The Affair: Week 8 Read Online Free PDF

the door.
    “I have proof!”
    Emma was caught off guard when Vera shoved the piece of paper in front of her chest. She hauled up short and found herself staring at what appeared to be an official document.
    It was Vanni’s birth certificate. Vera snapped away the top document, revealing the one beneath it. She shoved both pieces of paper closer to Emma’s face. “And here is Adrian’s birth certificate as well. You see?
Who
does it say Vanni’s mother is? Who does it say is Adrian’s?
Cristina Elizabeth Carboni
!” she spat, spraying some saliva into Emma’s face. “I found these after she died, hidden away at the bottom of one of her shoeboxes when I went through her closet to see what she’d left you! That whore
would
put something so sacred in such a place. That’s how much Adrian and Vanni meant to her. Only after she started to age a little, only when she began to suspect she couldn’t remain the prima donna of the European social circuit forever did she finally listen to Michael. After Laurel died, he begged her again to marry him. He was blind with lust when it came to Cristina. She finally agreed, probably seeing nothing better in her future, and came. You should have seen it!” Vera laughed. “You’ve never seen a woman less suited to be a mother. Vanni
hated
her from the first, and Cristina couldn’t stand the sight of him. What do you think it would do to Vanni to find out
Cristina
was his mother?” Vera shouted.
    Emma staggered back as if she’d been shoved, the force of Vera’s vitriolic excitement was so great.
    “He hates her with a white-hot passion. Cristina killed Adrian—her own son, Vanni’s twin. He’s never loved anyone like he did his brother. Vanni has never—
will
never—forgive Cristina for that, and yet it’s her cold, selfish blood that runs in his veins! What do you think it would do to him?” she demanded again.
    “It would kill him,” Emma gasped, too shocked and set off balance to say anything but the truth.
    Vera’s smile was an ugly thing. “Perhaps he deserves to know the truth.”
    “No,” Emma said forcefully, anger fortifying her. She stepped toward Vera, meeting her stare in preparation to fight. “You say you care about him. You know very well finding out Cristina was his real mother would . . . unhinge him. Do you really want that for him?”
    “No,” Vera said, her chin going up. “Do
you
?”
    Emma inhaled slowly, reading the truth in the woman’s glittering eyes. “Just tell me what you’re planning,” she bit out angrily.
    “I’ll keep the secret until my grave. If you promise never to see or speak to Vanni again.”
    The refrigerator hummed on in the tense, horrible silence that followed.
    “You must realize this thing with Vanni won’t last forever,” Vera reasoned. “How long do you have before this affair between the two of you is over? Weeks? Days? All I’m asking—”
    “All you’re doing is blackmailing me,” Emma interrupted coldly. A fury started to build in the pit of her belly, melting her icy shock over the bizarre unfolding of events. “You know as well as anyone how much Vanni has suffered. You claim to care about him. Yet you would make him suffer in this way, out of spite toward me?”
    “You claim to care about him as well,” Vera challenged, showing her teeth. “Would you make him suffer, just so that you can satisfy your lust for a few more nights? Don’t try to tell me Vanni has promised you more. I know him. He’s unfailingly honest when it comes to what he’ll give a woman. Well . . .
has
he promised you more? Has he professed any other emotion but lust for you?”
    Emma refused to answer, but perhaps Vera saw the flash of doubt in her eyes. Vera smiled.
    “I didn’t think so,” Vera said in a low, victorious tone. “You’ll have to tell him that you decided to end it now, since you know it’ll end some time soon, anyway. A girl like you, so sweet and fragile . . . it’d pain you too