Page 153 of Ruthless Sin

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I open it.

I go inside.

I close the door behind me.

I put my hand on the lock. I don’t turn it.

I lower my hand.

I walk to the window.

The garden is going dark.

The iron bench his Papa proposed to his Mama at is in the corner. Empty. Nico isn’t in the garden tonight.

I stand at the window.

She didn’t die unwitnessed.

I press my forehead to the glass. The glass is cold against my skin.

I close my eyes.

Yelena’s face is the first thing I see.

Hair down. Mouth open in the shape of a sung note. Gray-green eyes alive in oil.

He gave her back to me.

I cross to the bed.

I lie down.

I close my eyes.

I sleep.

For the first time since the morning he told me.

26

NICO

Marco knocks at my study door before he opens it.

He has a sealed envelope in his hand. No box this time. Manila. Heavy.

“Came at the outer gate,” he says, low. “Same courier we bought yesterday. He’s not lying about not knowing what’s inside.”

He sets the envelope on my desk.

I cut the seal with my pen-knife.

I unfold the contents. One photograph.

Larger than a Polaroid. Black-and-white. Glossy. Long-lens. Taken from across the street.

Mila.

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