The Divorce Party

Chapter One

It was going to be bad.

Lilly Anderson winced and put a hand to her pounding head. If she held herself in just that position, the pressure building in her head like the vicious storms that picked up intensity across the plains of the midwest, might not degrade into a full-on migraine.

Might not.

Except staying in the dim confines of Riccardo's Rolls Royce, driven by his long-time driver, Tony, wasn't an option tonight. She was late for her own divorce party. Excessively late for the one thing that would give her what she wanted above all else. Her freedom from her husband.

'Oh my God.'

Her twin sister, Alex, made a sound low in her throat. 'How can they print this stuff?'

'What?'

'Nothing.'

'Alex, read it to me.'

'It's Jay Kaiken's column. You don't want me to.'

'Read it.'

'Okay but I warned you.' She cleared her throat. 'In what's expected to be the most scandalous, juiciest, talked-about water cooler event of the season, billionaire wine magnate, Riccardo De Campo, and former Iowa farm girl turned sports physiotherapist, Lilly De Campo, host their divorce party tonight. I once suggested they were the only passionately in love couple left in New York. But, apparently, even that fairy tale doesn't actually exist. Rumours of heart throb Riccardo's infidelity surfaced and this once solid marriage ended up in the toilet. So it's with mixed feelings I bid this partnership adieu tonight. I have the invite to bring you all the salacious details.'

She crumpled up the tabloid and threw it on the floor. 'He's such an SOB.'

Lilly closed her eyes, a fresh wave of nausea rolling over her. No matter how many times she'd envisioned this moment, this freedom from Riccardo, she had never envisioned this. Nor the insanely mixed feelings she had right about now.

'Sorry, Lil. I shouldn't have started on those.'

'You're a PR person, Alex. You're addicted.'

'Still, I suck. I'm really sorry.'

Lilly smoothed her fuschia silk dress over her knees. It was elegant enough, in Riccardo's most hated colour which was an added bonus, but it felt like it was clinging in all the wrong places. A glance in the mirror before they'd left had told her she was paper white with dark bags under her hazel eyes. Haunted. In fact, the only thing that was right was her hair, blow dried to glossy, straight perfection by her saviour of a stylist.

It was a problem—this not feeling together. She felt like she was already at a disadvantage. Facing Riccardo without her mask, without all her defences in place, was never a good way to start.

'You look a little too good,' Alex murmured. 'I think you should have put something frumpier on. And maybe mess your hair up a bit.'

Lilly took the compliment and felt a bit better. Her sister was, if nothing, the bluntest person she'd ever met. 'Now, why would I do that?'

'Because Riccardo is like a banned substance for you,' her sister said drily. 'And your marriage almost destroyed you. Be ugly, Lilly, it's the easiest way.'

Lilly smiled, then winced as her head did another inside-out throb. 'He's finally agreed to give me the divorce. You should be doing a happy dance.'

'If I thought he was giving in I might be. Has he given you the papers yet?'

'I'm hoping he'll do that tonight.'