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“Hi. Yeah, I’m okay. I’m sorry.” I blow out a breath. “I shouldn’t have called. It’s late, and I just…I guess I needed someone to talk to.”
“Don’t apologize. I wasn’t sleeping, anyway.”
“You either?”
She huffs out a laugh. “I’ve had a lot on my mind. Ever since we left Ivan’s earlier…”
Her voice trails off and I realize I don’t know how much she knows. I have no idea what happened after they left the room. And based on the way Francia is waiting for me to say something, I assume she doesn’t know what happened, either.
“Jorden told me what you all found.”
She exhales. “I figured she would. I’m sorry. I should have texted you, but I didn’t want to ruin things. You seemed so happy. I didn’t want to be the one to wreck that. And I guess I feel kind of guilty.”
“Why would you feel guilty?”
“I’m the reason you were introduced to him at all! If I hadn’t dragged you out…”
“Oh, Fran.” I shake my head. “No, no, no. I used your name to get through the front gates, but I made my own choices once I was inside. Please don’t feel bad.”
“Thanks for saying that, but… I don’t know. Some part of me just wants things with the two of you to work out. Then I could be a matchmaker instead of a life-ruiner.” She chuckles humorlessly. “That’s probably stupid. I mean, I knew who Ivan was before all of this. I should have known better.”
I keep forgetting that Francia has a foot in this world. That she has access to information I don’t have.
“I know you said your family's law firm helped out Ivan’s family at one point, but was that the only contact you ever had with him?”
“Well, I didn’t have any contact with him directly,” she explains. “My family knew his dad, but I knew some of his friends’ friends from school.”
“Wait—you guys went to the same school? How has that not come up before?”
“Oh, no,” she says quickly. “I didn’t go to school with him, but a lot of his rich friends went to the same private school I went to. So I knew all about him. Mostly from all of the girls who had their hearts broken after they tried to date him. He was a real heartbreaker back then. Apparently, he still is.”
“Are you still in contact with anyone from the school? Maybe there is someone who knows him and might be able to tell me—”
“I wish I could help, but I haven’t been in touch with those people in so long. The invitation to Ivan’s party is the first contact I’ve had from that world in years. I went to an alumni brunch a few years ago and caught up with Georgia and Kat, but nothing since—”
“Kat?” My radar is pinging. “Who is Kat?”
Francia catches her breath and holds it. She is quiet for a long stretch before she exhales. “Earlier, back at the house, it all caught me off-guard. I hadn’t heard a word about Katerina in years. I certainly didn’t know she’d gone missing.”
“Oh my god…”
Kat. Katerina. Kat is Katerina.
Francia knew Katerina.
Francia was friends with Ivan’s ex-fiancée.
I repeat the facts to myself again and again like I’m afraid I’ll forget them, but I still can’t wrap my head around it.
“I’m sorry,” Francia breathes. “When I first heard her name, I didn’t even think it was the same Katerina. I always called her Kat. We all did. I didn’t even know that she knew Ivan. I mean, it was possible, but they weren’t friends when I knew her. But then I saw the article about her missing and there was a picture… I should have said something right away, but I was processing.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “I’m still processing everything, too. It’s a lot.”
“Yeah, it is. It’s why I was going to take the night to think and then call you in the morning. I guess Jorden beat me to it.”
I snort. “She texted minutes after the two of you left.”
“Her processing time is faster than mine,” she chuckles. “But I think I’ve fully processed, and Cora… I just feel that you should get out of that house.”
