Chapter 13

Amelia's POV.

I made up my mind the night before and I didn't let myself think too hard about it after that because thinking too hard about it would have talked me out of it.

I was going to find a way to see Anna.

And I was going to do it without anyone knowing.

In the morning I came downstairs at my normal time. I ate, moved around the penthouse, stood by the window for a while with a book I wasn't reading. 

Nothing about me looked different. Nothing about me gave anything away. I had learned, from living with Raymond for as long as I had, that the best way to do something you weren't supposed to do was to act like the thought had never crossed your mind.

When I felt the time was right I went to find Marcus.

He was standing near the entrance the way he always was, arms at his sides, eyes moving the way they always moved, catching everything.

"I want to sit in the garden for a while," I told him, "Alone. I just need some air."

He looked at me for a second then nodded, "I'll be right here."

I kept my pace easy as I walked through the garden. The morning was cool and the grass was still a little wet under my feet and I took my time, stopping once to look at nothing in particular, just a woman who needed some air and had no other plans.

The side entrance was where I remembered it. A small gate tucked behind the tall hedge at the far end of the garden. I had spotted it three days ago and said nothing, just filed it away quietly in the back of my mind for exactly this moment.

I slipped through it and walked down the road without looking back.

***

Anna was already at the café when I arrived.

She was sitting at the back with her hands wrapped around a cup she hadn't touched, her eyes on the door. The moment she saw me her whole face shifted with relief but she didn't smile, not fully, and that told me everything about what kind of conversation this was going to be.

I sat down across from her and she reached over and squeezed my hand quickly then let go.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice low even though the café was mostly empty.

"I'm fine," I said, "Talk to me."

She glanced around once then leaned forward a little, "Amelia, I need you to listen to me properly. Don't brush this off."

"I'm listening Anna."

She took a breath, "Before the marriage. Before the contract, before any of that happened, his men were already moving around you." She said it carefully, like she had been rehearsing the words, "You remember that man who used to follow you home from work? The one you told me about last year, the one who made you cross the street sometimes because he gave you a bad feeling?"

I remembered so I nodded.

"He disappeared," Anna said, "Just one day he was there and the next day he was gone and nobody saw him again."

I kept my face still.

"And those two boys who worked for Raymond," she continued, "the ones who were talking about you, saying things they had no business saying." Her jaw tightened, "They went quiet too. Both of them, around the same time. Not long after your name came up."

The café was warm but something cold moved through me slowly.

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Someone who owed me a favor," she said, "He was there when your name came up during one of the interrogations. He heard everything and he came to me because he didn't know what else to do with it." She looked at me hard, "Amelia this was not recent. This started a long time before you ever walked into that hotel room and signed anything."

I didn't say anything for a while.

I just reached over and picked up the cup she hadn't touched and took a slow sip. 

It was cold. She had been sitting here long enough for it to go completely cold and she still hadn't drunk any of it, which meant she had been sitting here turning all of this over in her head for a while before I arrived.

I set the cup back down.

"How far back?" I asked, "Did he say how far back it went?"

Anna shook her head, "He wasn't sure. But he said far, Amelia. He said it was far."

I nodded slowly, staring at the cup between my hands.

I wasn't sure what I was feeling exactly. 

It wasn't quite shock because somewhere at the back of my mind I had already known, hadn't I? The wardrobe that fit me perfectly, the tea on the shelf, the skincare on the vanity. The way Mateo had looked at me in the study when I asked him how long and he had said long enough without blinking. 

I had felt it then, that whatever this was had started long before I ever became aware of it.

But hearing it out loud was different.

Hearing it from Anna, in a small café over a cold cup she hadn't touched, made it real in a way that sat heavily in the middle of my chest.

"He was cleaning up around me," I said quietly, more to myself than to her.

Anna didn't argue with that.

We sat for a few more minutes without saying much. She asked me if I was safe and I told her yes. 

She didn't look completely convinced but she let it go. Before I left I leaned across the table and told her to be careful going forward, to watch herself and not to reach out unless she really needed to.

She grabbed my hand again before I stood up, "You be careful too."

"Always," I said.

***

I walked back the same way I came, steady and unhurried, and slipped through the side gate into the garden. 

The grass was a little dryer now and I found the same spot near the hedge. 

I stood there with my face tipped up slightly like I had been enjoying the air the whole time.

A few minutes later I heard footsteps behind me.

Marcus appeared at the edge of the garden, doing his usual sweep with his eyes before they landed on me.

"Madame," he said, just checking.

"I'm here," I said without turning around.

And I was. I was right there in the garden, still and quiet, giving him absolutely nothing to find, right before he came to check on me.