Lucy looked at her wrist watch. “When is he getting here?”

  “Anytime now,” Ali said.

  The buzzer sounded, and they all looked at each other.

  “Looks like I narrowly avoided riding the elevator with the jerk,” Lucy said.

  “You would have put the fear of God in him,” Alyssa said, buzzing Derek in. “You guys wait in the living room. I'll be right there.”

  “Alyssa,” Ali started.

  “I need a minute with him,” Alyssa said, looking Ali firmly in the eye, letting him know it was non-negotiable.

  He looked as if he would argue, but then he nodded and retreated to the living room with Lucy.

  Alyssa straightened her back and faced the door, her heart rate speeding up. A mess of feelings roared through her. Even though she and Derek hadn't been close for years, that didn't change that they had been at one time. After high school, she'd held so much against him. It had been a relief to let go of that negativity.

  And now, with one simple act, the animosity was back. The truth was revealed. Derek wasn't her friend, and he never would be. Seventeen-year-old Alyssa thought this was her fault. Twenty-eight-year-old Alyssa knew better.

  And still…it hurt. Like a punch to the gut. Derek didn't want to care about Alyssa, and no matter what she did, he never would. He was just that way. Selfish. Shut off from the rest of the world. It made Alyssa want to cry for him and punch him in the face at the same time.

  A sharp knock on the door pulled Alyssa out of her reverie. Before she could chicken out and ask someone else to open it for her, she yanked on the handle, and there Derek was.

  “Hi.” He gave her a sharp nod, his nervous gaze drifting past her.

  He's on-edge. Probably thinks this is a trap. Well, we've come this far already. No point in letting him down.

  “Hey,” Alyssa said. “Thanks for coming.”

  “You want a second interview?” Derek asked, stepping into the foyer.

  Alyssa tried not to laugh at his ridiculous choice of words. As if him stealing details from her personal life counted as an interview.

  “Yeah.” Alyssa took a deep breath. This part required no acting whatsoever, since she really was peeved. “While I don't appreciate the angle of your article, I see an opportunity for the kind of exposure Ali and I would like to have.”

  Derek laughed. “What angle, Lyss? I just told it like it was.”

  Alyssa's teeth ground together. “Let's just agree to disagree on that.”

  Again, Derek laughed. Alyssa wondered how Shannon could stand to live with him. Did she know that he’d stolen information from Alyssa? And if she did, did she care? Had she really been interested in becoming friends with Alyssa, or was as she just as fake as her husband?

  “Question,” Alyssa said. “What does your wife think about all this?”

  Derek's eyes narrowed the slightest bit. “What do you mean?”

  Alyssa chose her words carefully. If she was too accusatory, she'd scare him away, and this meeting was only just getting started.

  “Did Shannon know you were planning this article?”

  Derek ran his tongue across his front teeth, looking annoyed. “She's fine with it.”

  Liar. He hadn't even looked at Alyssa when he’d spoken.

  “Where’s Ali?” Derek asked, so casually, as if the two of them were friends. In reality, they’d only spoken the briefest bit, at the high school reunion months ago.

  “In the living room, waiting for us,” Alyssa said. “This way.”

  She led the way into the living room, her heart thumping loudly against her crossed arms. Ali and Lucy were standing by the coffee table, having a conversation in whispers. As Ali caught sight of Alyssa and Derek, his jaw hardened. Lucy turned around, her gaze sweeping up and down Derek in an unashamed and critical way.

  “Hello,” Derek said slowly, looking at Lucy. A hint of resistance flashed across his face.

  “Derek.” Ali nodded. Just like Alyssa, his arms were crossed.

  Derek nodded back, but his neck was stiff. “Who’s this?” he asked, looking at Lucy.

  “Our lawyer,” Ali answered.

  “Lawyer?” Derek growled. He turned to Alyssa. “What’s this about, Lyss? You set a trap for me?”

  “You have no right to be so offended,” Ali cut in. He took a couple steps toward them, but Alyssa stopped him with a look. If anyone got too aggressive, Derek would flee and they wouldn’t get what they needed from him.

  “We thought it best to have someone here,” Alyssa said coolly.

  “I’m not listening to this,” Derek huffed.

  “I know you went through my purse,” Alyssa said, before he could take more than a step.

  “You took her medical record,” Ali said. “Do you really think that is legal?”

  Derek blanched. “I didn’t take anything.”

  Ali’s jaw ticked. “Don’t give me that. You took it out of her purse so you could look at it. Along with her phone, so you could go through her text messages.”

  “Everything I wrote was true. You have nothing on me.” Derek’s nostrils flared, and he squared himself up with Ali, the two of them looking like a pair of dogs ready to fight.

  “We have something on you,” Lucy said. “As Ali just pointed out, you went through her purse. Let me guess. You took a picture of her medical record?”

  Derek swallowed, and his face became even paler.

  “Is that on your phone, now?” Lucy asked.

  Derek laughed, but it was a weak bark. He knew he was losing.

  “They fell out by…by…accident,” Derek said. “I went to get something out of my coat, and I knocked her purse over. Everything spilled out.”

  “And then what?” Alyssa asked. “Even if that is true, you decided to take that information and write about my personal life? After pretending to be my friend?”

  Derek worked his jaw around. “You’re not living in reality, Lyss. You’ve got it all nice and lux, living up here in this multi-million-dollar apartment with your sheikh fiancé. It’s not like that for most of us. We have to work for what we have, and sometimes, even that doesn’t work out. Normal people get cheated all the time.”

  Alyssa’s face burned, and tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them back. Derek didn’t get to see her cry.

  “You have it backwards,” she said, her throat hoarse. “People who cheat get cheated. You’re not one of those normal people working hard and honestly.”

  “And Alyssa isn’t a princess sitting on a throne,” Ali snarled. “She works full-time at a job that gives something to the world, unlike yours. And before that, she was a paralegal.” He let that hang in the air. “So, she’s knows something about New York law.”

  Derek worked his jaw around. “Okay, so what now? You've got me here. Do you want a follow-up article or not? Or did you just bring me here to try and scare me?”

  “Is it working?” Lucy asked, arching her brow and giving him the slightest wicked grin.

  “Legal action is one option,” Ali said. “But there is another possible route. I spoke to your editor and told him about how you illegally obtained information. I let him know that, unless there is a follow-up article, written by you, he'll be hearing from our lawyers.”

  Derek licked his lips. “A follow-up article saying what?”

  His voice was hard, but Alyssa could see the fear in his eyes. He had already lost this battle, and he knew it.

  “A retraction,” Ali explained. “A formal statement, apologizing and admitting that the information in your article was obtained unethically, and reported inaccurately, without the subjects’ consent.”

  Derek scoffed. “I’m not gonna publish that.”

  Ali tucked his chin and glared at Derek. “And why not?”

  “It would destroy my reputation.”

  “You’ve destroyed your reputation,” Alyssa said, “by writing that article in the first place.”

  Derek looked at her, then back at Ali, then finally at Lucy. “That’s all, your highness?” he asked. “I just say the story wasn’t true?”

  “And you never write about us again,” Ali said.

  Derek shook his head. “The magazine is in dire straits. Paper isn’t selling well, anymore. I only did this to help my company out.”

  “That sounds like something you should discuss with your editor,” Ali said. “When you go begging for his forgiveness.”

  “You always have an excuse, don’t you?” Alyssa asked. “No matter what happens, you’re never responsible.”

  Derek’s nostrils flared, and he wouldn’t look at her. Despite the fact that she had already given up on him, Alyssa’s heart sank. How could he be so callous, so in denial?

  “Fine,” Derek said bitterly. “You’ll get your article. Anything else?”

  Alyssa and Ali looked to each other.

  “That’s all,” Ali said.

  Without another word, Derek turned around. Ali was hot on his heels, following him to the foyer. The front door slammed, and Ali came back into the living room.

  “I wanted to make sure he didn’t stop and take any more evidence,” Ali said.

  “You think he won’t stick to his word?” Alyssa asked.

  “You know him better than I do.”

  Alyssa sighed. “I think you know the answer. I trusted him again, and look what happened.”

  Lucy wrapped her arm around Alyssa’s shoulders. “Don’t be hard on yourself. You’re a good person. Anyone with a heart would have given him a second chance. He just didn’t know how to deal with it.”

  Alyssa frowned. “That sucks, Lu.”

  Lucy nodded sadly. “Yeah, it does.”

  “Hey.” Alyssa looked at Ali. “I didn’t know you spoke to his editor.”

  “I didn’t. I just improvised in the moment.” His brow furrowed. “That won’t create any trouble for us, will it?”

  Lucy and Alyssa looked at each other, and Lucy shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” she said. “He sounded certifiably terrified, under all his big man talk. What we have on him is so much worse than what he’ll ever have on you guys.”

  “I could call his editor, now,” Ali said. “Just for the fun of it.”

  Lucy laughed. “You’re ruthless.”

  Alyssa sighed. “Don’t. I just want this whole thing to be over with.” She rubbed the back of her neck. Maybe it was the pregnancy or all the compounded stress from the last month, but her body felt like lead and every muscle ached. She felt like she had competed in an ice cream eating contest and then run a marathon.

  Lucy gave her a side hug. “Okay, I’ll pack away Ruthless Lawyer Lucy. Man, though, she’s fun. I can’t wait until she passes the Bar.”

  Alyssa chuckled. No matter how awful she felt, Lucy could always help cheer her up. “Evildoers beware! NYC will have a new superhero.”

  “You look tired,” Lucy said. “I’ll go. Let you get some rest.”

  “Come back soon,” Alyssa said.

  “I’ll walk you down.” Ali’s arms were folded, his brow still furrowed. “In case our friend is waiting to talk you into helping him somehow.”

  Alyssa waited in the foyer for Ali, and when he returned from walking Lucy down, he opened up his arms and she went right into them. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and absorbed his scent of him. It was the smell of home.

  “Don’t worry,” Ali said, holding her close and nuzzling his face into the top of her head. “From now on, everything will be wonderful.”

  CHAPTER 16

  ALI

  “I’ll never get tired of it,” Alyssa said.

  Ali squeezed his fiancée’s mittened hand, his soul light and his heart singing.

  “What do you think of it?” Alyssa asked, not looking at him. Instead, her face was turned toward the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The lighting ceremony had taken place yesterday, and Ali had suggested they come down for it, but Alyssa had said the day after would be better—less crowded.

  If you could consider anything about the month before Christmas in New York “less crowded.” Making it down the street for the tree had been akin to being a salmon swimming upstream.

  “It’s beautiful,” Ali said. Just like Alyssa, he had a single-minded focus.

  Alyssa glanced at him, saw he was staring at her, and laughed. “Ali!”

  “What?”

  She poked his chest. “The tree! Come on.”

  “All right, all right,” he chuckled, wrapping his arm around her and taking a moment to gaze at the sparkling tree. Below it, skaters weaved across the ice, some gliding like swans and others shaking like newborn giraffes.

  “I can’t believe you’ve never come down to see this,” Alyssa said.

  Ali shrugged. “I have never had anyone to see it with.”

  “Hmm.” Alyssa snuggled closer against him. “Just think. This time next year, we can come down here and we’ll have a six-month-old with us. Crazy, huh?”

  Ali shook his head in disbelief. “Extraordinarily crazy.”

  Alyssa tucked her head into the crook of his arm. “It’s hard to imagine, but it’s real, isn’t it?”

  Ali set his hand against her belly. Her coat covered it, and she wasn’t showing yet, but Ali couldn’t wait for the day she would be. They’d gone to the doctor’s a few days before and left with ultrasound photos of their little boy or girl.

  “We’ll be able to find out the gender soon,” Ali said, remembering what the doctor had told them. This last visit, they hadn’t been able to get a read on that, but during the next, it might be possible.

  “Yeah,” Alyssa said softly.

  There was hesitation in her answer, and Ali looked down at her. “What is it?”

  “Well, I was just thinking… Waiting might be kind of fun, you know?”

  A giant grin stretched across Ali’s face. “I do know. Yes. Let’s wait.”

  Alyssa’s face lit up brighter than the giant Christmas tree. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Awesome!”

  Ali pulled her into a hug, and they both laughed.

  “We will be buying a lot of yellow clothes, though,” Ali pointed out.

  Alyssa drew away and leaned against the railing behind her. “Nu-uh. If girls can wear blue, boys can wear pink. Who made up those color rules anyway?”

  “All right,” Ali laughed. “We’ll dress the baby in some stylish multicolored outfits.”

  “Now you’re talking.” Alyssa linked her fingers with his. “Want to go look at department store windows?”

  “Sure. By the way, you didn’t tell me what you want for Christmas.”

  “Nothing,” Alyssa said, as they edged around a giant pack of tourists taking pictures of the tree.

  “Ah, come on. You must want something.”

  “Ali,” she seriously said. “I have everything I want. You, a growing family, Derek published his retraction…so, yeah, I’m good.”

  Ali studied her from the side as they walked. “How are you doing in regards to that?”

  Alyssa bit her bottom lip. “I’ll get over it one day.”

  A lump formed in Ali’s throat. He wished her could take the pain out of Alyssa’s heart, wrap a chain around it, and throw it into the sea. Alyssa was the kindest, most trusting person he had ever known, and Derek, the scum he was, had taken advantage of that.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Ali said. He knew she still harbored some guilt over the situation, believing that if she had told him about the pregnancy from the beginning, none of the drama would have happened.

  Alyssa chewed on her bottom lip—something she did when nervous. “I brought a lot of pain to you, Ali. I…I almost ended us.”

  “Alyssa.” Ali stopped walking in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to face her straight-on. Holiday shoppers streamed around them. They were committing a major New-York faux pas by standing in the center of the sidewalk, but Ali didn’t care. This couldn’t wait.

  “That pain made us stronger,” Ali said. “Going through a challenge brought us closer. It made me realize that nothing can rip us apart. Do you understand?”

  He held onto her shoulders and lowered his face to look straight in her eyes.

  As they gazed back at each other, a slow smile slipped across Alyssa’s lips. “Yeah,” she said. “I get what you’re saying.”

  “And some people are hard to trust. Like Derek.” Ali paused to let the wave of anger that saying that name caused to pass. “But do you trust me?”

  “With my life,” Alyssa said without any hesitation.

  “Yes.” Ali smiled. “And I trust you with the same. Because we’ve been through hard times, and we’ve come out on the other side.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.”

  Laughing, Ali brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss. Underneath the mitten, Alyssa wore the ring that promised her to him for the rest of his life. The thought made a warmth spread through Ali; it made the cold air around him nothing but the slightest chill.

  “Look at that,” Alyssa said, pointing at a window display down the block. “See the little nutcracker opening and closing?”

  They took their time looking at the window displays, taking in everything from ice-skating polar bears to a flapper party, which Alyssa loved and had to go back and look at a second time. Both of them loved the teddy bear nursery display, where a dozen mechanical bears in their pajamas peeked around rocking chairs and sofas at the Christmas tree, hoping to get a glance at Santa Claus.

  “The baby will love this one,” Ali said.

  “I know,” Alyssa cooed. “Too bad they change a lot of them every year.”

  “They’ll do something just as good,” Ali said, watching a pair of children who looked about five or six point at the teddy bears and squeal in laughter.

  “Abigail, Hudson!” their father called. “Time to go.”

  “That’s a nice name,” Ali commented to Alyssa.

  “What’s that?” She looked at him.

  “Hudson.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Like the river?”

  Ali laughed. “It was a name before it was a river.”

  “Yeah, but it’s a river we can walk down the street and see. Don’t you think that’s weird?”