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“This is not an affair, si? What it is, we’ll figure out later”

Turning in his arood o and by then they were both breathing hard

“Raphael, as that on the phone?”

“My lawyer He’s heard frora now that she’s out of the clinic”

“Your ex is out? How is she?”

“Apparently, she worked through the entire progra-free and has her addictions under control, no boyfriends in tow, and is desperate to see Alyssa”

Pia wanted to ask forto know about the woer, and then dropped it when she realized what she was doing “I heard your mother say she was extremely beautiful”

She cringed the moment the words were out but Raphael barely seemed to note the wistful tone in her voice

“She’s extremely beautiful, the life of every party,” he replied with a faraway gaze, “and every est bank account a the fools who pursued her and so she chose me”

“You can’t believe she chose you just for that,” she said, shocked by the depth of his cynicism “You’re a very—” He arched his brow and she flushed “You know your appeal, Raphael Modesty doesn’t suit you”

“It was ra Not that my looks didn’t help Actions speak louder than words however much she professed to love me All her behavior, that I was too besotted to see then, proved howRaphael Mastrantino’s wife and not at all for e”

“So you have no culpability at all for its failure?”

“Not everyone wants to shoulder blae of you It’s not your fault”

“But you loved her, didn’t you? When they think I can’t hear them, or maybe because they want e They talk about how you pursued Allegra for three years They call it the match of the decade”