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For a heartbeat, Ana said and did nothing, her face blank. Her sister cried out, hands flying to her mouth and eyes filling with tears. Ana didn’t even blink and her coffee cup was so, so still. I eyed her, unsure of when the news would finally hit her.

No sooner than I thought that, Ana’s face went even paler than before, as if she’d joined her husband in the afterlife. For one terrible moment, I thought she was about to pass out and I steadied myself to grab her in case she fell.

The coffee cup dropped from Ana’s hands and she screamed.

She screamed and screamed and it was the most horrible sound in the world.

I’ve heard grown men scream as they die but the wailing of a woman who has found out her husband is dead will haunt me for the rest of my days.

Ana doubled forward over her own stomach with both arms wrapped around it like she was trying to shield the baby from the sound of her own grief.

Her sister lunged forward and seized Ana, getting both arms around her before I could figure out what to do with my frozen body.

“Breathe, Ana,” her sister said through tears. “Breathe, honey. Ana, Ana! You need to breathe!” But her words didn’t permeate through Ana’s hysterical wails and screams as she collapsed against her sister, one hand still locked over her belly like she could hold the baby together with her own grip.

Meanwhile, I was still standing there uselessly, staring at two women deep in their grief.

I can do horrible things.

I can make people disappear.

I can move money and bodies and entire operations without anyone knowing.

None of that meant anything then. I couldn’t make that sound stop, no matter how badly I wanted to.

“My baby!” Ana wailed and my eyes cut immediately to Ana’s belly in horror. Jesus Christ, is she in labor? “My baby—my baby d-doesn’t have a father, Marie! The baby doesn’t have a father. Dino will never know our baby!”

Eventually, I was able to tell Ana that she and her baby will worry for nothing. I assured her that they will be taken care of for as long as either of them needs it.

I also let her and her sister know—as they clutch each other—that whoever did this would answer for it.

I meant that one with everything I have.

“I’m so sorry, Ana,” I told a dull eyed Ana, which is a small, useless word for what I actually felt standing in her home, but it was the only one I had. I don’t think she even heard me at that moment. I don’t think anything I told her after she heard that her husband was dead actually registered to her. Not yet. Hopefully her sister will tell her.

Once I was assured that Ana would be okay with just her sister, I let myself out.

Her sister walked me to the door with red eyes and a tight, polite thank you and then I was gone.

My ears haven’t stopped ringing with the sounds of Ana’s screams since.

I rub my eyes and try to get back to the contract in front of me. I get through half a sentence before my head goes somewhere else entirely.

Katerina.

It’s been four days since she started avoiding me in earnest.

Four days of catching her at the far end of a hallway and watching her find a reason to turn around.

I keep thinking about how it felt to have her wrapped around me.

To love her.

To worship her.

Then she ran and she’s been avoiding me ever since.

I rub my eyes and try to get back to the contract, but the lines blur and the words are gibberish.