The next morning, I woke up with apprehension about how this would play out. Testing Sofia’s loyalty was a necessity. I knew that. But it also bothered me to have to do it at all.
If she’d just submit to me and be mine, I wouldn’t doubt her.
If she’d stop this game of keeping distance between us, I’dknowher to beat down any suspicions anyone had about her.
“Is your shoulder bothering you?” she asked as we walked to my office together.
In another skirt and short-sleeve blouse outfit, she looked semi-professional yet casual and, as always, fresh-faced and fuckable. She was also as observant as ever, noticing that I had been rubbing my shoulder. The fifteen minutes or so that I’d spent on my laptop last night had been enough to tweak it all into the realm of discomfort. My injuries hadn’t beenthatsevere, but they didn’t go well with my admittedly shitty posture when at the computer. That was another reason I preferred to work on the go, on my phone.
“It’s fine,” I lied. I was probably being stupid to deny any massages, like what Claire advised me to get to better speed up the recovery and soothe out any stiffness with the scar tissue.
We entered my office, as usual.
I set my coffee on the edge of my desk, as usual.
She sighed and grabbed a coaster to insert under the mug, as usual.
Instead of biting back a smile at her attention to detail like that, I sat and got my phone out.
“Did you have a good conversation with Anya and Daria last night?” I asked without looking up.
This was how we did this. She’d tidy up and I’d sit there and “work”. Our mutual presence wasn’t something we could deny, but we left each other to our own devices.
“I did. Anya is very interested in becoming a nurse. She seems like a very determined young lady.”
I shrugged. “She does seem like she’s determined.”
“Seems?”
I felt the burn of her gaze as she glanced at me, but I didn’t look up, held in the suspense of waiting for her to find the fake papers I’d set out.
“You say that like you don’t know your own sibling.”
“I don’t. Not really.” I sighed as she moved to another pile of papers opposite from the fake ones I’d left out. It wasn’t like I could tell her to go to those. She had to find it and show me her reaction—if any.
“Anya was estranged for most of my life.” While I tracked through older messages with someone who wanted to sell us property in Florida, a potential site that could be used for international shipping, I elaborated on how my sister lived in Russia, how my mother had brainwashed her to view my father as a villain and criminal and nothing else. After I concluded that Anya was coming around and that we’d been getting to know each other much more since she’d moved here, Sofia surprised me by telling me about a cousin who had been on-and-off estranged for long bouts of time due to an illness.
The guise of autopilot working—her cleaning and me reviewing messages—seemed to give us a neutrality that enabled us to open up to each other.
“Is this cousin nearby now?” I asked, wondering if she was a reason Sofia had begun—and paused—a nursing program.
When she didn’t reply, I looked up.
She’d found the fake papers. The ones I’d made up last night. While we’d talked, she’d moved across my desk and had reached the decoy documents.
Staying still and watching her closely, I noticed her furrowing her brow at the papers. Her gorgeous brown eyes tracked from side to side as she quickly skimmed the contents. That alone wasn’t anything concerning. She had to at least check over what she was looking at to store the junk in some manner of organization. Her looking at a receipt for a restaurant would prevent her from stashing the paper with other documents that wouldn’t match up, like the pile of old tax receipts from charitable donations the family made.
“Sofia?”
She furrowed her brow yet, seeming stuck on reading through the lines on the paper that would give the false indication that product would be shipped to a dock that was practically abandoned.
“Sof—”
“Hmm?” She jerked her face up, quickly masking her overly curious frown. “Sorry. I wasn’t listening.”
Because something else captured your attention?I smiled instead of calling her out on it. “I asked if your cousin is still nearby.”
“Oh. Um. Yes. She is. She is close to me. Well, not here.” She set the paper down and set it on top of a miscellaneous pile. “She, uh…” She shook her head and cleared her throat. “She’s with another relative for now.”
