The other woman stepped forward boldly. “I’m Éloïse. Max’s future wife and the mother of his child.”
Sienna’s hand on Max’s arm felt nerveless, as if it had turned to stone. She wished she could snatch it away, but discovered she couldn’t. She gave him a panicked look. “Max, what the hell?”
Speaking to Éloïse, his voice was low and firm. “You’re not my wife and never will be.” He looked to Sienna and said, “Let’s get out of here. I’ll explain every—”
Sienna knew that her expression was one of shock. Éloïse saw it and pounced on the opportunity. “Oh,” she drawled in elaborate surprise. “He has not told you? You are thethirdwoman I’ve had to tell about me and Max.” The pregnant woman turned to Max. “Darling, why do you not tell these trollops of my existence?”
“What the fuck did you call me?” Sienna asked as she took a step in the woman’s direction, causing Éloïse to step back. Then Max placed a hand on her arm; his firm touch burning her in the cool night air.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t you are touch me again!” Sienna hissed.
Max’s hand dropped from her person.
I need to get out of here.That thing she saw in Max’s eyes? That was the truth. Ugly and glaring. Sienna didn’t think she could stand to look at it for another second.
She spun around, desperate to escape, but Madame Lavigne was in the way. Sienna fought the urge to howl like a trapped wild animal, and with a gracious inclination of the head, the woman stepped aside, allowing clear passage.
Sienna darted through, past those two women with their pairs of mocking eyes, and well away from Max, whose eyes held an ugliness she didn’t want to see.
A baby. There was a woman—his fiancée — pregnant by him, and he had never so much as hinted at it, much less tell her the truth. Did Éloïse say there were other women? She couldn’t believe she ended up entangled with a serial cheater in France. How could he have been such a deceiver? And how could she have been so naïve and gullible?
She had let her body speak for her, rather than her head. She’d allowed desire to cloud her judgment, to seduce her into opening up to a man in a way she never had before. Now everything had come crashing down, and it was all her fault.
Desperately, she looked around for an exit. People were still laughing, drinking, nibbling onvol-au-ventsas if her world hadn’t been destroyed. How was that even possible?
She felt a presence behind her as she darted out a side door and knew it was Max. He was calling out her name, over and over; reaching out for her. She dodged and darted into the parking lot, trying to find the car they had come in. Row after row of luxury cars and limos, almost all of them black. What now?
“Sienna, please!” he began, but she spun around and snarled at him.
“No! Stop it!”
“But I need to—”
There was a flicker of lights nearby, and one of the limos began to purr, easing out of its parking spot and up towards her.
Max looked stunned. “You’re going?”
“What do you expect? You thought I’d stay?” She waved in the direction of the gala. “Go back inside, Max. Go dance with your girlfriend or wife or babymama or whoever she is and leave me be.”
He groaned, called her name again, but she was fed up, sickened to her soul, and didn’t want to hear any more. “Just go.” She didn’t bother to wait until the driver got out and opened the door for her. She yanked it open and dove inside, knowing she was moving with anything but elegance, but she didn’t care. She slammed the door shut in case he lost his mind and tried to come in after her.
“Please start moving,” she begged the driver. “Circle the lot until he’s gone.”
The man said nothing, but began to nudge the long vehicle forward. Soon, all she could see was Max standing there. She dialed Naisha’s number and said, “I need William to get me on a flight out of France tonight!”