The Affair: Week 6 Read Free

Marco Hagan and a phone number with an international prefix on it.
    She remained unmoving, watching her sister leave the room.

Chapter Twenty-eight
    Emma was feeling some strange combination of nervousness, ebullience, and exhaustion when the sleek plane landed at the Nice Côte d’Azur Airport early on Friday morning. She hadn’t slept much on the transatlantic flight, too awed by the luxury of the private plane Vanni had sent for her and excited about the prospect of seeing the French Riviera for the first time . . .
    . . . Too overrun with anticipation at the thought of seeing Vanni again.
    She still didn’t appreciate his heavy-handedness in regard to her job and so many other things, but she did know one thing. She’d sent him away last Monday because she was overwhelmed by what was happening between them. Vanni had known that. His message to Amanda was meant to prick her pride. But it’d been more than that.
    I need you there.
    She recalled him saying those words before Cristina’s funeral. And whether she was a fool or not, she somehow had heard a similar, secret message in the one he’d given Amanda. Like before, she hadn’t been able to refuse.
    As Marco taxied the plane along the tarmac, she stared out the window onto a glorious Mediterranean summer day. The air itself seemed saturated with golden sunlight. As they’d landed, she’d seen the picturesque orange, pink, green, and white roofs of luxury residences and hotels that cascaded down the mountainside to the brilliant azure sea. The sea itself was dotted with thousands of tiny white boats and yachts. It was a scene right out of a glamorous Montand car commercial. Her excitement was huge, but she suddenly regretted not flying there with Vanni. She already felt out of place as things stood, an outsider who didn’t know what to expect. Arriving there alone, she didn’t have Vanni’s epic confidence to ease her anxiety.
    “Vanni isn’t coming?” she asked Marco tentatively after they’d passed through customs and headed to a parking garage. Marco rolled an enormous trunklike suitcase behind him but still insisted upon carrying Emma’s duffel bag.
    “He couldn’t. Time trials for the race were held this morning, so he’s been busy with that,” Vanni’s pilot explained. He was a stocky, friendly American in his forties with reddish-blond, thinning hair and fair skin that looked as if might be perpetually sunburned. He’d acted like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to cross the ocean to go and pick her up at his boss’s orders, an attitude Emma appreciated.
    It also bothered her a little.
    Did Marco regularly go on runs to fulfill Vanni’s companionship requirements?
    Marco stowed the bags in the trunk of a sedate, black luxury sedan and then opened the passenger door for her. “Vanni’s schedule has been pretty booked up with last-minute planning for the race on Sunday and a bunch of pre-racing events. Do you like racing?” Marco asked conversationally once he’d gotten into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
    “I’m afraid I don’t know all that much about it,” Emma admitted. “But I’ve been listening to Vanni. I gather he’s going out on a limb a bit, using stock cars instead of the Formula Ones?”
    Marco nodded as he fleetly maneuvered out of the parking facility. “There was some initial resistance on the locals’ part, but that’s all in the past. Vanni’s got himself a world-class race on his hands. He assured that by signing the best drivers from all over the world, whether they race stock cars or F1’s. It helped that Niki and he are best friends. Once Niki Dellis agreed, everyone signed up just for a chance to beat him. It didn’t hurt that Van also acquired the crème de la crème of society to sit on the racing committee and make crucial decisions. With that on his side, he eventually won over any local resistance. Everyone is pouring to the coast in droves, dying to see who will