“Thanks,” I managed.
“You’ve made very efficient use of the space.” She paused again by the window and leaned against the counter, posing like a model, so effortlessly elegant. Her belly jutted out a little further. “I love how you’ve decorated it.”
My hands were beginning to shake. “Is there something I can help you with, Seraphina?”
She blushed and looked down demurely. For the first time—for the very first time—I wondered if it was all an act. Who can blush on command, though?
“This is so embarrassing,” she whispered. “I’m sorry tobarge in on you like this, Susan. But your alimony check didn’t arrive.”
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
I closed it and tried again. “Oh.”
I’d sent it, just the same as I’d done every month. It wasn’t due until tomorrow. I always posted it a couple of days early, so Vincent always got it a couple of days early. It wasn’t even late yet, but they’d both taken it as a sign that something was terribly wrong with me.
“Please don’t worry yourself,” Seraphina said hastily, holding up her hands. “Vincent doesn’t mind. He was just…” She blinked, tilting her head, watching me carefully with concern in her eyes. “He doesn’t need it, of course, so it doesn’t matter. We don’t mind.”
I swallowed again. This damn lump in my throat was going to choke me. “Of course.”
A strange noise floated through the walls. It sounded like a horse’s huff.
In fact, it sounded like a horse huffing out the wordwhore.
I barely noticed. Seraphina was right; Vincent didn’t need my money now. Now that we were divorced, his parents had written him back into their will. They were the ones who’d given him the money to rebuild and restore my house. The alimony was court-ordered, though. I still had to pay him most of my salary.
“We thought it might have something to do with the building deed transfer,” Seraphina went on. “Our lawyer called and told us about your purchase this morning. He was really angry, he thought…” She trailed off again, and her eyes widened. She’d obviously noticed the look of confusion on my face.
We stared at each other in silence for a second. “What, Seraphina? What building deed transfer?”
Seraphina hesitated, then her tense expression relaxed a little. “Don’t worry about it, Susan. I’m sure it was some kind of mistake. Maybe someone put the wrong name down. Your, uh, your surname is common, so it was probably a different Susan Moore, and our lawyer got angry over nothing.” She smiled. “We know you’re not the type of person that would hide assets. I’ll tell him to back down.”
My stomach churned again.
“It’s just…” Oh, she wasn’t done. “When the alimony check didn’t show up yesterday, Vincent got worried about you.” Her eyes were suddenly shining with unshed tears. “We were both worried, so I thought I better come and check on you. Last we heard, you had this great little apartment, and a good job, and you were doing really well.”
I clenched my fists to stop them shaking. “I am.”
Seraphina nodded slowly. “So, everything is okay at your new job? You’re… uh… you’re holding it together okay?” She watched me carefully, looking at me in the same way the doctors watched me, analyzing every little twitch and quirk in my expression.
“I’m fine.” I had to bite the words out from between clenched teeth.
“Good,” she said finally. “I’m glad you’re getting better, Susan. I hope we can go back to being friends one day.”
The fire in my belly sparked. I clamped down.No. Not now. Not here. I am in control. My emotions do not control me.
Seraphina had never been my friend. She was only ever an employee—one of Vincent’s interns, an art student, just one member of a gorgeous group of young, dazzlingly brilliant up-and-coming artists who supported Vincent. In truth, Seraphina wasn’t even much of an artist; she was just a beautiful, delicate ornament that hung around at parties and gallery openings and exhibitions.
I’d been a mother hen to all of Vincent’s interns. Theywere all poor students, so I always made sure they helped themselves to food from my refrigerator. I bought them booze and condoms and cigarettes, because if I was going to be a mom, I was going to be the cool mom. I even introduced Seraphina to the immigration lawyer who helped her get her green card. I paid for it, too.
She gave me a gentle smile. “Don’t worry about the alimony for now. Just mail the check when you have a moment free.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, and… Susan?” Seraphina shifted on her feet uncomfortably.
“Yes?”
She pointed to a little bronze sculpture of a ballerina on my bedside table. “I don’t want to be rude. I really don’t. But Vincent did get that Marlanique in the settlement.”
