“Everything okay up there?”
“Yeah,” Fenrir says, and I mime my hand churning, trying to silently tell Fenrir to give Markus something, anything to break the strangeness that’s coating this call.Fenrir rolls his eyes at me, then says, “Besides the weather.”
“The forecast looks pretty bad.You guys holding up all right?”
“Yeah.Other than being bored.”
“And Hayami?”Markus enquires.
“She’s fine.”
“Good.Mr Devall is getting a little restless about the weather.”
“If anything, it’s doing us a favour,” Fenrir explains.“The roads are impassable.There’s no way anyone is getting anywhere near this house without a snowplough.”
“As soon as the snow stops, Mr Devall will send a plough out to clear the road up to the house.He’s already been on the phone with the company to remind them that it needs to be done as a matter of urgency.”A bit of static crackles down the line, and I see Fenrir contemplating this.“Get Willa to call me as soon as she’s out of the shower.”
“Will do.”This time, Fenrir doesn’t hesitate.He ends the call and throws the phone onto the bed as if it’s about to explode.
I run my hands through my hair as he stares at the device.
“Why do you think he wants to talk to her?Do you think it’s something to do with Marta?”My brain is racing with possible reasons why Markus would want to talk to Willa.
“It might be about her maternity leave.Speaking of which, Marta’s had the baby.”
“What?When?”I throw my hands in the air.
“She messaged in the early hours,” he says.
“And you’re only telling me now?It’s nearly dawn.”
“I was going to tell you when you woke up, but then things got a little sidetracked.If you check your phone, I’m sure she messaged you.”
Stepping away from him, I grab my phone that slipped under the covers and see the unopened message on my screen.
Opening it, I’m faced with a photo of a tiny baby and a message from Willa.Relief washes over me.Willa was there with Marta when she gave birth to their child.Willa got to see her son come into this world.Despite the bullshit we’re currently dealing with, I remind myself that this is the one good thing to have come out of all this.
I did the right thing in sending her away.I repeat this mantra, trying to convince myself that it’s true.
I reply quickly, sending my congratulations and best wishes, forgetting for a few seconds the shitstorm that Fenrir and I are heading for, and I don’t just mean the weather.
After hitting Send, I throw my phone back onto the bed.
“What are we going to do?”I ask as I watch Fenrir chew on his bottom lip.“Markus is expecting Willa to call him.What happens when she doesn’t call back?”
“I don’t know.”He begins to pace a small square of the room.
“We could call her, ask her to call Markus back,” I suggest.
“But it’d be from her personal phone, not the work number.”
“We could ask her to say that she’s lost it,” I offer.
“In the space of twenty minutes?Besides, there are trackers on all our phones.Markus knows this, and so does Willa.It wouldn’t make any sense for us to tell him that she lost her work phone.No, there’s no way around the phone situation.”His face is stoic, though I feel like the stress is radiating from my skin, fooling no one that I’m really starting to panic now.
“Shit.Shit!What the fuck do we do?”
He stops pacing as if he’s come to a decision.
