“Hey, hope everything’s okay. Call me back when you get this, or text me,” I said in my message. “Either way, let me know what’s up. Dinner’s started, but we’ll be here. Love you.”
Hanging up, I paced the hallway. I expected her to call me right back. But a few minutes went by, and she didn’t. Worried, I sent her a quick text.
I’m here at KZ’s. You on your way? Shoot me an ETA when you get a sec.
I sent it off, waiting to make sure it was marked as delivered, but it didn’t change to “read.” Still anxious, especially with the torrential downpour that was flooding the streets out there, I waited a few more minutes. But I knew I had to return to the table.
“Don’t you think you’re being rude?” my father asked as I sat down, when he noticed I was looking at my phone. “This is supposed to be family time.”
“Forgive me for being worried that the woman I love is missing,” I told him coldly. “It feels a little too familiar.”
My father just laughed, as if I was making a great joke. It was a challenge to keep my hands from clenching into fists as I tried to eat my soup.
For a moment I considered calling Bruce, but I didn’t want to resort to that. I’d hired the bodyguard to keep Tori safe, and I felt guilty about the idea of using him as a babysitter or my personal spy like I’d done with Dmitri in the past. I’d worked hard to build trust with my wife, and I didn’t want to compromise that. Plus, it was safe to assume she might be running late from a study group or that she was hiding out from the rain or else caught in traffic. Bruce would have called if there was anything to worry about. So I’d just have to wait.
Staying focused on Max as the main course was brought out, I managed to dodge the awkwardness of Anja’s attempts at small talk and my father’s blatant and vocal disregard of my concern over Tori. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. But nothing could ease my worry. I had to keep telling myself she’d just bailed out at the last minute, that the pressures of playing house with my ex and my kid, along with my overbearing father, had seemed like too much to handle.
“Anja hasn’t aged a day,” my father was saying, as I tuned back into the conversation. “Most women, it’s all downhill after they have kids. They go soft, start to sag. Get lazy about taking care of themselves.”
“Dad,” I cut in, disgusted by his chauvinism. Anja’s smile was tight and thin, but it was her eyes that gave her away. She was looking at him like she wanted to stab him with her fork.
“Not this one, though!” my father went on, ignoring me. “Just look at her, Stefan. You really lucked out. No wonder the kid turned out so good looking, am I right?”
“Yeah,” I said, hoping he’d move on. I didn’t want to be rude in front of Max, but I also didn’t want to give my father or Anja any ideas. Especially since my father kept acting as if she was my wife. As if Tori could be replaced just because she wasn’t here for dinner.
Instead, he just leaned over and pointed at her with his knife. “Don’t you think she’s even more beautiful than when you two were young?”
“She looks very strong and capable,” I said pointedly, refusing to play his game.
My father just grinned and reached out to mess up Max’s hair in an affectionate way that almost made my jaw drop. “Hey kid, you want to tell me more about those aardvarks?” he asked.
“Pangolins,” my son corrected him.
“Still buzzing over your trip to the zoo yesterday?” I said. Max was the only person I wanted to talk to.
He flashed me a huge grin. “Yeah!”
“Max was telling me all about it over breakfast this morning,” my father butted in. “We talked about every exhibit he saw. I heard you got to walk through a whole rainforest.”
“Did you now?” I couldn’t help glaring at him, but he just smiled indulgently at Max, avoiding my gaze. Apparently, he was going to play the role of doting grandfather this evening.
As if we were all some big happy family.
But that definitely wasn’t how I saw it. Tori was my family and she wasn’t here. My father could act like a kind, attentive grandparent all he wanted, but I knew the truth. He was up to something.
As dinner progressed, my anxiety gradually shifted to relief that Tori hadn’t made it. It would have killed her to see the way my father was acting. Though I did nothing to encourage it, he was talking like Anja and I were a married couple, and that we’d be staying that way indefinitely. He was also treating Max as if he’d already fully bonded with him as his first grandson. The hypocrisy stoked my rage toward the man, who’d barely spared me a second glance when I was that age.
“Your son is going to be very handsome,” my dad told me and Anja. “Especially with such good-looking parents.”
“He’ll be smart too, if he takes after his father,” Anja added with a smile.
My father grinned. “Beauty on one side, intelligence on the other. He’s lucky to have the two of you.”
Pie and ice cream had just been brought out, and I was glad that Max was devouring his with gusto and thankfully oblivious to the tension simmering between the adults at the table.
What the hell was my father doing? Had he forgotten that he’d been the one to take Anja away in the first place—or at least make me believe that she was gone for good? He’d mocked my feelings for her when I was a teenager and now he was acting like the last eight years hadn’t even happened. I drank more wine and kept quiet, surreptitiously checking my phone again.
Why wasn’t Tori calling me back? Had she left her phone at home again? No, that couldn’t be it. She knew she was supposed to meet me here tonight—knew I had wanted her here with me. She’d even insisted on heading here directly from school. Where was she?
