Page 20 of Entangled

“Thanks for agreeing to meet me,” Cara said.

Frankie leaned back in the chair, his posture softening. “No problem. I noticed you’ve been quiet lately.”

“Quiet?”

“Not so … out and about.” Frankie smiled, adding, “With the boss.”

“Gian.”

He lifted a hand as if to say, who else.

Cara cleared her throat. “I haven’t been out with Gian in three months.”

“Ah.”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“Because I’m not,” he replied. “I’m even less surprised because I know his wife has taken a more active role in his business side of life. More than she ever did when they first got married. Kind of forces you into the back seat, doesn’t it?”

Cara bristled. “I’m not with him at all.”

“I didn’t assume that, either.”

Cara checked her impulsive defensiveness. “I’m sorry, don’t mind me. It’s a knee-jerk reaction. I feel like everyone I met knew what was happening, everybody except for me. No one thought to tell me that he was married, or that I was an affair.”

Frankie’s expression didn’t change. “Define ‘affair’ for me, Cara.”

“Why?”

“Because your definition of it won’t fit with a lot of people’s opinions of the word.”

“Really?”

Frankie nodded once. “That’s what I said.”

“He’s married.”

“Yes.”

“He was involved with me in a relationship.”

“Again, yes,” Frankie said.

“Then that is an affair,” Cara pointed out.

Frankie still didn’t look entirely bothered by Cara’s reasoning. “I mean, technically, sure. But only because men who join our … thing, aren’t allowed to be divorced, for the most part. Some do, sure, but they know they’re never going fucking anywhere. Gian, being an underboss at the time, couldn’t afford something like a divorce, given the circumstances of his marriage.”

“Circumstances like?” Cara pressed.

“That’s something he’d have to answer. I just know arrangements aren’t usually made to be broken.”

“He was still having an affair with me. He made me his mistress and he didn’t even have the decency to tell me.”

“Because he didn’t have paper stamped from a proper divorce,” Frankie replied softly. “After how many years of being separated from his wife, is he allowed to have a relationship with someone else? Even though they were clearly separated, why do words like affair have to be tossed into it? Why does the fact he’s married—but again, separated—have to be the first thing to be brought up in conversation? Seems unfair to him.”

“That’s easy for you to say, to defend his actions, sure. But people still consider her to be his wife. They are still married.” Cara glanced away. “Does it seem unfair because you, too, were miserable in your relationship with your wife, and occasionally found a happy pause with my sister?”

Frankie blew out a slow breath. “A happy pause?”