Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
I was at home when she was killed. I’d told Caius about the surprise pregnancy, about our intention to get married. He’d been supportive, if cautious. I’d been naïve. Stupid, actually. Neither her father nor mine would have let us marry. Hers for who I was; mine for who she wasn’t. I think my father’s plans for me were cemented years before I heard the first whisper about them.
I’d gone up to bed after my talk with Caius, after deciding to go to her the next day. But the next day was too late for Alexia and our baby. She’d been killed long before I got there.
I force a deep breath in then out. Putting everything back into the box, I lock it and set it back into the drawer. Now isn’t the time to think about Alexia, about the accidental baby that never had a chance to live. Because that story leads to an even darker one—to the reason my body is carved up the way it is.
Because irony of ironies, what I did after Alexia’s murder was what led to the years I spent doing the Commander’s bidding, and those were the very same events that eventually led us Augustines climb to the top of the food chain.
I need to focus on the next few days now. The next few days with my wife.
Last night’s storm has passed, and the sun is breaking the horizon. I go to the window to watch it rise. It is magnificent.
After a shower, I go into the kitchen, where coffee has already been made and breakfast has been set up on the bar, buffet style. I don’t know what she likes just yet, so I’ve arranged to have some of everything.
I pour two mugs of coffee and head to her bedroom. Val has been relieved by another soldier, whom I recognize although I can’t remember his name.
“Morning,” I say in greeting, to which he nods and opens the door. Madelena is already up and fresh from a shower. She has a towel wrapped around herself, and her hair is twisted into a bun at the top of her head. She’s standing at the unmade bed where the contents of her bag have been dumped and she’s searching inside it. She’s so focused on her task that she barely spares me a glance. I have a feeling I know exactly what she’s looking for.
I set her coffee mug down on the dresser and reach into my pocket.
“I’m guessing you’re looking for this?” I ask, taking out one of the three containers of birth control pills my mother had confiscated.
She looks at the little plastic blue compact then up at me. Her mouth opens, but before saying anything, she closes the space between us and tries to grab them out of my hand.
“Give those to me!” she demands.
“Patience. I didn’t come here for a fight.”
“Where are the others? I had three months’ worth. How dare you go through my things?”
“Sit.”
“Get a dog.”
“Don’t you remember? I prefer little kitties.”
“This isn’t funny.” She bites her lip, eyeing the pills. She looks more worried than angry. I get it. “Give those back, please.”
“Better.” I hold out the pills.
She snatches them. “The rest?”
“You get one month.”
“What?” she asks, panicked.
I decide I’m not having this conversation now. “I don’t know the doctor who prescribed those. Once you finish this cycle, we’ll arrange for the next one.” It’s not quite a lie.
She studies me, opens the little compact, and inspects it before popping the next pill in the rotation into her mouth and swallowing it dry.
“Why do you have them anyway?” I ask. She’d been a virgin.
“So I won’t get pregnant.”
Smartass. “You’d already been taking them when you were at the college.” Sister Catherine had mentioned it, but I’d told her to let it be.
“I get bad periods. They help manage the pain,” she says quickly, averting her gaze. She’s lying.
A knock on the door interrupts the moment.
“Yes,” I say.
The door opens and the housekeeper glances at us and smiles a good morning. “Mr. De Léon is here to see his sister.”
“Odin!” Madelena starts for the door, but I catch her around her middle.
“Have him wait in the living room. My wife will be right out.”
The woman nods and leaves, and the soldier closes the door. I turn to Madelena. “Get dressed first, then you can see him. We leave for the airport in an hour. Clothes will be arranged for you, but if there are any essentials, pack those. We’ll be gone for a few days.”
“I get an hour? I haven’t seen him in two years.”
“He walked you down the aisle.”
“You know what I mean.”
“We’re on a tight schedule. But if you’re good, when we’re back, he can visit again.”
“You’re going to dangle that like a carrot to get me to do what you want, aren’t you?”