Betrayal: Abby's Guilt (The Betrayal Series) by Sofia Velardi Page A

get to know her, but it looked as if none of that was going to happen that night.
    After a couple of hours of mingling, fangirling and delicious food, Abby and Brianna left the dinner and walked outside.
    “Thank you so much for tonight,” Abby grinned, gazing up at Brianna while they both stood on the sidewalk outside Lincoln Center. “I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had tonight.”
    Abby did not need to tell Brianna how much fun she had. It was written all over her face.
    “You’re very welcome,” Brianna replied, almost inaudibly and with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. She couldn’t hide her disappointment over the fact that their night was ending and they had barely said a word to each other.
    “I had fun too. We should do this again soon,” Brianna suggested. She was racking her brain trying to come up with an excuse to spend a little more time with Abby.
    The smile on Abby’s face vanished. She remembered Kyle forbidding her from seeing Brianna. She wanted to be Brianna’s friend and get to know her. She also wanted to get the truth behind Kyle’s hatred for his sister. But Abby knew she couldn’t keep lying to Kyle just to hang out with Brianna. He was going to find out sooner or later if she kept sneaking around to be with the woman he despised. After the great evening they had spent together, Abby did not have the heart to tell Brianna they couldn’t hang out anymore. So she decided to tell her some other time. “It’s getting late. I have to go home. Thank you again for the concert, Brianna,” Abby said, her voice wavering as she stepped to the curb to hail a taxi.
    “You don’t have to take a taxi. My limo can drop you off at your apartment,” Brianna proposed, walking to the curb and standing next to Abby.
    “It’s okay, really. I don’t want to inconvenience you,” Abby countered, still waving her hand at the passing cabs and avoiding Brianna’s gaze. Suddenly, Abby’s phone began buzzing inside her clutch. She pulled it out, and her stomach twisted in knots when she saw it was Kyle calling. With shaky hands, and hoping she didn’t have to tell Kyle any more lies, Abby went to answer the phone. As she was bringing the phone to her ear, someone bumped into her arm and sent the phone flying out of her hand. The phone landed face down on the concrete of the busy sidewalk. When Abby bent down to pick it up, a morbidly obese man with a phone to his ear walked by and stepped on it. Abby let out a short scream when she heard a cracking sound coming from beneath the man’s foot. In typical New York fashion, the phone crusher mumbled an insincere apology to Abby and kept walking away.
    Both Brianna and Abby squatted down to pick up the crushed phone. Abby cursed softly when she flipped the phone over and saw the phone’s screen was cracked. Thankfully, though, the phone itself appeared to be still functional. She also noticed Kyle had left her a voicemail.
    “What am I going to do now?” Abby lamented as she dusted some dirt off the broken iPhone.
    “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure your phone insurance covers that. Apple will fix it or replace it with a new one, right?” Brianna asked a very bummed out Abby.
    “I don’t have insurance, and the phone it’s out of warranty,” Abby grunted before sucking her teeth. Phone insurance was a luxury for a broke college student like her, and she did not have $600 lying around to get a replacement.
    “I have a brand new iPhone in my hotel room that I won’t be using. You can have it,” Brianna offered as both women stood up.
    Abby shook her head. “No. I can’t. That’s very nice of you, but I can’t accept such an expensive gift.”
    “Please take the phone,” Brianna insisted. “It’s okay. I got it for free. I get a couple of new phones a week. There’s always one of those phones inside the gift bags they hand out at all the celebrity events I attend. It’s no big deal. Please accept it. Just stop by my