Page 26 of The Pakhan's Secret Babies
I still remember exactly how that baby felt in my arms.
The intercom on my desk crackles at three forty-five.
“Elena.”
One word. His voice through the small speaker, even and unhurried.
I pick up the receiver. “Yes.”
“Come in.”
I set the receiver down, sit for exactly three seconds, then stand up and walk to his office.
He is behind his desk. His hands are resting flat on the surface in front of him, and he’s looking at me with an expression I have cataloged every version of in two years and have never seen before.
Not cold exactly. Not warm. Something that has been worked down to its purest form, stripped of everything except the thing itself.
I sit down without being asked.
The office is very quiet.
Outside the glass wall, the floor moves the way it always moves, phones and keyboards and people passing with folders and coffee cups.
“The masquerade,” he says without preamble.
The word sits between us. I do not reach for it, and I do not push it away.
“Yes,” I say.
“It was you.”
I can’t speak. My tongue has suddenly become tied up.
“Answer me, Elena.”
“Y-yes,” I stutter.
His jaw moves.
“You came upstairs with me, and you said nothing.” His voice is not raised, and that scares me. “You sat at that desk for three weeks. You looked me in the eye every single day, and you said nothing.”
“Yes.” I hold his gaze. “All of that is true.”
“So explain it to me.”
“I know how it looks?—”
“I didn’t ask how it looks. I asked you to explain it.”
I take a breath. “I… I finished my work that night, and I was supposed to leave, but I didn’t.” I pause. “I should have told you who I was. I know that. I am sorry for that, genuinely, and I understand completely if you want my resignation on your desk by?—”
“I don’t want your resignation.”
“Mr. Petrov.” I say it evenly. “I deceived you, and I understand that this changes things, and I think the cleanest solution for both of us is?—”
“You think.” He leans forward slightly. “You think the cleanest solution is for you to hand me a letter and walk out, and that resolves this.”
“I think it resolves the professional complication, yes.”
