LOGINI showed the guard my concealed carry permit and he gave me a key for one of the lockers along the wall. I put my purse on one of the shelves and then pulled my gun out of its holster and laid it beside my bag. Victor smiled slightly. “You’re full of surprises.” “You’re not…” I checked out his silhouette. I didn’t think about him that way at all, but I could understand what Savannah saw in him. Dude was built. “No. Not the best idea coming here.” He grinned. “You can protect me.” “I don’t know about that,” I said. “I’m taking classes at the range twice a week, but the gun is a last-minute hail Mary.” I sighed. “I wouldn’t look to me for protection. Probably shoot myself in the foot.” Victor emptied his pockets into one of the trays. “We’re not supposed to bring anything inside,” he said quietly to Ethan as he helped him with his stuff. He didn’t seem concerned about his possible vulnerability. Instead, he put his hand on my shoulder and looked me sternly in the eye. “Don’t t
“How do I look?” Ethan signed. He combed his hair and adjusted his shirt again. “Really good,” I replied. “The color sets off your eyes.” This was his first time visiting his dad in prison. I’d asked about it before, and they’d told me it wasn’t allowed. I didn’t know what Adrian had done to change that. Maybe it was privileges awarded for good behavior. Maybe he’d bribed and/or intimidated the right people.Either way, Ethan was a ball of nerves. He was even regressing back into silence. He hadn’t spoken all morning. I put my hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Ethan, your father loves you. He’ll be thrilled to see you no matter what you’re wearing.” He looked down. “Really?”“Yes, really. Even if you were wearing—” I took a moment to think about it. “—A bright purple shirt. With orange polka-dots. Only, instead of polka-dots, they’re eyeballs!” I opened my eyes wide.He laughed, his voice breathy. But then he went back to looking anxiously in the mirror. My phone
I was happily digging into my plate of noodles when Savannah and Victor walked in together. They were looking rumpled and smug, and my eyebrows rose. Well. Good for them. I turned my attention back to my noodles. It had been ten years since I had some and I wasn’t going to let anything distract me. “Mommy, what are these little green things for?” Emma held up a calamansi. I didn’t know where Hilda had gotten them, but they made the dish extra-special.“It’s like a little lemon, honey,” I said. “You squeeze it onto your noodles, like this.” I demonstrated. Then I loaded up my fork for my first ecstatic bite.Savannah and Victor slid in next to me. “Hi Claire, how’s it going?” Savannah said. “Good. Really excellent, as a matter of fact.” I felt bad for a moment, saying that at the memorial luncheon for their dead baby. But then I put my fork in my mouth and forgot about it.“Victor wants to talk to you.” I held up my hand until I finished chewing and swallowing. “Sure!” I said. “I’
“If you love me so much, then come back to me.” I hated the whine I heard in my voice. I was trying to make it light, joking, to mimic the way we usually dealt with each other. The thing we had was so strong that we’d never talked about feelings. We just coasted along on the surface, insulting each other, fighting and making up. I’d never had to worry. I always knew that I’d only have to look up, and he’d be there. Our connection had worked—until we had to deal with reality. With the new life we’d made together. Even then, when I’d packed my things and run, I knew that he’d come after me. Now, we were dealing with the death of that life. And I had no idea what to do, what to say. “We can start over,” I said, feeling my way along. “We can still leave for Europe. We can go anywhere.”He let out a short, humorless laugh and took a step back. Shit. I was only making things worse.“We can’t start over, Savannah. Look at us.” His gesture took in him and me, and the monument to our dea
“Let me go.” I shrugged her off my sister’s hand. “I can walk fine by myself.” “Okay,” she said soothingly. That just made me madder. “What is it you want me to see, anyway?”“This way.” She beckoned me onwards.We turned left and followed the path into the older section of the cemetery. The grass was taller here, shaded by massive oaks. The gravel path turned to dirt, winding between crumbling stone vaults and 19th-century obelisks. We walked in silence for a moment, the only sound the crunch of our footsteps and the distant hum of traffic behind the stone walls. “I didn’t want today to be about… what happened at the factory,” Claire said softly, her eyes on the path ahead. “I wanted it be about him, I wanted him to have a place, a real place.” “There is no body, Claire,” I said. My tone was harsher than I intended, but underneath the bravado I could hear the pain I was trying to hide. The hospital had taken care of the medical waste. That’s what they’d called him in the paperw
My shoes were a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, they looked great. Everything I was wearing looked great. But the spike heels kept sinking into the gravel path. I had to pull them out with every step, giving me this weird marching walk.I didn’t let it slow me down. If I slowed down, someone would try to take my arm, and if someone took my arm, I’d probably have to hit them. “Savvie darling, wait up!” I didn’t turn around. I knew that voice. I’d been avoiding Michelle for the past couple of weeks. She was a good friend, but she could be exhausting. She never knew when to leave well enough alone. I kept my eyes fixed on the arched doorway of the building I was walking to.Claire had set up this ceremony, memorial, whatever she was calling it, at the cemetery chapel. She’d arranged everything and presented it to me as an accomplished fact. I had to go then, didn’t I? The chapel was a small gray stone building, covered with ivy. Appropriate for grief. I squared my shoulders, lifted my ch
“Mmmm,” Adrian murmured against my hair. “As much as I want to stay the whole day with you, I need to get home. I like to be there when Ethan wakes up. The housekeeper can take care of him, but it’s not the same, you know?”I burrowed deeper into the warmth of his chest, enjoying the vibrations as
I looked down at the future mother of my child. Savannah was lying on her hospital bed, looking pale but beautiful, and smiling weakly up at me. “I’m so glad you’re here, Derek.” She held her hand out to me, palm down. I took it in mine and patted it gently. She looked disappointed for some reas
“What am I doing?!” I thought to myself, heart pounding. “He’s the superspy, not you!” I hunched down in my seat, trying to hide my face. I probably looked like an idiot. I imagined what Derek would say if he could see me now. The way he’d roll his eyes. “There she goes again, jumping in without t
I yanked open the front door. “Savannah,” I said. “Claire.” Her hair was mussed and her eyes were sparkling with rage. In the morning light, she was incandescently beautiful. “What do you want?” I was done being gracious, especially with her.“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” she said, moving f







