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“How do you know who’s calling me?”
“Alma, I have eyes.”
“And superhuman vision, apparently.”
“You’ve been avoiding his calls for three days. What does he want from you?”
“Probably to stir up painful stuff,” I whisper.
His gray eyes narrow. Vadim seems curious, even annoyed, but he doesn’t dare venture into this unknown territory.
“Do what you want.”
He gets up, stretches, and heads toward the house.
As I expected, Raphaël has nothing special to tell me, other than that he still can’t manage to forget me. That not a day goes by without him thinking about the baby of ours that never made it. My heart shatters at his words. I resent him for forcing me to hear them… even though I understand why he’s doing it.
When I head back inside and find Vadim in the kitchen, my tears have dried.
“How is Coste?”
“You know his last name?”
“Yes. And his number, his home address, his office address…”
“How do you know all that?”
“I like to know who I’m dealing with.”
We face each other, neither of us willing to back down.
“This is bordering on paranoia, Vadim.”
His eyes shoot me down.
“Do you think it’s fun to make me jealous, Alma?” His voice is barely louder than a whisper. Just a hoarse growl.
“Take that back,” I hiss. “Do I look like I’m having fun right now?”
“No, you look like you’ve been crying. And it’s driving me crazy.”
I look down at the table, unable to meet his eyes anymore.
“I can feel that you’re hiding something from me. If you have something to tell me, now is the time.”
“Nothing to declare,” I retort.
“What the hell does he want from you? Why is he hurting you? He—"
“Nothing!” I cry out. “I told him not to call me anymore! Happy now?”
“Why won’t he let go, Alma? Why can’t he give up? What ties you together?”
I won’t tell you.
“What are you planning to do, Vadim? Ask one of your ‘men’ to dig into my past?”
We stare at each other for a long time. Too long.
