Todos los capítulos de He Called Me His Wife’s Cousin : Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

"You turned your phone off."Adrian stood in my hallway in a gray sweatshirt and jeans, his hair flat on one side from his pillow. He had a set of car keys in one hand. He was breathing like he had taken the stairs two at a time."I'm sorry," I whispered. "I shouldn't have texted. It's the middle of the night...""You said *are you awake* and then you turned your phone off." His voice was very quiet, so it wouldn't carry to Ethan's room. "I called four times. It went straight to voicemail. What was I supposed to do?""Go back to sleep.""I wasn't asleep." He looked at my face. Whatever he saw there made his jaw go tight. "Can I come in?"I stepped back.He came in and closed the door gently behind him. He didn't sit. He stood in my dark living room and looked at me, at my bare feet and my old sleep shirt and whatever was happening to my face."You drove here at two in the morning," I said. "In your sweatshirt.""I left the car double-parked." He didn't smile. "I'll probably get a tick

"There was a masquerade."I said it to the window behind Maya's head. Outside, a pigeon was walking along the ledge, and I watched it because I couldn't watch her face."At the Wingate. A charity ball. Nine years ago. Three weeks before I married Nathan."Maya didn't move. She didn't pick up her pen."Go on," she said."A friend from work had an extra ticket. I almost didn't go. Nathan was away that weekend, and I was nervous about the wedding, and she said one night of fun would do me good." My fingers twisted together in my lap. "There was a storm. A huge one. The power went out in the whole hotel.""And?""And everyone was screaming and laughing in the dark, and I got lost trying to find the stairs. And someone found me."The pigeon walked to the end of the ledge and flew away."A man," I said. "In a black mask. I never saw his face. He never saw mine. We didn't say our names. It was so dark, Maya. Somebody had lit candles in the hallway and that was the only light." I swallowed. "

"Daddy, Ethan says ducks can't swim backwards, and that is NOT TRUE."Sophia's voice rang out across the riverbank so loud that three actual ducks took off from the water in a panic."I didn't say *can't*!" Ethan shouted back. "I said they *don't*! There's a difference!"Adrian looked at me across the picnic blanket. I was laughing too hard to answer.It was Saturday, and the sun had finally come out after two weeks of gray. The river north of the city sparkled. The trees along the bank had gone gold and red.Adrian had brought a basket. An actual wicker basket, with real plates and cloth napkins and a thermos of tea. Sophia had told me in a loud whisper that he had spent an hour packing it and had changed the sandwiches three times."Peanut butter," he had said, handing one to Ethan. "No crusts. Sophia said that's the law.""It *is* the law," Ethan agreed through a full mouth.Now the kids were at the water's edge, arguing about ducks with their shoes off and their jeans rolled up, a

"Yes," I said. "Part of it is true." Adrian didn't move. The wind lifted the hair off his forehead and dropped it again. Behind me, on the blanket, Sophia was still explaining spy ducks. Ethan wasn't answering her. I didn't have to turn around to know he was watching us. "Which part?" Adrian asked. "There was someone. Before the wedding. One night." I made myself keep looking at him. "Not an affair. Not a boyfriend. One night, with a man I'd never met before and never saw again." "At the Wingate." "Yes." He looked down at the road. At the empty patch of gravel where Nathan's car had been. A muscle moved in his jaw, once, twice. "He waved at you," he said. "He watched me kiss you, and then he waved." "I saw." "Who was he?" "I don't know." His eyes came back up to mine. "You don't know." "I never knew his name." My voice shook. I steadied it. "It was a party. It was dark. I was twenty-three and terrified of the wedding and this stranger asked me how I was, and a

"Text me when you're inside," Adrian said. "And again when you're leaving. If you're not out in an hour, I'm coming up.""She asked for me alone.""I know. That's why I'm in the car." He turned off the engine. "Not in the room."It was Monday, seven o'clock, outside a new building across the river. Rachel had given me the address last night in a voice like someone reading from a list. *Seven tomorrow. Come alone. Don't bring him.*I hadn't brought him. He had brought himself."You don't have to do this," he had said in the car on the way over. "You don't owe her anything.""I owe her a lot.""Not this. Not alone in a room with her when she's like this.""She asked," I had said. "She hasn't asked anyone for anything since the courtroom. She asked me.""She's my sister," he had said this morning at my desk, low enough that Marcus couldn't hear. "I know what she's like when she's hurt. She doesn't hit. She cuts." He had looked at me. "I'm not letting you walk in there without someone dow