The Billionaire’s Prodigal Wife
Chapter 54

Mackenna was nervous and as Alessandro escorted her to the table the host was leading them towards, she felt her stomach doing flips and flops in every direction. This was the first time she was being presented as Alessandro’s wife in a work situation and she knew how important this was to him and she was scared she would mess it up.

She was emotional and raw from all the events of the last several months and if she were honest, she was terrified she would blurt out something inappropriate and cost him a lucrative contract with a model he really wanted for his new line.

She was glad to see they had arrived ahead of the family they were meeting as they took their seats and when Alessandro ordered her a glass of wine, she refused it asking for sparkling water instead.

“No wine?” he asked curiously, suddenly noting how pale she was. “Mackenna, you look very pale. I will cancel this, and we will go home right now. I pushed you too hard today I think.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I am simply nervous and combining a glass of wine with the pain tablet I took earlier, well, I’m worried my mouth might get ahead of my brain. I don’t want to say the wrong thing which forces you to miss an opportunity.”

He tilted her chin, so she met his eyes, “my love, you come first. I am not concerned about you speaking the truth, any of your feelings or what you’ve been through.”

“You’re not?” she was incredulous.

“Mackenna, I don’t know how many more ways to tell you, I should have listened better, and I didn’t. What you went through was because I did not do my job as a good husband should have. I will never discount your feelings again and so if you feel compelled to share anything tonight, know, with all my heart, I will not be upset or angry with you. If I do react or get upset, it will be at myself, at Dulce, at Salvatore but never at you.” His words were earnest and thoughtful, and he leaned forward and kissed her lips softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispered holding his gaze steady before reaching up to touch his cheek. “I’ll be okay, I promise.”

Movements crossing the restaurant caught both their eyes and they turned to watch the confident young woman and her parents striding towards them. Mackenna’s breath caught, “wow, she’s stunning. Those eyes.” The woman, walked with purpose and poise, her confidence exuding off her in waves.

Alessandro chuckled as he moved to stand, “wait for the mouth. It’s something else.”

“Alessandro,” Whitney extended her hand in his direction and offered her cheek to him for a k**s. “I was hoping to be on time but one of us is a model and one of us is a mother of a model and yet it was my father who couldn’t figure out what to wear.” She rolled her eyes at her father.

Mackenna knew intuitively the man was uncomfortable and as she stood, she reached out to clasp his hand. “Hi, I’m Mackenna. You can sit by me, and we can hide behind menus together and try to blend into the background.”

“George, he replied, “thank God,” the man said as he moved near her, “she’s American and appears to be normal.” He ignored the way his wife slapped at him.

Mackenna shook Whitney’s hand and then her mother’s, Tallulah. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

“I love your dress,” Whitney said with a smile. “An Alessandro creation I expect?”

“Yes, and I won’t lie, I feel incredible in it. There’s something about having someone fit the dress to you instead of trying to fit to the dress,” Mackenna smoothed her clammy hands along the fabric as she took her seat again.

“It covers your bandages very well,” Tallulah said looking at her arms as if trying to figure out which one was hurt.

Mackenna grinned broadly at the woman’s brashness, knowing immediately how the evening was going to go. “I was really worried about it to be honest,” she lifted her arm up, “if you look closely, you can see the white bandages peeking through.”

“Are you okay?” Whitney asked curiously.

“Yes,” she shrugged, “I just moved into a new place two weekends ago,” she realized she may as well just get it out there and over with, “and I was sitting on the sofa. My roommate Savannah insisted we get this bright white area rug and I picked out a glass table. When I went to move away from the sofa, I tripped on the damn rug and right into the glass table.” She wrinkled her nose, “thank god my best friend is a trauma doctor.”

“Why do you have a roommate if you’re married,” Tallulah asked her eyes narrowing as she flicked her glance between Mackenna and Alessandro.

“Mom,” Whitney hissed at her, her cheeks going pink.

“No, it’s okay.” Mackenna shook her head. “It’s why we are here right? You want to know what’s up and whether Whitney is going to be well cared for under Alessandro’s label.” Mackenna took a breath. “I’ll answer your questions, but I need your assurances what is said stays between us.”

Mackenna was nervous and as Alessandro escorted her to the table the host was leading them towards, she felt her stomach doing flips and flops in every direction. This was the first time she was being presented as Alessandro’s wife in a work situation and she knew how important this was to him and she was scared she would mess it up.

“Of course, what is said at this table stays at this table,” George eyed the two women of his family seriously and they both nodded.

“What do you want to know?”

“I want your story. I want to know why you’ve been apart and back together after so long.” She looked Alessandro up and down. “The tabloids are saying he’s blackmailing you and you tried to kill yourself just to get away.”

Mackenna was surprised at her candor. “Nothing is further from the truth. I fell into a table after tripping over an area rug. It was purely accidental.”

“And being blackmailed? I know the press is now saying it was his grandfather in the video Dulce released but does the apple fall far from the tree?”

“Mom!” Whitney glared at her mother.

“I am not being blackmailed,” Mackenna negated the allegation. “Alessandro and I are married, but we are working through things. When we met, I was young, and I didn’t communicate very well. Alessandro thought I was just being jealous of his friend. Had we actually had conversations instead of arguments, perhaps things would be different today.”

Alessandro shifted uncomfortably in his seat, aware Mackenna was taking too much of the blame on her own shoulders. “No, not all true my love. You’re sugar-coating things.” He took her fingers in his and placed them on his lap.

Alessandro took a breath, “The truth is Tallulah, I was so bent on making House of Giordano even bigger than it already was, I was single-mindedly focused on doing whatever it took to make it happen and it included being at Dulce’s beck and call. I know how much I love my wife. I know how much she loves me. I took for granted because we loved each other, she would simply understand the lengths I went to, to ensure my company’s success. Including dancing in nightclubs for publicity’s sake or attending parties with Dulce to get her face plastered everywhere. I was arrogant and bullheaded in thinking Mackenna should have supported my desire to get to the top the way I supported her getting her college degree. They were not even close to the same thing. I should have seen she was trying to tell me what was happening, but I was self-absorbed, and I let her, I let us both, down.”

Mackenna squeezed his fingers and met his gaze with a sigh. “We both messed up.”

“One of us clearly more than the other,” he shook his head.

“Agreed,” she smirked suddenly and was rewarded when he hooked his arm around her neck and rubbed his face in her hair.

“Were you sleeping with Dulce?” Tallulah asked and when her daughter g*****d in embarrassment and George gave a snort in his wife’s direction she shrugged. “This is my only child and I want to make sure some lothario isn’t going to seduce her and drag her through the mud like Dulce is going through right now.”

Mackenna spoke quietly, “Dulce has her own reasons for all she’s done, and they are not my reasons to divulge. I will say she and I have made our peace. I know with certainty my husband has never slept with her and I trust him implicitly. Dulce’s in the mess she’s in now because of her own actions. The only reason she is being dragged through the mud are choices she elected to make. I do not harbour any ill-will towards her because I know her side of the story. If or when she decides to speak about her reasons for the things she’s done, it will be her decision.”

Alessandro spoke, “Dulce displayed an incredible lack of judgement. Mackenna is more forgiving than I.”

They were interrupted as the server brought them menus and took their drink orders.

“You sound bitter about Dulce,” Tallulah spoke not looking up from her menu. “Why?”

“She alleges her reason for being duplicitous was because my grandfather blackmailed her. Dulce was supposed to be my friend and I was supposed to be hers. I looked upon her as a little sister, closer really than my own sister. Had she come to me with the information my grandfather was blackmailing her, I could have protected her. Her refusal to trust me with the information and instead to comply with the directives she was given by a madman cost me my wife, my marriage and people I love very dearly.”

“Your grandparents,” Whitney said quietly. “They were killed in the car accident, and it was him who hired the guy to run you off the road.”

“And our child,” Mackenna spoke as softly, and pursed her lips tightly. “The reason Salvatore hired him was because I was pregnant. He did not want my child to be the heir to House of Giordano.”

Tallulah gasped and covered her mouth, “no!”

“Yes,” Alessandro pulled Mackenna tighter to his side. “Had Dulce come to me sooner, all of this would have been avoided. I could have managed things years ago but for her own reasons, she felt she was unable to talk to me. So yes, I am bitter with her.” He kissed Mackenna’s knuckles, “my wife is trying to teach me how to be forgiving. It is not a lesson I am learning quickly.”

“How could you forgive someone who allowed such atrocities to happen to the people you love?” George asked curiously, no judgement apparent in his voice.

“I am replaceing it most difficult,” Alessandro admitted.

“As I said,” Mackenna repeated, “her reasons are not ours to disclose. I am uncertain in her position how I would have reacted.”

“Can I ask one other question,” Tallulah queried quietly as she absorbed the information.

“Of course.” Mackenna nodded, dreading the fierce look in the woman’s eyes.

“His best friend and his grandfather set out to ruin your life. Why are you here? In your shoes, I’d be long gone.” She looked to her husband, “I love you George, but this is some messed up crap.”

Mackenna took a breath. “I did leave. I was gone for five years. I was in Milan to file our divorce when I saw Alessandro again. A few weeks later Dulce was admitted to our hospital completely by coincidence. Doctor Portman is a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon, and he was recommended by the surgeon in Paris. It was purely coincidental. It put us into each other’s lives again and it’s allowing us to try to work through our issues. It isn’t easy. I have a bad temper and his is worse,” she grinned at him suddenly, “but we’re trying.”

“But you still live apart,” Tallulah pushed.

“Mackenna has been through too much as a result of the actions of me and my family for me to simply demand we live together,” Alessandro spoke quietly. “We have been apart for more than five years and to wait to have her with me for the rest of our lives is something I am more than willing to do.”

“What if she said she couldn’t ever live with you and couldn’t be your wife again?”

In Mackenna’s opinion this woman was far beyond nosy, and Alessandro must really like her daughter to put up with it. Questioning things in the past was one thing, projecting into the future was an entirely different matter. She waited impatiently for his response.

“It’s not an option for me to consider.”

“Consider it,” Tallulah pushed. “She’s her own woman, with a new life and she seems pretty damn smart. You’ve dragged her through hell. You’re uprooting everything to move her for the possibility she might take you back. What if she doesn’t? I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

The woman’s voice held an accusatory tone and Mackenna bristled under it.

“Enough,” Mackenna spoke sharply. “Tallulah, I understand you’re trying to protect your daughter and I told Alessandro I would support him tonight and be here and answer whatever questions you had because of the damn tabloids but I will not have you attack him just because you think you have the right to know what goes on in our personal relationship. I’m done.” Alessandro gave her hand a warning squeeze, but she shook her head.

“No, Alessandro, it’s not right. You want to know what kind of many your daughter will be working for, let me tell you. Today I listened to a model tell me when he discovered she had an eating disorder, he pulled her from the runway, paid her medical bills, got her to counselling, and helped her get healthy with lots of love and support. His design assistant is a beloved treasure here in Phoenix as a young drag queen and I watched today as Alessandro treated him as a peer and an equal, took him seriously and treated him with respect. He donated a ton of his own money to the hospital ward where his protégé was being treated because he was amazed at the good work they do. He paid all of Dulce’s medical bills out of his own pocket because it was the right thing to do. He is patient and kind and loving. He has a strong good heart and, despite the things happening in our marriage, I love him. Yes, we are living apart right now but we are both healing after many losses and upheavals. I am grateful I am blessed with a husband who will wait for me to recover without pressuring me or giving me deadlines. He wants to collaborate with your daughter because he respects her drive, determination, and her spunk. Do you know how many models would be thrilled to work under Alessandro Giordano, scandal, or no scandal? You have been nothing but disrespectful, insinuating he’s going to seduce her or treat her poorly because you’re basing your opinions on garbage you read in a tabloid and then you sit here and try to goad us both into revealing things which are none of your damn business. You’re worse than the tabloids. Shame on you!” She pushed her water glass away, “I need a minute.”

She stood up and walked in the direction of the bathroom, feeling the surprised and stunned expressions of four pair of eyes following her as she stomped away.