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“Hmm.” Grandmother nodded sagely, taking a sip of her own tea, too. “And is the baby his?”
I spat out my tea. “Grandmother!” Did she know, or was she calling my bluff? “What baby?”
“Do you doubt my abilities so much that you think you can hide a pregnancy from me? We live in the same house! The spirits bring information to me in my dreams every night. You thought none of them would find it worth my time to tell me?”
“I don’t know why it should be so important to the spirits.”
“Maria. Cut the bullshit. I already know you’re pregnant. Tell me. Is it his?”
I sighed. “Yes, Grandmother. Yes. It wasn’t planned.”
“Of course. Does he know about it?”
“No.”
“Whyever not?”
“It’s complicated. By our being business associates and all.”
“Maria, darling. You must tell him before it is too late.”
“Why would it be too late?”
“It’s just a feeling I have.”
I waited for more explanation, but more did not come. “What? You aren’t going to make up a prophecy to prove your point this time?”
“There is no prophecy. But don’t you doubt my intuition, young lady.”
I sighed. “I don’t. We may not see eye to eye on spiritual matters... but I would never doubt the intuition of anyone in our family. Me, you, or mom.”
Grandmother sniffed. “Finally, some recognition from my own granddaughter.”
“I need to think on it, gran. I’ll tell him soon. It’s not the right time just yet. But I will do it.”
“Just don’t wait too long, that’s all I’m saying.”
But when would it be too late? For once, I wished my Grandmother’s predictionwasa prophecy. At least I’d be able to try and decipher what it meant.
Instead, I just had a giant, looming ticking clock above my head. But the clock had no numbers, and too many hands, and so I couldn’t tell how long I had left or how much time had already run out.
FOREST
Ihad too many thoughts in my head. I wasn’t used to it. I was used to living a simple life.
Well, that was a lie. I was used to living an incredibly stressful and complicated life, but it was usually only complicated in one realm: Apollo.
Now, it was complicated in a whole other way too. Ria was a big complication. One I could never have planned for.
We loved each other. When we had made the declaration, it had seemed so simple and pure, like nothing ever could come between us again.
Then, I had seen her get into that unknown car, and there had been the call with Apollo and the conversation with Jude. My head was messed up in three different ways.
And now, it was time to infiltrate Apollo’s company. But I couldn’t focus with all these doubts dancing around my head.
Was Ria on Apollo’s side after all? Was I being led into a trap? Did Ria really love me, or was she just saying that, so that she could finish paying off her debt? Were the feelings real, or were they fake ones, caused by having to pretend to be in a relationship for the sake of public appearance? Were my feelings real?
Ria was always confident in her intuition. I’d been trying to follow her lead for the sake of this plan. Trusting myself had been relaxing. I no longer had to think of every possible outcome of every situation, like a gigantic flowchart that was unfolding in my mind, constantly. I could just let go. See how things went.
