Case of the Ex
Cecelia Wyndam-Crittenden was sure that this was a bad idea when it came to mind, but she had to know. She had to understand why Avery had spent every day for the last seven years pining away for a woman who didn't really know him, leaving Cecelia to the ruins of their marriage. She'd made her own mistakes, certainly, but the reasons for those mistakes had some of their basis in Avery's cruelty to her.

Even after all the pain, the screaming and the betrayal, however, Cecelia Wyndam-Crittenden still loved her husband.

Avery ran back to Los Angeles so fast after handing her the divorce papers that a blind man could have seen the smoke trail behind him. He'd gone after the woman Cecelia was watching from the table at Cafe Rio. All of the information she had on Sydney Ashcroft wasn't much; she had a sister, Bryn, and a daughter, Zoey. She didn't have a picture of the child yet, but she wondered if Avery was bothered by raising another man's child. Or was he willing to deal with it just to be with this woman?

She'd watched Sydney come in and sit down, order, and then begin to eat by herself. Cecelia studied her from three tables over, simply watching her move, eat and breathe.

Finally, when curiosity got the best of her, Cecelia stood and walked over to Sydney's table, hoping to talk some kind of sense into her. Maybe she didn't understand that she was a home-wrecking whore who was standing between a woman and her husband, but Cecelia was going to tell her.

"Excuse me, are you Sydney Ashcroft?" she asks, flashing her best charm school smile. 

Sydney will, of course, recognize her as the woman who bid against her for Avery at the charity auction.