But…
“I’m sorry,” Viv said. “You defending him is too much. He doesn’t deserve that. He knew exactly what he was doing.”
Veronica lifted her face. “What do you think Markus has those things for?”
Viv’s stomach flipped. “I don’t know.”
“You have suspicions. You think he’s like Dad. That he’s into some shady stuff.”
Viv pressed two fingers at the spot between her eyes where a headache had begun. “Maybe.”
“Okay.” She sighed and reached around Viv to open the fridge. “You have any butter, or are you still doing that coconut stuff?”
“He sent me two letters.”
Veronica located a stick of butter and let the door swing shut. They stared at each other for a long moment. Viv didn’t have to be more specific.
“What did they say?”
“I didn’t open them.”
Veronica nodded once.
Yep. She was one hundred percent right. Viv ran when things got messy. For not gloating, Veronica should get the Sister of the Year award.
“Okay. I’ll open them now.”
Not waiting for a reply, she stomped out of the kitchen, through the living room where Emma watched a cartoon and drank her sparkling water, and into the bedroom.
She’d stuffed the letters into a box under her bed, vowing never to think about them again but probably knowing deep down that she’d take them out one day. Grabbing them both, she went back to the kitchen.
Veronica watched from the stove, her face calm.
Hands shaking, Viv ripped open the first letter.
As she read, her breath disappeared. Her heartbeat raced, and her vision blurred. In the span of five minutes, she felt probably every emotion known to humanity.
Anger. Sadness. Fear. Regret.
Even, believe it or not, a little forgiveness.
By the time she finished the second letter, she was speechless.
“Well?” Veronica asked.
“They’re…” Viv’s voice cracked. “They’re apologies. And he asked me to visit him.”
Veronica nodded. “I’ve been seeing him. I started a few months ago. I’ve been three or four times since then.”
“Why?” The word was a heavy rock she had to vomit up. It didn’t come easy.
“You know why. It’s in those letters.”
Viv stared at the papers in her hands. “People say they’re sorry for all kinds of reasons.”
“He wants a relationship with us, Viv. Granted, he’s not perfect by any standards, but he’s trying.”
“And you didn’t plan on telling me about this?”
“I tried,” Veronica snapped back. “Any time I’ve brought him up, you shut me down.”
Viv’s face burned. She slumped against the counter. “You’re right. God, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Veronica wrapped her arms around Viv and squeezed tight.
It was hard to keep the tears back. Not even biting into her lip and shutting her eyes tight helped.
“I’m not going to see him,” she whispered into Veronica’s hair.
With one last squeeze, Veronica stepped back. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”
She said it so immediately, and like it was such a simple matter, that Viv instantly felt disappointed in herself. It would have been nice to think that someone else believed she was forgiving enough to bury the hatchet and start new.
She wasn’t, though. And she couldn’t blame another person for seeing reality.
They finished making dinner with little talk. Not that Viv needed it. Her mind and heart were full enough.
After dinner was finished and she walked Veronica and a sleeping Emma to the car, Viv trudged back up the stairs. The last place she wanted to be was in the empty apartment. She felt jealous of her sister and niece, who got to go home to a full family.
In the kitchen, she ran the dishwasher and poured a glass of wine, but took one sip and ended up leaving it sitting there. Wandering aimlessly around the apartment seemed the only thing to do.
The letters still sat in the kitchen. She needed to throw them away.
“Yep.” She stopped pacing in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips. “Time to throw them away. You’re not going to visit him.”
Veronica might have bought their father’s act, but she’d always had a soft spot for anything with a beating heart. Viv, on the other hand, was more skeptical. People needed to work to prove themselves.
Instead of throwing the letters away, though, she somehow ended up sitting on her bed with her phone in her hands.
Veronica had been right about something. Viv had jumped to conclusions when it came to Markus. If she didn’t watch herself, she was gonna let what could be a really good man slip away.
Before she could call him, though, her phone started ringing. It was Mr. Romano calling.
Weird. It was a little past eight, and she’d never gotten a work call at such an hour.
Frowning, Viv swiped the answer button. “Hello?”
“Hey, Vivian. Glad I caught you.”
“How are you?” She sat up straighter. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Things are great. Listen, I know this is last minute, but you know the Columbia conference?”
“Yes,” she said slowly. “That’s tomorrow.”
“Yep. And we weren’t planning on doing it, but there’s a new order in from the top. We need to go to it. Can you make it to South Carolina tonight? There’s an eleven o’clock flight, and your room is booked at the hotel closest to the airport.”
Viv closed her eyes. Yikes.
This was so not what she wanted right now.
“You’ll get a bonus for it,” Mr. Romano said. “On account of being sent there so late. And during your last week.” He chuckled.
“I can make the eleven o’clock flight.” She held back a sigh and tried to think of the bonus. The little bit of extra money would be nice.
“Great. And I’ll see you there.”
“Looking forward to it,” she lied. “Bye.”
Hanging up, she went to her closet and pulled out her small suitcase, which was still half-packed from the last work trip. Maybe this conference would be fun, she decided, as she packed her makeup bag and toiletries. It could be that, seeing as it was her very last HW trip, there could be a bittersweet tinge to the whole thing.
Once packed, she picked up her phone again and called Markus. With each ring, her heart beat faster.
It felt like forever since they’d spoken in person, and her nerves flared at the thought.
“Hey, you,” Markus answered, his voice warm and soothing.
Instantly, Viv smiled. “Hey.”
“How are you doing?”
“I’m okay.”
She bit the inside of her lip. This next part would be hard. “I’m sorry that I’ve been distant the last few days. There’s been a lot on my mind.”
He made a noise of acknowledgment that sounded more empathetic than anything else. “Anything you want to talk about?”
“Yes, but not on the phone.”
“Okay. Would you like to come over?”
“I would love to come over.” She huffed. “Except I just got a call from my manager and I have to be in Columbia, South Carolina, tonight.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. There’s a conference there tomorrow morning.”
“When do you get back?” he asked.
“The day after tomorrow.”
She played with her necklace. It was crazy, but she was doing mental math, trying to figure out if there was time to stop and see Markus on the way to the airport.
Yep. Totally crazy. She couldn’t miss her flight.
“I really do wish I could come over right this second,” she said. “But I’ll see you soon.”
“I’ll be counting every minute. Have a great trip.”
“Thanks. Bye.”
She hung up, feeli
ng much better than she had before making the call.
Once they were together in person, she’d ask Markus about the box on his fridge. She’d decided that wasn’t a topic to broach on the phone.
Whatever his answer would be, she looked forward to it. Even if it would be painful.
The truth was the truth, and once she figured out what was going on, she could move forward. With or without Markus, she didn’t know.
She did, however, have a preference.
Chapter 13
Viv
“Is it hot in here?” Viv tugged on her blouse’s collar.
Carla, a doctor from Who-Could-Remember-Where, frowned. “I think it’s a bit cold.”
“Oh. Maybe it’s just me.” She took a long drink of sparkling water and looked around the hotel conference room.
It had been a long day, and the “mingle” session was in full swing. A long buffet table with hors d’oeuvres sat along the wall, and at least two hundred people packed the room.
She’d been tired when the day began at eight, and she was on the brink of exhaustion now, at somewhere around six.
“I think I’m gonna get some air.” She smiled at Carla. “Nice chatting with you.”
Carla didn’t seem to mind Viv’s taking off. Her attention was already on an approaching man in a suit.
Scooting around the edge of the room, Viv went into the hotel lobby and booked it outside. She’d noticed a little garden to the side when she’d come down for coffee earlier, and it was there that she retreated to.
With the tall hedges ringing the garden area, she could almost imagine she was somewhere else.
“The last conference,” she whispered to herself, taking a seat on a stone bench. “It’s the last one ever.”
She’d barely finished talking to herself when her phone rang. It was an unfamiliar Jacksonville number.
“Hello,” she answered. “This is Viv.”
“Viv, doll. It’s Bea, from the flower shop.”
“Hi.” She sat up straighter.
“I’m sorry it took me a while to get back to you. Things have been crazy. My daughter just had a baby, and we’re having a new deck put on, and ah! You know how it is.”
“Absolutely,” she croaked. Her throat felt oddly dry. “No worries.”
“Listen, if you’re still interested, I would love to have you come work at the shop. I could start you on training next week.”
“I would love to.” Viv had to stop herself from squealing with joy.
“Excellent. How does next Monday look?”
“That’s great. Thank you so much.”
“Wonderful. Come in at nine, okay, and I’ll show you around.”
“I’ll be there. Thanks so much, Bea.”
They hung up with Viv feeling thrilled, excited, a little anxious, and nauseous.
Laughing a bit, she buried her face in her hands. In the building right behind her, hundreds of people in big pharma rubbed elbows and talked money, bonuses, and vacation homes. And she wanted none of it.
All she wanted was to wake up in the morning, go to a job that made her heart sing, and come home to people she loved.
She finally had a job that made her excited. Now all she needed to do was secure things with Markus.
So why did she still feel sick?
Pressing a hand against her chest, she inhaled deeply. The nausea only increased.
Next thing she knew, she was bending over and vomiting into the bushes.
After a few good heaves, the vomiting ceased. She straightened up, feeling shaky and uncentered.
It wasn’t nerves getting to her. Had she eaten something bad?
She ran over a list of everything she’d had that day. Egg on a bagel. Coffee. A vegetarian salad. No alcohol. If anything, the sparkling water should have calmed her stomach. So then why…
“No.” she gasped.
It hit her like a ton of bricks. Why hadn’t she seen the signs earlier?
Wait. Maybe she was wrong. She was jumping to conclusions. As recently witnessed with the whole box-at-Markus’-house thing, she tended to do that.
She needed to be sure before she made assumptions.
Sneaking back into the hotel lobby, she passed the conference room and took the elevator to her room, where she got her purse and ordered a cab. A few minutes later, she was en-route to the nearest drugstore.
“That’s a lot of pregnancy tests,” the teenage girl who checked her out said. “Isn’t one enough?”
“No.”
Viv went to chew on her thumbnail but stopped herself. She’d broken that habit years ago.
Five pregnancy tests, in three different brands, seemed right. As she was out of town, there was no running off to her doctor, and she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night without knowing for sure.
She’d asked the driver to wait in the parking lot for her. The trip back to the hotel, she sat on the edge of her seat, fighting the urge to chew down each and every one of her fingernails. Finally, they were there.
Plastic bag in hand, Viv darted into the hotel—and right into someone.
“Oh!” she yelped.
The man made a noise of surprise. Viv stumbled back, tripping over her feet. The man reached for her, and as he did, Viv caught a flash of the handgun in a holster under his suit’s jacket.
“Vivian. Are you okay?”
He took hold of her elbow right in time, preventing her from hitting the floor.
It wasn’t just any man, though. It was Mr. Romano.
Viv blinked, processing. Mr. Romano wasn’t alone. He stood in the lobby near the doors, with two men. Although the men also wore suits, they didn’t look familiar. Viv knew most of the people who came to these conferences, and she thought she would have recognized the surly looks these two wore.
Mr. Romano’s eyebrows were raised, his hand still on her arm.
“I’m okay. Thank you.” She groped for her plastic bag, relieved it hadn’t come open and revealed her nearly half a dozen pregnancy tests.
One of the strangers, a particularly tall and muscular one, frowned at Viv.
Mr. Romano cleared his throat and retracted his arm. “Good. I’ll see you later, Viv.”
“See you later,” she mumbled, dashing away.
If she didn’t have her own things to worry about, she might have wondered if Mr. Romano always carried a gun, or if she had only just noticed it then. Even though she wasn’t anti-gun, like with Markus, the circumstances surrounding it were intriguing.
Like, why bring one to a pharma conference?
She didn’t spend long wondering. The elevator arrived at her floor, and she exited it so fast she almost hit the doors before they slid fully open.
In her hotel room, she dumped the contents of the shopping bag on the bathroom counter and ripped open the first box.
Since each test would take a few minutes to show results, she went ahead and took all five of them.
And then, she paced.
What if the results were mixed? Two positive, three negative? Vice versa?
She didn’t know how she could sleep through the night not knowing. And what if she was pregnant? What next?
Stopping to sit on the edge of the bed, she realized exactly how much at a loss she was. She’d yearned for a family for years.
Not like this, though. Even though she liked Markus—actually, if she were being honest, she had already fallen in love with him—a child needed to be planned for.
Still. If she was pregnant, she wanted it. Regardless of how Markus felt.
The timer on her phone went off, signaling that three minutes had passed since she’d taken the last test. Jumping to standing, she rushed back into the bathroom.
The pregnancy tests were set in a line on the counter. And they were all positive. Every single one of them.
“Oh my God,” she said, picking up one.
She needed to tell Markus. Needed to make an appointment with her doctor. Needed to reevaluate everything a
bout her life.
Or not.
Her head spinning, she got her cell phone from her purse. As her fingers swept it though, she stilled.
Asking Markus about the gun, phone, and cash in his kitchen while on the phone had been out of the question. She certainly didn’t want to share the pregnancy news that way, either.
No. She’d simply have to wait until tomorrow, when they saw each other in person. They had plans for dinner at her place, and she would tell him then.
Chomping on her bottom lip, Viv sat on the bed. Or should she ask him about that box first? Get an answer before deciding whether or not she wanted to raise a child with him.
She loved him. She knew that much. But loving a person didn’t make them a viable parent.
Chapter 14
Markus
The alarm clock shrieked at three in the morning, and Markus reached over and hit it barely two seconds later. He’d gone to bed several hours before, knowing he needed to get some rest before the morning’s operation.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t slept a wink. He’d only laid there, eyes closed, working the plan over and over in his head.
A warehouse off Highway Ten. One guard. Possible witnesses from the trailer park that butted up against the building.
The plan was to break in while it was still dark. They’d be in and out before the sun even rose. Assuming all went well.
The things going well part was what had kept him awake. He didn’t know if it was because this was his last job, or because he had something—someone—who counted on him to be the best version of himself, but things weren’t sitting right. A bad feeling had taken up residence in his gut.
The sooner they got this job done with, the better. He’d already been casually looking at houses online, wondering which ones Viv would like.
Most people would say it was too early to ask her to move in with him, but he’d never been shy when it came to things he knew he wanted. Also, it wasn’t often he was wrong.
The two of them had a special connection. He would be an idiot to let that slip away.
Rolling from the bed, he jumped into a cold shower to shock his senses awake, then dressed in all black. Pulling on a pair of leather gloves and a baseball cap, he took the emergency stairs out of the apartment building and drove to Ryder’s house.
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