Page 26 of The Marriage

It hurt, too.

“Why won’t you just go? Leave!”

Mel and another member of the staff came to stand in the doorway at the sound of Karine’s raised voice. He didn’t even glance their way, refusing to break his wife’s stare now that he had it.

“I really do want to keep you safe,” he told her.

“Mr. Avdonin, I think maybe you should leave now,” Mel insisted.

“Karine, let me hug you before I go,” he tried again.

She shook her head.

Again.

Because they both knew the truth ... and once he put his hands on her, she was going to feel better—good again. She always did in his arms. And God, he wanted to do that for her right now, even if it wouldn’t last and it was only a lie. He needed to say goodbye, too.

Yet, there they both stood.

An invisible wall remained between them, and he couldn’t close that distance unless she let him first.

She didn’t.

Karine allowed herself to be coaxed away by the woman who had joined Mel in the doorway. The tears crept down her cheeks as she passed him by, not looking away to hide those blatant tears, but she didn’t give him a thing.

Didn’t say a word.

“Karine,” he shouted at her back.

Her dainty shoulders tensed, but she continued walking until she was at the door. One more step, and she would be gone.

He had no choice but to let her go.

Heart dying.

The outburst of emotion came from Roman before he could stop it. Without thinking, he drove his fist into the closest wall, driving his hand wrist deep into plaster. He heard the sound of bone crunching when the skin of his knuckles split against the beam it found inside the wall. His blood stained the pristine white paint, but none of it helped.

None of it changed anything.

Nothing would now.

SIX

Karine was sure Roman was long gone by the time she had found a bathroom to hide inside. She quickly realized the door couldn’t be locked from the inside unless someone had a card for the electronic reader, and it was just one more reminder about what this place really was.

How stupid could she be?

How many cameras did Karine overlook? Why hadn’t she thought to ask about the heavy doors, and the locked corridors that hadn’t been open during the tour?

No, she’d been ... all too willing to follow Roman like a lost puppy. Straight into a new cage, with prettier bars.

The woman who opened the bathroom door to peek inside at Karine wore plain white scrubs, and a lanyard around her neck with an ID badge that Karine suspected controlled things like the card. At the sight of Karine sitting on the bathroom floor next to a row of pedestal sinks, the lady said nothing about the outburst earlier.

Karine’s face still burned with shame all the same.

“Do you just need a minute?” she asked.

Karine nodded, but didn’t look up from where she picked at her fingernails. “Please.”