The Affair: Week 8 Read Online Free PDF Page A

water dripping down her spine. “What are you talking about, Vera?” The woman really
was
delusional, despite what Michelle had said. Emma knew firsthand from Vanni that he endured Vera because of her relationship with Laurel, but he hardly considered her as a substitute mother. His attitude to Vera Shaw was at best respectful, at worst forbearing and vaguely impatient.
    “I’m talking about the truth,” Vera said, shrugging. “It was Cristina who was Vanni and Adrian’s real mother.”
    “What?” Emma asked, disbelief making her voice sound hollow.
    “Michael got Cristina pregnant when they met in Italy. But of course, Cristina was too selfish to ever settle down. She was furious at Michael for getting her pregnant, worried about what motherhood would do to her figure and her social status. Cristina Carboni, glamorous socialite who used to run fast and furious with that movie star sister of hers and their elite crowd of golden people; Cristina Carboni, who settled for no man: forced into motherhood, her wings clipped for good, tied to just one man? Never,” Vera said scathingly. “She flat-out refused Michael when he proposed after she became pregnant with Adrian and Vanni.”
    “You’re crazy,” Emma whispered.
    “No,” Vera said triumphantly. “I’m telling you the
truth
,”
she stated, punching the air with the hand that clutched the pieces of paper for emphasis. “When Cristina refused to marry Michael, he was able to convince her to give him the children. It wasn’t hard.
She
didn’t want them. He tucked her away in a resort in the Adirondacks while she was pregnant. When Cristina continued to refuse to marry him, he grew desperate. He caught sight of my sister while he was in New York. It was pure chance . . . pure
luck
on my sister’s part. She was the administrative assistant to one of Michael’s business associates, and Michael imagined himself smitten. It could have been me. It
should
have been me.” Vera straightened her spine and lifted her chin in a bizarre gesture of imagined self-importance. “I was always the stronger sister, much more suited to be Michael Montand’s wife and mother of his children. But no . . . Michael wanted a pale little saint. And so he married my sister, who was biddable enough . . .
weak
enough to agree to have him, even once she learned about the children. Of course Michael forgot about her once they were married. He took up with Cristina again. He took up with any number of women. But none of them meant anything to him.”
    “And you?” Emma asked coldly. She was having difficulty absorbing all this. The only thing that seemed clear and evident was Vera Shaw’s mad hatred. “Did
you
take up with him? Did
you
mean anything to him? Or is all of this some fiction you’ve created in your head because you know deep down you never meant anything to Michael Montand, and that you only hold Vanni’s affections because of loyalty to his mother?”
    “Laurel
wasn’t
his mother,” Vera shrieked. “Haven’t you been listening? And Michael’s and my relationship was above sex. He seduced women with ease. His conquests meant nothing to him, just like you mean nothing to Vanni. Sleeping with all those women—with that
bitch
Cristina—didn’t earn women the respect Michael gave
me
.”
    Emma shook her head, staring at the woman in mounting wariness. She felt nauseated. All she wanted at that moment was to be away from Vera Shaw. She was a twisted, hateful woman who clearly saw Emma as some kind of threat to her ordered but delusional world. She’d somehow morphed Vanni into some bizarre mixture of Michael Montand and the son she’d never had with him—the man she’d desired above all else.
    “I’m not really sure why you’re telling me this . . . this
story,
but I think I should be going. You don’t seem—”
Right in the head
, Emma stopped herself from saying at the last minute. “
Well
,” she finished with a glare. She started toward