Page 22 of The Marriage

He deserved it.

Karine shook her head, lips quivering. Tears rolled down her cheeks, leaving wet tracks she didn’t even bother to wipe away, and Roman wished he could hold her. More than anything, he hated when she cried.

Why did he have to be the one to make her cry?

“I’m sorry,” he settled on saying, “but it was looking like I couldn’t take you back to New York. Not safely. This option came up, and fuck, it works. Okay? I get it, I know what it is, but it works.”

“You lied to me. You manipulated me. Again.”

“Karine—”

“How can you say you love me and then do this to me?” she cried. “Do I even get a say—what, will you pay them to stay quiet and lock me away?”

She was too loud, now.

Even he knew it.

Mel cleared her throat, a clear attempt to grab his attention, but he didn’t look away from his wife. No matter what, he wanted one thing clear.

“That’s not what this is,” he told Karine. “That’s not what it will ever be.”

Karine glared with cold eyes, clenching her palms into fists. Any moment, he expected Katina to appear. The blank flicker in her eyes and the way her stare darted away to nothing sometimes said she was there. Mad, already fighting, and causing chaos inside Karine’s fragile mind.

Still, Karine kept staring back. As fast as he had all of her attention, she took it away. The tension tightening his spine and shoulders left almost instantly, but his heart dropped when she spoke.

Because she didn’t speak to him.

“Is there somewhere I can go right now?” Karine asked Mel. “To be away from him?”

Mel, startled by the reaction, didn’t answer right away.

“Please, anywhere?”

She seemed too rational.

In control.

Even he didn’t know what to do with that.

So, he did nothing.

Roman stood back and watched her walk out of the room with the floor manager who had regained her composure, and with a tight nod, made a beeline for the exit with Karine on her heels.

Nobody said shit to him.

Whatever.

He wasn’t going anywhere.

No way in hell was he leaving this place before he told Karine everything she needed to hear from him—because that was the thing she didn’t seem to understand. There was a big difference between want and need.

Sometimes, it also meant life or death.

*

Roman sat in the corner of the entrance lounge for over an hour—waiting to hear any news on Karine.

Katina hadn’t appeared, or he sure as hell would have heard about it by now. The only information he had been afforded by the staff was that Karine headed to the meditation room by herself. They weren’t sure if she was actually meditating or not, but they didn’t want to disturb her, and she made her wishes about him clear.