"Meg, I--, I---"

  "You, what?" Megan interrupted.

  "I'm sorry," he said, unable to meet her gaze, and then he walked out of the house.

  Chapter 2

  Second Chances

  "And he just walked out?"

  Megan's best friend, Charlotte, pulled the silk blanket from the back of her couch and wrapped it around Megan's shoulders.

  "Yep. Just walked out."

  "I can't believe it. I mean, I never thought that he was the cheating kind of guy." Charlotte pressed a button on the small remote that sat next to the bright pink orchid on the marble side table and flames jumped to life in the large gas fireplace. The first snowfall of the season was battering her leaded glass windows.

  "Neither did I."

  "And that's when you turned into a crazy person?"

  Megan sighed, "Yep."

  Megan had chased Alex into the garage and stood behind the car until he agreed to explain what was going on.

  The worst-case scenarios she had imagined were accurate and compounded by the fact that her husband was planning to leave her for his twenty-six-year-old pregnant girlfriend named Roberta Mason.

  Blind rage overtook her, she had grabbed one of his precious golf clubs, and by the time he was able to back out of the garage his prized Lexus had one less functioning window.

  "You're crazy," he had screamed as he squealed the wheels out of the driveway.

  Megan had crumpled to the garage floor in a heap, the grip of the nine-iron held loosely in her hands. She sobbed for the loss of everything she knew, everything she had known for the past fifteen years.

  She pulled herself up off the floor only once the cold from the concrete had seeped deep into her bones and she shuffled back into the house.

  "Ah, the old nine iron - the classic scorned wife weapon. Who are you, Mrs. Tiger?" Charlotte attempted to joke.

  Megan knew that she was trying to make light of the situation.

  "I know. I'm such a cliché," Megan sighed.

  "He's going to regret it, you know that right, Meg?" Charlotte rubbed her friend’s knee.

  "You know what the sad thing is?" Meg said, although the second she uttered those words knew they were something that shouldn't be said to her headstrong independent friend.

  Charlotte eased back onto the couch and pursed her lips, "What? That you'd take him back?"

  "Yes," Megan whispered.

  Suzanna, Charlotte's housekeeper peeked her head into the sitting room, "Miss, your coffee is ready. Would you like me to bring it to you?"

  Charlotte was a self-made woman, someone who had come from nothing and built an empire in real estate. She rarely spoke about her upbringing but had once let it slip that as a young child their family didn't have an indoor bathroom. She prided herself on treating everyone with respect, her staff were the best paid in the state and treated like family.

  "Thanks, Suzy, that would be great." She smiled at her housekeeper, "Megan takes--"

  "Two creams," Suzy shouted over the whirring of the espresso machine.

  Suzanna delivered the mugs of coffee into the sitting room on a tray, along with some biscotti.

  "Suzy, could you please get me the number for Margot Meyer?"

  Suzanna cast a look between the two friends, Margot Meyer was a well-known divorce attorney. If she wasn’t the best, she was definitely the most expensive. "Of course."

  "I can't afford her," Megan whispered as Suzanna left the room.

  "No, but I can." Charlotte dunked the biscotti in her coffee and bit off a piece. "Mmmm. This is the best I've ever had, what are these? Almonds?"

  "Stop trying to change the subject, you know that I always put almonds in my biscotti," Megan took a sip of her coffee. "I'll deal with everything. I don't need your help."

  Charlotte brushed the biscotti crumbs off her lap. "Meg. Your husband of fifteen years has left you for a child who is having his baby. All those years you've been supporting him, working for free to build up his business, making all of those fancy dinners for his clients, you deserve to walk away from this with your head held high and with a pocket full of money."

  "I guess I'm just not there yet," Megan looked up as Suzanna walked back into the room and slipped her boss a piece of paper.

  "Thanks, Suzy," Charlotte said and picked up her cell phone.

  "That's what your friends are for. To help get you where you need to be." Charlotte punched the number into her phone and left a message for Margot Meyer to call her back.

  "She doesn't have a receptionist?" Megan asked, and took a bite of her biscotti. It was the first thing that she had been able to keep down since discovering that her life was crumbling around her.

  "This is her direct number--" Charlotte was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. "Aha. Speak of the devil..."

  Megan had known Charlotte for years but rarely saw her friend slip into business mode. Megan could've sworn she saw a dorsal fin grow out of her friend's spine and her eyes transform from warm brown to cold and shark-like as her business persona took over.

  "Margot," she smiled into the phone. "Charlotte O'Hare here."

  Megan felt detached as the two powerful businesswomen exchanged pleasantries, but when her name came up, the room snapped into focus. "Yes, Megan Brittle and Alex Snellton." Megan couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the line, only saw Charlotte nodding. "This afternoon? Yes. We will be there."

  Charlotte set down the phone, "Don't be mad at me."

  "I... I don't know what to say right now, but I really don't need your charity. I just need your shoulder to cry on - and why did you use my maiden name?"

  Charlotte polished off her coffee. "You're going to have to get used to being Brittle again. Thank God. Megan Snellton, I mean what a god-awful name."

  Megan couldn't help it, a tiny laugh escaped through her lips. She had always hated Alex's last name. "I still can't afford Margot whatshername."

  "How about this?" Charlotte paused, "I'll take care of Margot Meyer, after all, I booked her. Then, you can help me organize and prepare all of my dinner parties for the next six months - deal?"

  Megan knew that her friend was not going to drop the issue, and frankly, she didn't think that she had the emotional energy to even start searching for her own attorney. She realized that her initial reluctance had been because she was hoping it was all a bad dream, that somehow she'd wake up to find out that her husband wasn't cheating on her, that she didn't have to split up the home that she had built for the past fifteen years, and that her last chance for a child just slipped through her fingers.

  "Deal," she said and hugged Charlotte.

  Charlotte beamed. "Thank you. You're like family to me Meg, what good is all this..." she outstretched her arms, showcase girl style, "if I can't help my family." She stood up and pulled Megan to her feet.

  "Now, come on. Let's go get a massage before we kick that no good cheating bastard to the curb."

  End Excerpt.

  ‘Second Chances’ by A.J. Wynter

  Now Available

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  email: aj@ajwynter.com

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