LOGINCHAPTER 25Harris drove. The city moved past the glass in late streaks of light, shopfronts, a red signal, a bicycle that was not Bella’s. Tatiana sat with her bag on her knees and Rafael’s palm still at her waist, exactly where he had set it in the doorway of the shop. He had not moved it when the car door opened. He had not moved it when the street took them away from the bell that stuck. The cane lay across his thighs. His weight favoured the left side of the seat. None of that had persuaded him to let go.Her wrist burned. Four marks were already deciding whether they meant to become bruises. She kept that hand in her lap and tried not to look at the other one, spread over the pale dress as if the fabric had become a fact he intended to keep.“Harris.”“Sir.”“The side entrance. Not the front.”“Yes, sir.”Tatiana’s throat felt too narrow. “But, Bella—”“Claire will call her.” Rafael didn’t look at her when he said it. He watched the road the way a man watched a door he had alread
CHAPTER 24.Matthew stood in the doorway of the shop with the bell still dying behind him, one hand on the frame, the other loose at his side as if he had only stepped in for a spoon and not for a sentence that did not belong to him. The street light cut a pale line across his shoulder. He looked the same as the last time she had been forced to see him. Neat. Certain. A man who entered rooms already sure they would make space.“You’re pregnant?” he said.Bella’s chair scraped. Tatiana did not look at her. She looked at the door behind Matthew, at the bicycle, at the blank lunch boards, at anything that was not the question. Her hand had gone to her stomach again. She took it off.“We have to go,” she said.Bella was already moving. “Tata—”“Now.” Tatiana’s voice came out thin and too clear. She reached for her bag. The cash in the inner pocket knocked once against her ribs. “Get your jacket. Please.”“Tatiana.” Matthew stepped off the threshold. The shop smelled of garlic and clean oi
CHAPTER 23Tatiana woke with her hand already on her stomach, as if her body had known a second before her mind did. It was not pain. It was smaller than that, and stranger. A press from the inside, brief, definite, gone before she could decide whether she had imagined it.Then it came again.She went still against the pillow. The room was gray at the edges, the curtains not yet open, the house holding the quiet it kept before Claire started moving through the halls. Tatiana did not breathe for a moment. She was afraid the smallest sound would scare the feeling off.There you are.Her palm stayed where it was. The second kick was softer, almost polite, as if the child had only wanted to announce that the night hadn’t taken him. A boy. Six months of a secret, and this was the first time he had spoken in a language her hand could answer.Tatiana sat up slowly. The dress she had slept in pulled loose across her waist. Rafael’s dresses did that. Soft fabric. Nothing tight. She had not tha
CHAPTER 22.Rafael was already awake when Tatiana opened his door. The curtains were halfway drawn, the way she used to leave them. Morning light lay across the bed and made the open box of chocolate look smaller than it had in the dark. One piece was gone. He hadn’t hidden the evidence. He only sat against the pillows with his hair still disordered from the night, watching the doorway as if he had been listening for her steps and refused to admit it.Tatiana waited for the first sentence.Get out.But it didn’t come.His eyes moved over her face, then lower, to the line of her dress, and stayed there a second too long before they returned to her eyes. The look was not the old rejection. It was worse. It was attention.“You didn’t eat,” he said.Tatiana stopped with the water still in her hand. “Good morning to you too.”“Claire said you only drank tea.”“Claire talks too much in the hallway.” She set the glass down. “You complained about that yesterday.”“She talks too much about toa
CHAPTER 21The chocolate box was open when Tatiana came in. Not emptied. Not hidden. Just open, as if Rafael had decided that pretending he had never touched it would take more energy than leaving the evidence on the table.He was already awake. The curtains had been drawn halfway, the way she used to do it before he could glare at her for knowing the room too well. Morning light cut across his legs and made the stillness of them look even more deliberate. Tatiana closed the door behind her. She waited for the first sentence.Get out. But it didn’t come.Rafael looked at her the way a man looked at weather he could not change. Tired. Aware. Unwilling to admit that the night had left anything behind. "The therapist is on his way," Tatiana said."I heard." His voice was clearer than yesterday, though it still carried the roughness of unused days. "Claire talks too much in the hallway."Tatiana set the t
CHAPTER 20The next morning, Rafael didn’t ask for the therapist. He asked for a name.“Alma Prescott.” His voice was still rough from months of silence, but there was nothing weak in the way he said it. “I want her address. Her number. Anything you have.”Claire stood at the foot of the bed with a tray in her hands. She did not set it down. “Mr. Moreira, Madam Viviane left instructions—” “I never ask for my mom’s instructions.”Claire’s fingers tightened around the tray. “You woke up two days ago. The doctor said your body is not ready for—” “Claire.” She stopped. Rafael looked at her the way a man looked at a door that refused to open. “If you won’t help me, find someone who will.”Tatiana heard the last part from the hallway.She had come to bring a change of water and the list the therapist left behind.







