The Savvy Sistahs Read Free Page B

go public with their thirty-two-year-old affair, but neither seemed inclined to do so. In fact, over the past year, they had seemed to be enjoying their “secret” fling more than ever. She’d been tempted on more than one occasion to ask her mother what in the heck was going on with them, then decided not to. If her parents preferred sneaking around, then it wasn’t any business of hers—which her mother wouldn’t hesitate to tell her even if she did say anything.
    Brandy decided to change tactics. “Mom, it could have been an oversight.”
    “It wasn’t an oversight. They just wanted to be downright nasty. No matter how they feel about me personally, I had a baby for Victor and that should count for something.”
    Brandy wanted to tell her mom that she wasn’t the only woman to have a baby for Victor Bennett, Senior. But then she knew her mother considered herself a cut above the rest of her father’s women. Strangely, Brandy knew her mother was probably right. For some reason Valerie Constantine was an addiction that Victor could not shake no matter how much he tried. And Valerie used her hold on him to make him regret that he had not married her when she’d gotten pregnant at sixteen with Brandy.
    Brandy was proud to admit that her mother looked good for her age—something else her father couldn’t seem to ignore. And her mother took pride in flaunting just how good she looked, and that she still held Victor’s interest.
    Brandy couldn’t help but wonder how different things would have been if her parents
had
married when her mother got pregnant. She couldn’t say things would have been better, but she had a strong feeling they would have been interesting. There was never a dull moment when her parents got together. They were very passionate, hotheaded, and stubborn individuals. There was no doubt in Brandy’s mind that her mother would give any man she married pure hell. But her father was the only man she’d ever known who could actually handle Valerie Constantine.
    “I can see that talking to you is useless now that you’re in with that family.”
    Brandy sighed deeply. “Mom, I’ve always been ‘in’ with the family. I’ve just never appreciated it before.”
    “That’s because you let those hellion cousins of yours talk you into making a complete fool of yourself at your wedding. I get embarrassed every time I think of what you did. Why would any woman in her right mind want the world to know that she couldn’t satisfy her man physically and that he had to seek out another woman?”
    Immense pain clouded Brandy’s eyes. No matter what anyone thought, she felt confident there was nothing inadequate about her in bed. The only two men she’d been involved with since Lorenzo had been Grant Hoffman, a man she’d had an affair with on the rebound, and Thomas Reynolds. Neither man had complained about her performance in the bedroom. The only reason she could come up with for what Lorenzo had done was the simple reason that he was a dog.
    “I think my plan was wonderful and I don’t regret what I did. It cost Lorenzo plenty and he’ll think twice about dogging a woman out like that again.”
    A few minutes later Brandy ended her conversation with her mother after promising that she would call her when she returned from California. She was about to take a few moments to inhale when her secretary buzzed. She pressed her intercom button. “Yes, Donna, what is it?”
    “Miss Bennett, Mr. Ballentine is here to see you.”
    Brandy blinked. “Mr. Ballentine?”
    “Yes. Mr. Lorenzo Ballentine.”
    Brandy inwardly groaned. Her ex-husband was the last person she wanted to see. The last time she had seen him had been over a year and a half ago when they’d met with her attorney and Lorenzo had grudgingly signed the St. Laurent over to her. “Send him in, Donna.”
    She got to her feet and watched him walk into her office, cool and confident as ever. At one point that certain arrogance about him