Sixteenth

Linna ate her dinner quietly, she had already had five glasses of wine and her head was about to hurt, clearly becoming a devotee of alcohol for once in her life, since she is not even in the habit of drinking. She had arranged to have dinner with her parents two days after she and Robert had gone to the police station to meet William.

Her parents, in turn, were eating and talking about any random subjects, enjoying the food that was served. Millions of thoughts were running through Linna's head, some worse than others. She was nervous. She ended up ordering her favorite dish and even that didn't make her happy, it seemed unsalted, tasteless. Every grain of chicken she ate seemed to be swallowing a piece of glass, without any willpower. The wine, well, it didn't look delicious either, but it went down more easily.

The truth is that she was dying of shame to have to talk about it, to have to admit to her mother, someone so close to her, that she was meeting a handsome, neat guy, appare