"I hope Gen will be okay tonight,' Rosalie said, slipping the Dior earrings in her ears. "I know she hates missing a party..."

"But," Olivier came up behind her and placed a kiss on the side of her head. "You know that she'll be fine, and that Rae is here to make sure she doesn't kill Candice or Lily." he smiled as he looked in the mirror at the two of them-Rosalie in Carolina Herrera, him in Ralph Lauren Black. Olivier's dirty blonde hair was left straight but was combed neatly, while Rosalie had her hair in a loose and lovely bridal updo, just so her Dior earrings could shine. And on top of that, she smelled like Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb, and he wished they could stay home and stay in bed and watch a movie instead.

Rosalie sighed as she picked up her Valentino red lipstick and put it on. "I know. But still, not having Gen there would be a total buzzkill. But...we have to do this for many, many reasons. And to also make sure Candice doesn't flirt with you when you're with the best looking woman in the room."

Olivier laughed as he kissed her on the cheek and stood up. He held out his hand for her to take, and she took it, letting him lead her down the stairs. Standing at the foyer, Astrid and Prescott were waiting on them, both a glass of water in both their hands. Genevieve was dressed in her white Hello Kitty cropped shirt and pants, arms crossed over her chest, but at least she had a small smile on her face.

"Make sure you give that bitch a what-for," she said with a hint of a growl. "I want her to suffer, since we won't be there. Have so much fun it hurts."

Astrid just laughed as Rosalie and Olivier met them. "Oh I think we will. And you two don't kill each other while we're gone." she warned them. "It's nearly Christmas eve, at least watch a good movie and just...I don't know, talk."

"You want me to talk to him?" Genevieve asked, nodding her head towards Raegan, who was in the kitchen. "I'll try not to kill him, but...everything he'd did and done on this trip..." she gnawed on her bottom lip as she thought about it. "I'll try, Atty." she mumbled. "But I don't think anything he'll say will change my mind."

Rosalie reached out and placed a hand on her friend's arm. "Just have some fun while we're gone, okay?" she said. "There's whiskey in the kitchen and some wine in the fridge."

Genevieve smiled as a honk was heard from outside, an reminder of the party she wasn't going to. "Ya'll have some fun, alright?" she said with a sigh.

"We will, G." Astrid assured her as Prescott opened the door and the two couples left to get into the limo.

Genevieve watched at the door like a parent watching her child getting on the bus, and once the limo left, she closed the door and went into the living room, plopping down on the sofa and sighing.

She knew the party was going be a blast, and that she could've been rubbing elbows with the who's who of Charleston-but seeing Candice all over her husband made her so incensed that she was glad that she didn't go. Candice would be dead and shipped off to Siesta Key where her husband and children were, and Lily would probably be dead in the ground once she went back to Atlanta. But for now, she had to deal with her husband-well, ex, if she had anything to do with it-and see if she really wanted to be with him.

"Whiskey or wine?" Raegan's voice called from the kitchen as he poked his head in.

"Wine," she answered. "What's for dinner?"

"Chicken parm."

"Make sure it's a pinot then. I'll turn into Ramona Singer after a couple drinks." she joked lightly, making Raegan bark out a laugh.

"Not if I have anything to do with it." he called back as the sizzle of the pan was heard over the sound of her own thoughts.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The Dewberry Charleston was decorated into a Christmas wonderland. Trees were decked to the nines, the champagne glasses clinking, people laughing for talking. Rosalie, Astrid, Olivier and Astrid walked in and was in awe of the place. "I wonder how much Lily spent on this," Rosalie mused as they moved through the crowd of the whos who of both Atlanta and Charleston. Almost everyone knew them and said their hellos, and some were even shocked that Genevieve wasn't with them.

"I'd thought she would come in here and make this place lively," Sabrina Michaels said with a frown. "At least she can put away a couple drinks and make Lily turn red. That would've been the highlight of the night."

"Make Lily turn red? I would think that she'd make everyone turn red with laughter." another society darling said with a matching frown. "At least it would make this party a bit better. And that husband of hers is actually not that bad to look at."

"Not that bad?!" Candice almost screeched when she walked over to them in a Marchesa number that made her look a fae, but a scary, disgusting fae, with her blonde hair piled up into a elegant messy chigon. "He's perfect to look at. I should know-I've seen him without his shirt-"

"Candice, darling," Rosalie cut her off before she could finish that statement. "Can we talk somewhere private? Alone?" she looked over her head to see a woman coming over to them, wearing an exquisite Oscar de la Renta off the shoulder floral dress, her black hair resting on her shoulder in a huge curl it looked like, and she was looking straight at Candice. "Well, not alone. With your sister?"

"Tali's here?!" Candice gasped as she swung around to see her sister standing before her, arms crossed over her chest.

"Rosalie, so nice to see you again," Natalia Steele said in a clipped voice. "Can we talk to my baby sister, alone?"

"Why certainly," Rosalie turned to Olivier, told him where she was going, and he nodded, since he saw one of his best clients of his casino here.

The three women went outside of the party and outside of the hotel, where the winter air whipped through gently. Rosalie was glad she wore her green Andrew Gn evening coat, because it was freezing. Natalia whipped around as soon as they were a good ways away from the hotel and glared at her sister. "Chasing a man again?" she asked. "Only this time it's a man you really shouldn't chase. What the hell were you thinking, messing with Genevieve Ayers's husband?"

Candice pouted when her sister started to go in. "He started it first," she answered. "He was all flirty and cute that I gave him a chance, that's all."

"And just like that, you've forgotten about your husband and your kids-who are wondering when you're coming home. Not even picking up the phone when your two baby daddies keep calling you, wondering where you were, because they're thinking about taking those beautiful angels away from you."

"My husband couldn't please me even if he could get some goddamn Viagra and actually tried!"

"So he's impotent, so what? What does cheating on him get you? Going back to your baby daddies and trying to have as many kids you can get and pretending that their his?!" Natalia yelled back. "That's not how that works. You stay with your husband and stick with it, and deal with the fact that you can't have children. There are many things you can do to get pregnant, and sleeping with this many men isn't going to work. What the hell was your plan when it came to Raegan? Get pregnant by him?"

At this, Candice got quiet-and that made Natalia and Rosalie suck in a breath. "Oh my god," she breathed, shocked. "You are trying to get pregnant again-and this time you want Raegan to give you a child."

"What?" Rosalie asked, shocked. She was quiet during all of this, and now that she was learning all of this, it was the most sickening thing she'd ever heard. "You want Raegan to give you a baby? When he wants to give G a baby?"

"Genevieve treats him like trash!" Candice yelled again, hot tears filling her eyes. "He hadn't touched her in months, and she threatens him each and every time to never cheat on her. Then when he does, she wants to divorce him, and honestly, he needs to be free." she sniffed. "She's from the mafia, isn't she? How can you be friends with such trash anyway?"

"He hadn't touched her in months because of the season," Rosalie answered. "It's always like that with the two of them. When the season comes around, they don't have sex until he has a homegame or she visits him up in Boston. Once the season is over, he's home. But he wouldn't cheat on her because of the season."

Candice blinked. "B-But he told me...that he hasn't touched her in a months because of the fact that she's mean to him."

"You idiot!" Natalia screamed. "Stop twisting his words and wake up. If that was the reason why he cheated on Genevieve, then that must be the reason why you pounced on him as if he was single!"

*~*~*~*~*~*

The dinner between Genevieve and Raegan was silent-glasses softly clinking, knives cutting into the chicken. What could they say, after all? She was pissed off about Candice and not going to the party, but more pissed off that she's having dinner with her husband, and she had nothing to say to him. Not one word.

Raegan took a sip of his wine and sighed, putting his silverware down. "We can't keep doing this." he said all of sudden, making her look up.

"Can't keep doing what?"

"The silence. The clinking of glass. I can't keep up this silence any longer. You're still pissed at me with Candice, and I'm more pissed at her because she's not telling the real reason why we ended up having this affair."

"Then please elaborate," Genevieve snapped. "What's the real reason why you cheated on me when we don't even see each other or sleep together during the season?"

"Because she wouldn't leave me the hell alone." Raegan answered. "She kept pesterin' me about being with her, and I told her to stop until she took advantage of me-"

"She did the Chrysèlie?"

He nodded. "I think she wanted to get her pregnant."

"And?"

"And I didn't. When I was with her, I kept using a condom so I won't get her pregnant. The only one who I want to have kids with is you, G. No one else."

There it was again-the kids part. The thought of having kids scare the living hell out of her, and she didn't want to have kids when she didn't have the heart and mind for it. "Are you even ready to have children?" she asked slowly. "They'll be hard work, and a lot of money."

"I know."

"Also you need to have the mindset of having children," Genevieve went on. "I'm not in the right mindset of having a child yet. I want to wait one more year before we can even have children."

Raegan nodded. "Okay," he agreed, getting up all of a sudden. He went over to her and placed one hand on her chair, another on her side, leaning over her. "But just for tonight...let's not talk about what I've did. I wanna be with you G. If you let me."

"Are you telling me that you're done with Candice?"

"I am."

"Then prove-" but she didn't even finish the statement as Raegan's lips were on hers, his tongue flicking a bit to get her to open her mouth. With a moan, she opened her mouth, and immediately Genevieve's body melted, while her mind cursed Raegan for as loud as she could.