Chapter 22- Simone
Nova Safaryan looked super pregnant. Her stomach was pushing itself to the limits in her sweatshirt and it looked as if she could pop any moment. Her hand was braced on her back as she waddled around the magnificent kitchen of the Safaryan mansion.
I couldn't help but notice how nice it was and that familiar itch began to roam along my skin. I had started to case the place and hadn’t even noticed but Nova had.
“It’s a hard habit to break.” She tapped the spoon she’d been stirring with against a cast iron pot that was sitting on the stovetop before having it rest on a blue and white spoon rest. Whatever it was that she was cooking had begun to ensnare my senses.
“What?”
“Looking for things to steal,” she gave a small smile.
“It’s like riding a bike,” I told her.
“You know that’s how I met my husband.”
“How?”
She smirked. “I thought he was gone and Max had sent me out to this address to steal something. Wound up stealing his mama’s pearls.”
Her hand went to her neck and I could see just below the collar of the faded grey crew neck sweatshirt that she wore, was a single strand of pearls.
“That’s going to be an amazing story to tell your child when it’s born,” I nodded towards her stomach.
“Perhaps,” she shrugged. “So…”
“Ahh yes….”
Digging into the back pocket of the jeans I wore; I wrested the folded papers. “In the case of both Desmond and Yara Hemmens…”
Nova nervously bit her lip as I handed over the photocopied birth certificates.
“This is amazing,” she stated shuffling between the two sheets.
“And you never knew that my father was their father?”
“Never,” she looked up and then back down.
Her eyes crinkled and a few tears slid out.
“Sorry.”
Nova fanned at herself with the papers trying to regain composure.
“It’s okay.”
“Damn hormones,” she stated.
“Your mother?”
“She’s dead…I just. I never knew who their father was. Your father.”
“He’s not what you think,” I told her. “Michail Francis is not father material. He is so far from being a father…”
Nova starred, her kind brown eyes taking me in. I knew I’d left her speechless.
“Max set it up this way,” I stated.
“Max…moody Max, handler Max?”
