Seduction
Page 18
When Tony saw Errol returning—alone—he knew the unimaginable was happening.
Errol walked up to Tony, somber-faced, and turned him away from the crowd. For a moment their eyes lit on the setting sun. It was a brilliant, fiery orange.
“Tony,” Errol started, his voice choked with emotion, “she never checked in to the hotel.”
CHAPTER
Sixty-seven
Errol clapped Tony on the back. “I'm sorry, man. Really, I am,” he said as Tony shoved the key into the lock.
Tony was in a state of shock, but he could still feel the pain pulling at him. He was hurting like a son of a bitch; he'd never known heartbreak and knew for sure he'd never want to know it again. He'd held back the tears for most of the ride, but now he felt them coming on like a rainstorm.
“I just don't understand,” his mother kept mumbling. “Why would she do something like this? She seemed like such a nice girl.”
Tony left them in the living room and walked to the bedroom to peel himself out of his tuxedo. He would take a long hot shower, and while the water beat down on him, he'd cry his heart out.
What have I done to deserve this? he wondered as he unclasped his cuff links.
He sat down on the bed and dropped his head into his hands. He felt ill. He was sure that Karma was wherever his $200,000 had gone. And what of his unborn child? Was there really a baby? He didn't know anything anymore.
His stomach turned over and he rushed to the bathroom and puked into the toilet.
He was broke. Flat broke.
Returning to the bedroom, he noticed for the first time the envelope lying in the center of the bed.
Tony reached for it. His hands were shaking so badly, he could hardly get the envelope opened.
Dear Tony,
I have done to you the exact thing you did to me a year ago. I manipulated you in every way, shape, fashion, and form, used you for my own reward— revenge.
It's true what they say about karma—it's a bitch.
Mildred
Tony was confused as he stared down at the letter and the signature.
Mildred?
Had Mildred found him?
No, wait—she said she'd manipulated him.
Tony pressed his thumbs into his temples. He was losing his mind.
He tossed the envelope back down onto the bed and two passport-size photos tumbled out.
He recognized both women. One was Mildred Johnson and the other was the love of his life, Karma Jackson.
He still didn't understand.
Did they know each other? Had they conspired to rob him of his dignity and his money?
He held the pictures up close to his face and then something in him told him to flip the pictures over.
Scrawled behind the Mildred Johnson picture was: Mildred Johnson—Before.
Tony knew, before he even flipped the second picture over what was written there: Mildred Johnson—After.
He screamed then. Screamed and flew into a rage that didn't subside until every stick of furniture in the house was broken.
CHAPTER
Sixty-eight
Clutching a glass of champagne, Mildred stared out the tiny window of the first-class cabin.
She was finally headed home.
Sighing, she reached for the airplane telephone, swiped her credit card down its side, and dialed.
“Hello?”
“Geneva?”
“Mildred?”
“Yes, it's me.”
“Are you okay?”
“I'm fine now.”
“Where are you?”
“On my way home.”
“Oh, good. That crazy-ass Chevy wasn't giving me any information, and every time I dialed your number, you didn't pick up. I didn't know what in the world was going on—”
“I'll tell you all about it when I get home.”
“Okay, then.”
“Bye.”
Mildred hung up and took a sip of her drink.
“ 'Scuse me, miss?”
Mildred turned her head and came face-to-face with a gorgeous olive-skinned hunk of a man with the greenest eyes and the blackest hair she'd ever seen.
“Sorry to bother you, but I had to come over to tell you that you are stunning.”
Mildred blushed.
“My name is Sergio Martinelli,” he said, taking her hand and planting a kiss on it.
“Mil—I mean, Karma Jackson,” Mildred replied.
“May I?” Sergio asked, indicating the empty seat beside her.
Mildred nodded.
“Do you live in New York?”
“Yes, I do. And you?”
“Me, I live in Italy,” Sergio said, leaning in close. “The land of amore.”
Mildred smiled and took a sip of her champagne.
“Are you married, Karma?”
“No, I'm not.”
“Boyfriend?”
Mildred shook her head no.
Sergio clutched his chest. “God has finally smiled down on Sergio Martinelli,” he announced dramatically. “Would I be being too forward if I invited you to my home in Pisa?”
Mildred cocked her head to one side. What the hell did she have to lose? Mildred Johnson had lived her life. Now it was Karma Jackson's turn.
“No.” Mildred grinned. “You wouldn't be forward at all.”
Also by Geneva Holliday
Groove
Fever
Heat
WRITING AS BERNICE L. MCFADDEN
Sugar
The Warmest December
This Bitter Earth
Loving Donovan
Camilla's Roses
Nowhere Is a Place
GRATITUDE
Once again, thank you all for digging into your purses and wallets to support a sistah who's just trying to have her say!
I'm especially grateful to my editors, Phyllis Grann and Karen Marcus, publicist Tommy Semosh, as well as everybody at Random House who continues to support and promote the Geneva Holliday series.
Love and appreciation to my family, friends, and fans.
Hope to see you all here next year . . . I'll be easy to spot. Just look for the sistah with flaming red locks, round hips, full lips, holding that novel with the sexy cover.
Until then, remember . . . if you truly believe it in your heart, the universe will deliver.
Joy!
Geneva
PUBLISHED BY BROADWAY BOOKS
Copyright © 2008 by Geneva Holliday
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Broadway Books,
an imprint of the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.broadwaybooks.com
BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holliday, Geneva.
Seduction / Geneva Holliday. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. African American women—Fiction. 2. Revenge—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.O4847S43 2008
813'.6—dc22
2007019980
eISBN: 978-0-7679-3017-8
v3.0