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Her breath whistles softly. “I had a feeling.”
“Really?”
“I mean, I didn’t think too hard about it, if I’m being honest. She was engaged to a man, ya know, and a smoking hot one at that. So it was just a feeling. I didn’t really question it.”
“Yeah, neither did I.”
“Until…?”
“Until I walked in on her one night doing the dirty with some girl she met at a club.”
“Damn. This just gets juicier and juicier.”
“You can’t repeat any of this to anyone else, okay?” I press adamantly. “Promise me.”
“Consider me Pandora. I’m putting the secret in my box and locking it tight.”
“Pandora let all the deadliest sins out of the box.”
“Oh, shit, I knew I had that wrong. Scratch that. I’m not Pandora and there’s no box. I’ll keep my mouth shut. I promise. One last question, though.”
I sigh and slump back. “You might as well.”
She chuckles softly. “How are you doing?”
I have to take a breath before I can even think of answering that one. “I have no idea,” I admit. “It’s been a surreal few weeks. I really miss her.”
“So just to be clear… it wasn’t bed rest you were on these past few weeks?”
So complicated. I’ve told so many lives and half-truths that I barely remember what’s real and what’s not anymore. “Partly, but not wholly.” I whimper miserably. “I promise you that, one day, I’ll explain the whole story.”
“I can be patient when I have to be.”
“Love you, Sy.”
“Love you, Wen-Wen.”
Laughing, my nose scrunches automatically with distaste. “You know I hate that nickname.”
“It never fails to make you laugh, though. And if you ask me, laughs are in short supply these days. Take ‘em where you can get ‘em.”
She’s right about that. We move onto lighter topics and I laugh until the moment I hang up. But once I do, it takes only a few moments for that sense of ease to leave my chest. I miss Syrah, but I can’t really spend time with her. I miss Rose and Bee, but I will never again be able to spend any time with them ever again.
There is one person I could spend time with. Problem is—I shouldn’t.
But Syrah’s given me a new reason to seek him out. So I step out into the hallway and stand poised between our shared wall, wondering if he’s on the other side of his door or if he’s spending the day at the office.
Egorov Industries seems like another lifetime ago to me now. A different Wren. A Wren with a flat stomach and an untainted view of the sister she idolized.
I shove aside the melancholy and head down the hall and make a right when I hear the click of a door being pulled open.
I turn left to see Aleksandr appear. “Hey, is your brother there?”
“Oh, is he ever. The sourpuss is ensconced behind his desk like the Lord of the Pompous Assholes that he is.” Aleks throws a mischievous smile into the room and holds the door open for me. “He’s all yours.”
“Thanks.”
In my head, I add silently, If that were true, none of this would be happening.
