Rumi’s eyes narrowed, her lips pinched. “I’m so glad I ran into you here,” she exclaimed, all fake niceness. “I have a little keepsake for you both. I guess we could call it a belated wedding gift.” She pulled out aflattish rectangular gift, wrapped perfectly with Japanese rice paper and a large gold ribbon. Her gaze needled me.
I reached for it, but Rumi snatched her hand away, offering it instead to Henry. “It’s more for your lovely newhusband, Irina.”
Henry took the parcel but made no move to open it. “Speaking of new relationships … how long have you two known one another?” He gestured with the gift between Rumi and the up-until-now silent Cadence, tugging me back until my shoulder blades rested against his warm chest.
“Oh!” Cadence’s smile was tense, and I wondered if whatever Rumi was up to, she wasn’t entirely on board with it. “Rumi reached out to me a few weeks back, and we bonded over … well, over the pair of you, funnily enough!” She gave Henry’s arm a squeeze, eyes icing over as she looked me up and down.
My chest stuttered. Yeah, she was on board with it.
“I suppose it’s flattering that I’m still at the forefront of your mind, given our relationship ended six years ago. I’m sorry I can’t say the same about you.” The edge to Henry’s voice was harsh, and he hugged me tighter to him, turning us both so Cadence was effectively excluded from the conversation. To Rumi he said, “Thank you for the gift. You’ll excuse me if I open it later.”
Rumi pouted ridiculously. “But I went to so muchtroubleto procure it for you, I’d really love to see the looks on your faces when you open it!”
My stomach dropped into my feet. What could she possibly want him to see so badly? And was it better to get it over and done with, or was revealing whatever she’d ‘procured’ for us risking Henry … or me … having a public reaction that would draw attention to us?
Was that her plan? What was inside the stupid, fancy gift wrap?
I swallowed, plucking the gift from Henry’s hands. Rumi stepped forwards, but I ripped the beautiful paper away before she could stop me.
My mouth fell open, but no sound came out.
“Is that …?” Henry asked, peering over my shoulder. “That’s you, as a child!”
My throat wouldn’t work. Inside a fussy gold frame was a photo. I was about twelve. And I wasn’t alone. I knew this photo. And I knewwhere it had last been. What I didn’t know was how Rumi had known about it.
“Is that your father?” Henry asked, pointing to the tall, stern, barrel-chested man with his arm around my stiff shoulders. I shook my head. I could feel the burn of Rumi’s stare on my bowed head. My heart hammered violently against my chest.
Where did she get this?
But there was only one answer to that.
So …howdid she get it?
“Oh, no, her dad died when she was little—didn’t she tell you? That’s her uncle. He goes by the name Bogdan Lupucojoc. If you wanted to Google him, you might find the results … interesting.”
I’d never told her my uncle’s name. So how did she know it? How much digging had she done into my past? And … how much did she know about me that I’d never intendedanyoneto know? Rage boiled up, burning away some of the icy fear, but not enough to give me words to attack Rumi with.
Instead, I lifted my eyes to glare at her, hoping with every fibre of my being that I could send my thoughts about her through my retinas directly into her brain.
Du-te dracu, Rumi, you sad, vindictive bitch!
She took a step back, her lips parting in shock. Maybe I was better at silently sending hate to people than I thought.
“We have to go,” I mumbled to Henry, keeping my eyes locked on the woman who I’d thought I’d known once upon a time. My skin crawled, knowing how she’d invaded my privacy. What else might she have found when digging for this? “We have to go, now.”
“Yes, you two probably have a lot to discuss now,” Rumi taunted, but I narrowed my eyes viciously, and she swallowed, her eyes flicking away.
Fucking coward. You can’t even look me in the eye now I know what you’ve done.
“We have dinner plans, don’t we, Cadence?” Rumi grabbed Cadence’s hand and tugged her away. “Have an … enlightening evening, the pair of you!”
With a smarmy little wave, she turned and strutted off. Cadence looked over her shoulder at Henry, devastation on her face, before theydisappeared. I wondered what Henry’s expression must have been for her to look like that. But I had no energy to turn and see for myself, and he had me locked against his warm body, his chest moving with deliberate, deep breaths. Calming breaths. I found my breaths slowing, lengthening to match his. Was he trying to regulate us both? If so, it was working.
Henry pointed to the other figure in the photo, and what little calm I’d found evaporated.
“Who’s the little boy?”
… the princess smoothed down the fabric of her new dress. It was stiff, and itchy, and she hated the fussy frills on it. But her uncle had insisted she needed to dress appropriately for the important guests who were attending a dinner at the palace.
