Page 38 of Trading In A Broken Heart

I leaned back. “Scared of Rochelle?”

“Not scared of her. Scared of what she knows.”

Now I was listening. “Explain.”

“There was a state senator back then. Big name. Rising star. Everybody thought he’d be governor one day.”

The air in the room suddenly felt heavier.

“And?”

Ghost was quiet for a second.

“Rochelle used to threaten people with his name.”

My eyes narrowed. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means every time somebody started asking questions about whatever happened to Solei, Rochelle would shut it down.”

I sat motionless. The monitor glowed against my face. Solei laughed at something someone said.

“What questions?”

“Nobody knows.”

I hated that answer.

“Find out.”

“I’m trying.” Silence grew on the phone. “I’ll keep digging.” The call ended.

I stared at the monitor long after the screen went dark. For the first time since meeting Solei, I wasn’t thinking about making her fall in love with me. I wasn’t thinking about the deadline or the deal. I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that she stabbed me. I was thinking about the fifteen-year-old girl whose entire life seemed to split in half overnight. Whatever happened during that year was still living inside her. And for the first time, I wasn’t sure I wanted Ghost to find the answer. Something in my gut was telling me that when I finally learned the truth, . . . somebody was going to die.

A Couple Days Later

Today, I had an appointment with my ob-gyn for my annual Pap smear. I almost missed the appointment because I’d completely forgotten all about it. They called me a couple days ago with a reminder.

I hated coming to this office. Sometimes, I was out faster than I could blink, and then there were days when they took so long to get me to the back that I contemplated leaving. This was one of those days. I was so tired of sitting in this hard-ass chair, waiting for them to call my name.

“This ridiculous,” I said underneath my breath. I think the woman sitting alongside me heard me because she looked in my direction. They were calling everyone’s name who had come in behind me and hadn’t called mine yet. “Fuck this.” Getting up from my chair, I approached the counter. “Hey, my appointment was over an hour ago. Can you tell me how much longer I’m going to have to wait?”

“What’s your name?”

“Solei Saint-Mercier . . . I mean Corvo. Solei Corvo.” I kept forgetting that I carried Savion’s name now. He made damn sure to change my name on all my legal documents. That man wasn’t playing when it came to me repping being his wife.

“They should be calling you next.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I went back over to my seat and sat down. She was lucky that she’d said that, or else I would’ve been asking her to reschedule this damn appointment. I already didn’t want to go in there and lie on that table while she opened me up like I was a got damn turkey.

“Corvo!” the nurse called out, grasping my attention.

I got up from my seat and met her at the door. “Hey, how you doing?”

“Good,” I responded.

“Step on the scale for me.” She pointed at the scale to the right, and I stepped on it. After she jotted down my weight, she took me into one of the rooms. My vitals were taken, and everything looked fine. “Dr. Beck will be in with you shortly.” The nurse left out of the room and shut the door behind her.