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Alex rushed to the restroom, because she didn’t want Max to see her cry and get another win. She didn’t wait long enough, because she would have understood from Max’s behavior that he hadn’t won this round.
She’d never cried like this before. Not in her darkest moments when she realized that she’d been adopted, she thought her mother didn’t want her, and when she discovered that her mother had died, and she’d never see her face except in a picture.
Alex didn’t cry when she met Max and fell in love with him, and realized that she had to raise a child on her own, and when Max discovered that he was a father, he had tried to take her son from her, and she never cried then. But now was different, she felt broken, and she had to do something to heal.
Leaning over and looking at herself in the mirror, she passed her finger under her wet eyes where tears had pooled, and she wiped away her smudged makeup.
Then she straightened her dress, herself, and strolled out with her head up only to see Jonas waiting in a corner near the door. He’d startled her for a second in the dim-lit corridor.
“I thought I would have to go in there after you,” Jonas confessed.
“There is no need for you to come to my rescue. There’s no one to rescue me from a man the likes of Max,” Alex moaned, meeting Jonas’s worried eyes. “You could have told me how ruthless he was.”
“I thought you knew.” Jonas placed his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go. I don’t want him angry at me any more than he is. The dinner is on Maximillian since everyone thinks I’m him,” Jonas chuckled.
Jonas and Alex strolled to the front and out of the restaurant, and out of the hotel into the bright fading sunlight. Alex glanced over at Jonas, “You do clean up well.” Then as they were stepping to raise their hands for a cab, a limo pulled up and the window lowered.
“I was shopping, and I thought you might need a ride home.”
Jonas brow furrowed. “Were you having us followed?”
“I wouldn’t think of following you, Jonas. Maybe that beautiful woman, but never you,” Christian said with a wide closed smile.
“Yes, I would like a ride home,” Alex admitted. Christian’s driver exited the limo and rushed around to the door and opened it, then stood in the way when Jonas made an attempt to get into the car.
Jonas stooped to get a glance at Alex sitting next to Christian, hoping she’d protest, but she didn’t. “You can take a cab, Jonas,” Alex said, and she sat back where all Jonas saw was Christian’s smug face. It was then Jonas questioned the wisdom of introducing her to him.
Looking straight ahead, Alex said in a cool voice, “Jonas, take a cab and I’ll be home shortly. Don’t worry, I’m safe with Christian. There’s no need to wait up for me.”
“I thought we were going to see a real-estate agent. You know the hotel is temporary,” Jonas noted.
“We will, but not today,” Alex assured, just in case Jonas didn’t hear her. However, he’d heard her, but didn’t want to.
Christian turned away from Alex to shoot Jonas a nasty sneer, and then raised the darkened window.
When Christian’s limo drove off into the evening traffic, Max’s limo pulled up and Jonas stood bewildered. He wondered if he should tell his brother, or get into a cab and mind his own business. But Alex and Max were his business, and both of them were heading down a cliff they weren’t prepared for.
Just as Jonas raised his hand to hail a cab, Max stepped out of his hotel, engrossed in talk with Jacqueline. Then Jonas locked eyes with Max as he neared the limo. “Can I give you a ride Jonas?”
Jonas’s first thought was, How can Max be so cool after his encounter with Alex? One minute Max was clearly uneasy, and that was when he thought it best to leave him and find Alex in the restroom. Now Max appeared as if nothing bothered him.
However, Jonas knew Max’s secrets.
Jonas knew how much Max loved Alex before all this shit went down. Could he be as heartless and cold as Alex thought? Could Max have moved on? Maybe there was room in Alex’s life for him since Max no longer wanted her in his. He’d thought as much since Alex implied that someone would want her if Max didn’t, and he wanted to be that man when she turned to someone else.
“Don’t think I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing, Max?”
“Jacqueline, please get into the car. I have to talk to Jonas. This won’t take long.” Max helped Jacqueline into the car and then turned quickly on the ball of his feet to meet Jonas with a growl. “What the fuck do you want, Jonas?”
“I want to know why you’re treating Alex the way you are. Don’t you see how much she loves you? Do you have to take everything from her to realize that you are everything to her, you and her children?”
“She is my wife—”
Jonas interrupted Max, “She’s no longer your wife, and if you weren’t so narrow focused, jealous, and vindictive, you could see what you are doing to all of us, especially her. I’ll be alright even without you, but all she had was her children because I see now she doesn’t have you and never did. No one could break through that exterior of yours. I thought maybe she had, and you were human, but I know now that you are as cold as that man she left with in his limo.”
“Who are you talking about? Where is Alex?” Max’s body twisted to the left and right. Jonas finally saw Max’s cold exterior break like pieces of a polar cap. “Are you going to tell me who Alex left with?”
“Christian Kenley.”
“Isn’t he—once she discovers the truth about him she won’t be there long.” Max turned to stroll in the direction of his limo, before Jonas reached and caught his arm. Max turned with a sour look meeting Jonas’s eyes.
“Don’t walk away from me, Max. You’re going to hear me out.” Max didn’t move and he didn’t say a word. He knew when Jonas was like this, it was best that he listened.
“Christian Kenley asked Alex to marry him on their first meeting.”
“I suppose you were the one to introduce them.”
“I will not lie to you Max. I was the one only because we didn’t have any access to money, and you cut both of us off. What the fuck did you want us to do?”
Max watched Jonas and they both raked their fingers through their hair at the same time. It was something they did as young boys when they were nervous, and thought their father would punish them after they’d gone off and decided that they didn’t want to return home. They were going to run away, become stowaways on a boat and see the world.
“You are responsible for this, Jonas,” Max barked.
“Don’t blame me for your fucked-up thinking.” Max turned and headed to his limo and opened the door and climbed in. Then he hit a button and the window lowered. “You’d better not let anything happen to Alex. You’re responsible for bringing her back to us.” And Max’s limo pulled out and left Jonas thinking about what Max had said.
Now he’s holding me responsible for his fucked-up decisions. I’ll be damned if I let him get away with this. She’s not my wife, he thought.
When Jonas entered the cab, Christian’s limo was pulling up to his apartment with Alex.