Page 58 of Single Mom's Daddies
I just didn’t know why.
Victor finally moves, walking to the decanter and pouring himself a drink. His hands are too steady. That means he’s barely keeping it together.
Nikolai remains still as stone.
Saffron pulls in a breath. “To be clear, I’m not asking for anything.”
“Does she know?” Victor asks.
“No.”
Silence again.
“How long have you known?” I ask.
She glances at me. “Since this morning.”
I look down at the photo again. We look so fucking young. “Jesus,” I mutter.
Nikolai exhales sharply through his nose. That’s the first sound he’s made. He follows it with a question, “And her heart condition?”
“She’s stable. Her heart’s under constant care. She’ll need surgery again. But she’s doing well. For now.”
Those words hit something in my chest. Not pride. Not quite. But it stirs.
My throat tightens. I sink into the leather armchair I usually avoid because it creaks like hell. Tonight, I don’t care. “I remember the night.”
Victor turns. Nikolai still hasn’t moved.
“You wore wings,” I say. “On your face. It was good makeup until we ruined it.”
“Yeah,” she says with a sad little laugh.
“We didn’t even know your name.”
“Same.”
Victor takes a long drink.
We’re all thinking the same thing. We should’ve known. We should’vefeltit. I pride myself on having a read on everyone. Victor, who spots lies at thirty paces. Nikolai, who remembers everything.
And yet we didn’t see it. Didn’trecognizeher. I glance at Saffron again. She hasn’t moved. She’s still braced like we’re going to tear her apart.
The silence stretches again. “It was a good night,” I say, quietly. “But I felt like shit afterward. Not because of you,” I add quickly to Saffron, meeting her eyes. “But because it felt like…cheating.”
She frowns. “You were with someone?”
“No,” I say. “But we’d just broken up with someone.”
Saffron’s expression softens.
“It was complicated. Didn’t stop being complicated for a long time…”
I fall silent. Because we didn’t say anything then either. Not to each other. Not to anyone. We buried that night like we were afraid her ghost would hear us if we said the words aloud.
My hands are clenched into fists. Ghost or not, we have to talk about that night to sort this out. Time for truths. “I almost called her. After that night.”
Victor and Nikolai both look at me.
