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“Go home, Nancy,” I say coldly. “It’s nine p.m.”
“Only if you’re sure…?” Her megawatt smile starts to flicker as I continue to glare at her. “F-fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Frankie, you need to calm down,” says Silas as the door shuts again. “We’ve known each other a long time and you’ve been good to me, so this isn’t easy on me either.” He stops to take a breath. “There’s more.”
I bite back a bitter laugh. “You mean it getsworse?”
“Ada isn’t Alex’s mother, either.”
No.
What?
Silas takes a deep breath. “You and Ada had a son fourteen years ago, but he died the day he was born… I’m sorry.”
Sorry.
A lazy word that’s fifty percent truth. Fifty percent lie. It’s something that people say when they’ve run out of all the other fucking words.
In a daze, I watch him slip another piece of paper in front of me. The subject line catches my eye, and then the walls of pain start closing in:
Hospital Report.
Deceased infant.
“How?”
Another word.This one has so many answers, but they all lead to the same conclusion.
My son is dead.
Our son is dead.
“The cord became trapped around his neck during labour. Baby was in distress, but she didn’t get to the hospital in time. Ada lost so much blood she was in and out of consciousness for four days.”
Was this your doing, Semenov?Was this the next punishment for us?Killing our son and nearly killing Ada?
A sudden wave of shock and fury has me driving my fist into my desk. If I’d been there, I could have done something. I could have—fuck.I drop my head as those red walls push me closer and closer to the edge.
Two days.
That’s all the time I had to know of his existence.
Never touched him. Never held him. Never had the chance to make it right.
“The same hospital reports a child went missing four days after your son was born.” Silas trails off, leaving me to deduce the rest.
Alex.
“You mean Semenov stole some other kid to pass off as ours?”
That’s when it hits me.
She doesn’t know.
Ada doesn’t know her child is dead.
The pain isn’t just a wall now, it’s a fucking sledgehammer.
