Page 35 of Dull
“Love you, Clarissa,” Liana said.
“Love you too.”
She and her sister used to say that to one another all the time.
At the sound of a throat clearing, she looked up to see Lorenzo in the doorway of her sewing room.
“Hey,” she said, getting to her feet.“Do you have any news?”
“She didn’t come through my sector, however, Emilio called us all.Tatiana drugged her guard and made her escape.He’s got security footage of her moments before getting on the train.Apparently, she’s on her cell phone prior, which I’m assuming is the call to you.Afterward, she dropped her cell phone in the trash and stepped onto the train.”
“Wow,” Clarissa said.
“Yeah, right now, he’s trying to figure everything out, because it turns out, on that day, the trains had messed up and were not running exactly on time, so the train schedule was not accurate.”
“Okay,” Clarissa said.“And she didn’t mention anything to me as to where she was going or why.”
He shrugged.“There’s not much more we can do.”He took a step into the room, then another and sunk down when he was close, and put his hands on her knee.“How are you?”
“I’m good.Did you hear some of my conversation?”
“It was pretty hard not to.”
Clarissa hesitated as she reached out, but Lorenzo took her hand and placed it on his cheek, which was exactly where she was heading to touch him.
“You can always touch me, Clarissa.I’m your husband.”
She stared into his eyes.“I know we didn’t have the best start.”
“I should have known to talk to you, Clarissa.But you’re always so quiet.”
She couldn’t help but smile at that.“Did you know there was a time I wasn’t?”
“Before your sister’s death?”
“Isabella.”She spoke her name, and it didn’t hurt, and she let out a little breath, as it felt like the scariest thing to do.
“You struggle to say her name.”
“It hurts to say her name.I miss her so much.She would have made you a great wife.”
Lorenzo put his hands over hers.“There’s no one else I want, Clarissa.You’re the wife I want.”He pulled her in close.
“But she was amazing and beautiful.”
“You’re my wife.You’re who I come home to.There is no one else.”
“But if she had lived?”Clarissa asked.
“Then I might have ended up married to her, but you know what might have happened?”he asked.
“What?”
“I might have met her feisty sister who stole my breath away at the wedding, and I might have refused to marry her, because I’d wait until the sister was of age.”
Clarissa laughed.“You wouldn’t have done that.”
He kissed her lips.“You don’t know that, and neither do I.We need to stop dwelling on the what ifs.I’m so sorry your sister is not alive—for you, not for me.I don’t believe I got a raw deal here, Clarissa.I believe I won the jackpot.”
