Page 31 of So Close to You
He can’t know. It’s impossible.
And finally, around one o’clock in the afternoon, when Adrian leaves, Seraphina feels such intense relief that her legs nearly give out beneath her. Elliot locks the front door and returns to the living room, loosening his tie, tired but satisfied.
“I swear that man enjoys terrorizing clients just for the fun of it,” Elliot remarks with a smile.
Seraphina nods, once again adopting a completely neutral demeanor.
“Yes, he’s very intense.”
“But brilliant,” Elliot admits. He steps closer and absentmindedly kisses her temple while gathering papers from the table.
The gesture—so ordinary and full of affection—fills her with such overwhelming guilt that Seraphina has to look away.
Especially after the distance between them these past few days.
As her husband touches her tenderly, she can only remember another woman pressing her against a dark wall just hours earlier, with demanding hands and ragged breaths.
And that feeling of anxiety clings to Seraphina throughout the entire weekend.
*
The building seems colder than usual. Or perhaps she is the one carrying the cold inside her.
Seraphina walks through the executive floor hallways, sipping her coffee slowly, burdened by the paranoia that has lived beneath her skin since Saturday.
That’s why, the moment she reaches the sports medicine wing, she goes looking for Nerissa.
She finds her in one of the auxiliary labs, reviewing medical records on a digital screen. When Seraphina enters, she closes the door behind her, immediately drawing the surgeon’s attention.
“So early in the morning and you already miss me?” Nerissa says jokingly.
“We have a problem,” Seraphina blurts out, stepping forward until she stands in front of the table.
“Good morning to you too.”
“I think Adrian saw us at the hotel,” Seraphina says bluntly.
That immediately captures Nerissa’s full attention. She stares at her in silence for several seconds before exhaling slowly.
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘so’?” Seraphina asks, stunned by her disbelief.
Nerissa leans back in her chair without showing the slightest sign of alarm, though her fingers tap lightly against the armrest.
“The truth? I doubt he saw us. The whole clinic would’ve heard about it by now if he had.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“Neither can you,” the surgeon replies with a calmness that infuriates Seraphina.
“It’s just... you don’t understand what’s happening,” Seraphina insists, lowering her voice in case anyone might overhear. “He was at the house on Saturday, and he spent halfthe morning making the strangest comments in front of Elliot. About double lives, broken contracts... and he looked at me like—”
“Like the lawyer he is, enjoying the chance to make people uncomfortable,” Nerissa cuts in, without the slightest trace of panic.
Seraphina feels like screaming.
She takes two steps toward the window and then turns back again, unable to remain still.
