The glaring rays of the Hawaiian sunrise woke Dani early the next morning. She was still on the couch but she soon noticed Margie wasn’t. The evening had come and gone without a word from Shane. She swiped her phone in desperation, hoping there was a message on it that she’d missed. Then she dashed to their bedroom in the hopes he had quietly sneaked past her and crashed out on the bed. Dani called out to Margie and checked the other bedrooms but there was no answer. Suddenly she heard the front door slam and her heart leapt as she ran to see if it was Shane. But it wasn’t. It was only Margie and she was standing in the foyer staring down in stunned silence at the opened newspaper in her hands.

“I don’t believe it,” she exclaimed, looking like she’d just seen a ghost. “I just don’t believe it. There must be some mistake.”

“What is it Margie? What don’t you believe? You’re scaring me. Did something happen to Shane? Oh my god I knew something terrible happened.”

Margie ran to her side. “No honey. God no. It’s not that at all.”

Dani yanked the paper from Margie’s hands. “Well what is it then?”

She flipped through the newspaper in utter disbelief and shock. The entire society section was filled with vulgar photos of Shane and an unknown woman in a compromising position. There was no hiding the obvious sexual nature of the pictures. Dani started to visibly shake aand her knees began to buckle, so Margie quickly ushered her to the nearest chair.

“Oh my god Margie how could he?” she wailed. “How could he do this to me?” Dani looked down at her swollen belly and caressed it with her hand. “…To us?”

Through her tears she read the giant caption above the photos and the humiliating details of the accompanying article:

BILLIONAIRE BETRAYAL!

Billionaire hotel magnate Shane Tanner caught with his pants down at sea……..mega-yacht orgy……island’s biggest sex scandal……jilted pregnant fiancée at charity event……a blow for Tanner International development…..

The embarrassing mortifying story just went on and on. Danielle was suddenly back up on her feet now railing and ranting around the living room.

“So it looks like he did it again to me Margie, just like he did the first time; No explanation, no warning, no nothing. I can’t believe I fell for that fucking asshole’s lies twice. I must be the biggest sucker on the island! I thought he loved me and wanted to marry me and settle down. I must have been delusional. Shane Tanner hasn’t changed at all; he’s still just a fucking self-centered womanizing playboy and I’m just the girl he used to play nice with the locals for his stupid property power-grab.”

Margie tried to offer a voice of reason.

“Look Danielle, I’m just as shocked as you are. None of this makes sense. There has to be some logical explanation for it. If these photos are real then Shane Tanner had everyone fooled, not just you.”

Dani charged into the bedroom, threw open her closet doors and grabbed two suitcases. Then she started wildly tossing miscellaneous possessions and random articles of clothing into them. After several minutes of rummaging through her wardrobe and opening and slamming dresser drawers she announced to Margie that she was moving back into her old house as soon as possible.

“I can’t stand the sight of this fucking house and I won’t stay in it another minute. Do you think you’ll stay or go back to California with Shane?”

“Whoa slow down a minute Danielle. Nobody’s going back to California just yet. I haven’t even heard from Shane and I’m concerned about his absence. You can move back home if you want, but I still need to get to the bottom of this. I’m going to see if I can get some answers. I’ll be in touch.”

Margie gave her a quick hug and headed out of the house…..still wearing Dani’s pajamas.

Danielle threw on some clothes and grabbed her suitcases off the bed. Then she loaded both bags into the Aston Martin and closed the trunk, when it suddenly hit her; that wasn’t her car. It belonged to the most despicable, deceitful fuck-face she had ever known. She opened the trunk back up and switched the bags over to her red Prius. Then she tossed the keys in the trunk of the Aston Martin and slammed the lid down as hard as she could.

On the drive back to her old neighborhood Dani’s phone started blowing up with phone calls, texts and messages of every type, mostly from Paolo, Allyssa and Auntie May. No doubt they’d all seen the news of Shane’s sexual escapade. She picked it up off the console and turned it to vibrate before dropping it into purse but her bag didn’t stop shaking and buzzing. At the next stoplight Danielle pulled the phone back out to completely shut it off when she noticed the name flashing on the screen: Shane Tanner.

Dani skidded to the shoulder of the coastal frontage road and stopped her car. Without a second thought, she got out and threw her phone as far as she could into the ocean.

Good riddance.