Chapter 41
Gabriel
1st in the back of the car as Mark drives me home f
You could cut the air with a knife, my heart is heavy and we are both
How do you tell someone you are about to marry that you have two legitimate children?
Ariana is going to be heartbroken
I’m heartbroken but not for the same reason.
I’ve missed out on so much of my children’s lives, time I can never get back
And Seraphina
I get a vision of her at her workplace, her auburn hair, and a face that I knew so well. The deep sense of familiarity Igor from her, the one person on earth I trusted with my life.
So evil. And yet, still an ethereal creature.
My mind is huazzing with a million scenarios, none of them good.
The car pulls to a stop out the front of my building and we both sit still in the car.
“Good luck,” Mark says softly, he knows I’m walking into the gallows to hurt the person who loves me the most
it = whit
“I could change it “I whisper.
1now
I drag myself out of the car and take the elevator to my floor, the double doors u
My heart sinks and I close my eyes.
How is this happerang?
open and the scent of something delicious instantly fills my senses.
I walk into the apartment and put my briefcase in my office and then I find Ariana in the kitchen. I lean on the doorjamh and watch her for a moment.
She’s doing what she loves, the best damn cook in New York city if you ask me,
Wearing an apron, she’s putting something in the oven while things are cooking on the hotplates, a million things on the go
“Hello”
She looks up and sees me and smiles. “I didn’t hear you reme
“But I did.” I undle as the kisses me. I see her glass of red wine.
“Drinking on a school night?”
e a glass.
Tm celebrating “She pours me a j
“What are we celebrating
she passes me my glass of wine and holds hers up to mine. “Thirty–five days until we get married.”
I force a smile and link my glass with hers. “Something smells delicious: What is my chef serving tonight?”
“We have a kingfish ceviche followed by a ragu with creamy polenta and turamus for dessert.”
“How do you have the energy to cook a three–course meal for me every night?”
Chapter 41
Looking a
Inson he thing in du
My best sinks. We need to talk
She unde and goes up onto her ines to kiss me. Throw, but fir
where 1 downs Now, I know that you wanted
tood by the kitchen enter
1 stare at her nel pretend to listen, bat my mind returns in Ver in the bank Cut the hulldar, Seraphina. De prin have mimething to tell me?
The tears weled in her eyes, and by the look on her been. I instantly knew it was true
The way it put a hole in my heart.
How could the have done this? How could she have hidden my own children from me for six year? My mind return to us in the shower i naked and kissing in each ether’s arms.
The level of intimacy that can between us was like nothing I’ve experienced before or since
Igrieved for her for years, and to think that… I get a lump in my throat. She had my ballars the entire time
I glance up with no idea what Ariana has been saying. Tm sorry?”
you not listening to me at all?”
Torgive me. I’m.. Busy day.”
“What did you have to tell me?” she asks.
She looks up ar me with her big brown trusting eyes
Tell her.
Do it.
“Thave to go away for work tomorrow.”
“Oh,” she replies. “How long will you be gone?”
“A few days”
“Okay.” She smiles. Do you want me to come?”
“No.” I sip my wine. Til be working the whole time,” The
“So anyway, back to the units.” She changes the subject and once again my mind goes back to the unfolding catastrophe.
My life is a mess.
Seraphina
The sound of their cries echoes through the silence, wings flap against the water as they take off
A bird in flight is a beautiful thing.
I sit on the back porch and stare out over the lake. My life is a mess and at a time when I should be francic, I feel eerily calma.
The truth is out and damn it, it feels cathartic
He knows
Im not carrying the secret alone anymore.
Lalways knew that our day the truth would come in ledd, and as every year tirkeil
Net only of Gabriel, but of the children hating the for net telling them the truth about the donor sperm and IVT
The children are still young, and I haven’t had to have the conversatiom they can forgive me.
ith them abeet who their father in yet hopefully they’re pinnig rough that
“Mem,” Dom calls from inside. “A car just pulled up “Telose my eyes as prepare for battle. He’s here”
