been because we were born and raised in different worlds, but I couldn’t fathom how they could do the things they did to one another. Hell, I could barely understand how Kris could be that way with her yet be an entirely different man with me.

“I love you, Ale,” he’d tell me, and I wanted to believe him with every fiber of my being. For the most part, I did, but how could love hurt this fucking much? I’d never felt such pain over anything, or anyone, as I did over what was and would likely never be with that man.

“I love you.” I’d responded to him so many times.

Loving someone was so damn hard. I had always been told that you fight for the one you love, but some battles were too insurmountable to win, so I did what I normally did when things got too hard. I escaped back to the place where everything seemed so simple. Well, it used to. Now, I was in a different sort of fight for another man I loved. I didn’t know what was more difficult. Fighting Alzheimer’s for my grandfather’s love, or a psychotic ex for Kristopher’s soul. both men meant so much to me, but forces beyond my control were stealing them both from me.

“You’ve been sitting here all morning. Get into the car, Alessia,” my mother told me when she came into the room.

“I’m not sure I’m in the mood to—” I started to say, before my grandmother took her own daughter’s side.

“Nonsense. You’re going shopping with us, so get ready. We’ll meet you in the car.”

She then left the room and my mother smirked knowingly at me. I shook my head, but reached over for my sneakers. After putting them on and running to the bathroom to fix my messy ponytail, I grabbed my things, and joined the two women waiting for me in the Camry. I didn’t say anything as I slid into the backseat.

“You’ve been moping for two days and you’re going to tell us why,” my grandmother said as my mother backed out of the driveway.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” I told them, then pushed my face against the window.

I couldn’t tell them about Kristopher because they would immediately disapprove of my ever getting involved with him to begin with. There were certain values I’d been raised with, and having a fling with a married man who was also my boss wasn’t something they would condone. It wouldn’t matter that we had fallen in love with one another.

“You never should’ve been with him long enough to do that,”was the message I could already imagine my grandmother trying to tell me.

My mother would in turn get over emotional. “We didn’t raise you that way.”

No. I shook my head softly against the glass. I had to keep this pain to myself. I desperately needed their advice, but not at the cost of their pride and love. I had already lost enough, and if I didn’t have them too, then I would be all alone in a world that seemed so ugly right now.

“If you don’t tell us what happened, we will have your father get it out of you,” my mother warned, and I groaned.

“We don’t have to bring him into things. I’ve just been really stressed out with work lately, so I need a few days of peace before I return to the city.”

“I remember when you were a little girl,” my grandmother said, and I rolled my eyes at the story I knew was inevitable. “You always were the worst liar. Your cheeks would turn red a lot like they are right now.”

I straightened back up. “I’m not lying about anything. I’m red because I’m getting annoyed by these constant questions. Next time I need some peace, I’ll just skip coming back here if this is what I have to look forward to.”

I said that now, but I knew I would come back time and time again because I had no other place to go. I could hear my grandmother cluck in disapproval, and see the disappointment on my mother’s face as she shook her head. I had always been close with my family. Until now, there had never been anything that I couldn’t tell them.

“It has to be a man,” my grandmother pointed out.

“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone, Alessia,” my mother added.

I sighed. “That’s because there isn’t much to tell. I met someone, liked him, but there is no future for us, so there is nothing more to say.”

“What’s his name? What does he do for a living? How did you meet?”

Those questions were thrown out there, and I dropped my head in frustration. They obviously didn’t respect my wishes to not talk about him, and they probably wouldn’t, so I decided to give them a little bit of information, but nothing more.

“His name is Kristopher. He’s also a doctor, and we met at the hospital.”

“Ahh, workplace romance,” my mother stated.

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