Another Woman's Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

and he was fourteen, and her father, Herb Allen, had introduced them at one of his soirées.
    â€œI wonder what she’s like,” Constance finally said, her eyes returning to the ceiling fan.
    â€œWhat who’s like?”
    â€œDawn . . . my half sister. I wish I was there when he met her.”
    So that’s what’s eating at her, Xavier thought.
    Constance and her mother, Raquel, were surprised to hear about the existence of Herb’s other daughter, Dawn. The two women had found out about Dawn only a few days ago, after Herb announced that he and Xavier had gone to her gallery in Washington, D.C. Since then, Constance had been bugging Xavier for details about her half sister, though Xavier admitted there wasn’t much to tell. He had only met her for a few minutes.
    Constance tugged the bed sheets over her bare breasts and pouted. “He invited you! He invited you to go and not Mom or me!”
    â€œBut I’m his lawyer.”
    â€œ So what? Daddy’s company has a team of lawyers, Xavier. You’re the only one he took with him to meet her. You know your relationship is different. He trusts you! You don’t have to pretend with me.”
    Xavier couldn’t argue with her.
    His relationship with Herb was different. Xavier’s father, Malcolm, had once been part of Herb’s legal team—the top legal counsel at Herb’s software company. His father and Herb had become friends, going on golfing trips together and taking their families on group vacations. But Malcolm died suddenly from a heart attack when Xavier was seventeen years old. Herb took the young man under his wing, seeing Xavier as the son he never had. By the time Xavier graduated from law school and passed the bar, he had a corporate legal job waiting for him at Herb’s company, and his friendship with Herb only grew stronger. Now he was Herbert’s lawyer and confidant, offering him a listening ear when Herbert needed it.
    â€œI came to the gallery with him because he asked me to . . . but they talked alone,” Xavier explained, though Constance still pouted. “I was there to keep him from changing his mind and leaving.”
    And it hadn’t been easy. On the drive to the gallery, Herb had waffled back and forth over whether he should see Dawn. Xavier had never seen his mentor riddled with so much anxiety or self-doubt. He hadn’t been sure if Herb was going to tell him to throw his Audi into reverse and drive him back home.
    â€œBut one of us should have been there, pumpkin! We’re his family!” Constance continued to rant. “He’s an old man dying of cancer! I mean what if . . . what if she’s some horrible bitch, you know? What if she’s some user who wants Daddy for his money? Maybe she expects him to foot the bill for her from now on!”
    Xavier squinted at his fiancée in disbelief. This from a woman whom Herb had indulged almost her entire life?
    Even the indoor heated tennis court at Herb’s estate had been for Constance. Herb had built it six years ago when Constance decided to take up tennis as a new hobby. Of course, this was after Herb had built the private dance studio for her when she decided to become a ballerina, and then changed her mind again and decided to become a champion swimmer. For that, he had an Olympic-sized swimming pool built on the property in the effort to help her train. Then there were the purebreds he purchased and horse stalls he had built two acres from the estate because Constance decided to become an equestrian. But she deserted that aspiration two years later. Needless to say, Herb was happy to spoil Constance, regardless of the cost. He had done it for years, doting on her and adoring her tirelessly. But now Constance wasn’t the only child anymore.
    Xavier was starting to suspect that Constance found the prospect of no longer being the only crowned princess in Herb Allen’s heart a little