Page 41 of Savage Love

“It’s going to be fine,” Isabella repeats as we walk up to the door. “Look, Saoirse doesn’t really like me, and I still manage to enjoy these little get-togethers just fine. Everyone else will be really friendly, and Saoirse will probably be as friendly as she ever gets with you, too. You’re not the one married to Niall.”

“You’re going to have to tell me the rest of that story one day,” I tell her as she rings the doorbell, and Isabella makes a face.

“I’d really rather not.”

Saoirse is the one who answers the door, dressed in slim dark jeans, an emerald green blouse that brings out her bright green eyes, with her red hair up in a high ponytail. She looks as effortlessly beautiful as when I saw her at the wedding, even dressed down like this, and I immediately question my choice of clothing all over again. I’m also impressed that Isabella doesn’t seem to care. I think my sister always looks beautiful, but she chose to wear something very similar to me…black yoga pants and a tank top, with her hair left down.

There’s the briefest of seconds where I see Saoirse’s mouth twitch in a semi-unpleasant expression when she sees Isabella, and then she smiles at me. “I’m so glad to see you again, Elena. Come in, both of you.”

I can hear the chatter as we’re led through the wide foyer to the massive living room. There’s a picture of Saorise and Connor on their wedding day above the mantel, and the entire room is luxuriously appointed, decorated like the inside of an interior decorator’s catalog in neutral tones and plush textiles. The other wives are scattered across the room—I immediately recognize Caterina, Viktor’s wife, from the wedding. She’s sitting on one of the long sofas, wearing jeans and a long-sleeved cranberry shirt, her hair tied back in a messy bun. There’s another pretty, dark-haired woman next to her, talking animatedly about something.

“Maggie, can you get the drinks—oh, thank you!” Saoirse calls out as a woman emerges from the kitchen with two bottles of wine in one hand. She looks different from the others in a way that I can’t exactly put my finger on—all of the wives of the men who run the organizations have a polish to them that can’t be rubbed off, even when dressed down. But Maggie looks as if she’s never anything but casual. She has shorter, wildly curly hair, twinkling blue eyes, and she’s wearing denim shorts and a white t-shirt, without a spot of makeup on her lightly freckled face.

“I’ve got the first round right here,” she says with a grin, in an accent that sounds very much like anyone we’ve encountered in the city who’s lived in Boston for a long time, or is from here.

“Ana should be down in a minute. She’s putting Brigit to bed.” Saoirse waves us into the living room, and I feel instantly like running back home when everyone turns to look at Isabella and me. If Isabella weren’t there as a buffer, I think I might have.

I’ve never been the most social person. Isabella has always been much better at it. I hated when our family hosted dinner parties, hated big gala events, when I could have been in my room reading and left quietly alone. Now I’m faced with an entire room of vaguely familiar faces, and my heart races instantly with anxiety.

A blonde girl that I remember introducing herself as Sasha at the wedding gets up, waving us over and giving me a sweet smile. “I’m Sasha. I don’t know if you remember me. We met briefly at the wedding.”

“You’re–Max’s wife?” I fish for the name, and she nods, motioning for me to sit down.

“That’s right.” She points around the room. “You’ve met Saoirse and Maggie—Maggie is her best friend. That’s Sofia, she’s Luca Romano’s wife—and she’s close with Caterina, who I know you met too, since Levin works for her husband. Ana—Liam’s wife—will be down in a few minutes.” She smiles at me. “It’s a lot of new people, I know. It was a lot for me to take in when I first came here. But everyone is really friendly, I promise.”

I nod, still at a loss for words. Isabella is talking to Maggie, something about schools, and I try to focus on what Sasha is telling me, especially as a tall, thin blonde woman walks into the room who I know must be Ana.

“We all know Levin,” Sasha says, and I glance at her, feeling my heart skip over itself a little. “I think we were all really happy to know he’s found someone.”

He hasn’t.I don’t say it, though, feeling the momentary leap in my chest sink down again. “How do you know him?”

She shrugs lightly. “He helped Max find me. It’s a very long story. But he has a penchant for helping people who are in trouble—especially him and Max and Liam. He’s a good man—without him, I don’t know if I would have made it out. Ana would say the same about how he helped Liam find her. He really is one of the best.”

My chest tightens at that, and I give her a small smile. “I know.”

That’s the hardest part of it. Idoknow. I know better than anyone how good he is, how brave and honorable and good. He was so good that he broke a promise to himself to never marry again in order to make sure that I and our child have the best possible future.

I wonder how many of the women here know about that. I think they all know something about his past—with Maggie maybe being the exception, since she doesn’t seem to be as much a part of this world as on the fringes of it due to her close friendship with Saoirse.

“I’m a teacher,” she explains to me as she brings me back a glass of sparkling flavored water to make up for the fact that I can’t have the wine. “Saoirse and I have been close friends since college. I don’t know much about what they all have going on here—” she waves her hand at the other wives, shrugging. “But Saoirse has me on the board of her foundation to give a different perspective, something a little closer to the heart of what’s going on here. And I’ve made some good friends, being a part of it.”

Ana is as effusive about Levin as Sasha was, repeating the same thing that Sasha said—that Levin helped Liam and Max find her when she was in trouble. No one has a single bad thing to say about him, which doesn’t surprise me at all. What does surprise me is that Caterina is the one who corners me in the kitchen when I go for a refill of my drink, smiling at me as she refills her wine glass.

“How have you been, since the wedding?” she asks, and I look at her, a little startled.

“Fine?” There’s a question at the end of the word that I don’t mean for there to be, but it comes out anyway, and Caterina gives me a sympathetic look.

“An unwanted marriage isn’t an easy thing to deal with. Believe me, I know.”

I stare at her for a moment, almost letting my glass slip through my fingers. “What makes you think it’s unwanted?” My voice is sharper than I mean for it to be, sharper than itshouldbe when I’m talking to the wife of Levin’s boss. But I hate hearing that word come off of her lips.

Caterina purses her lips, setting her glass down before glancing over to see if anyone else has walked in. “Elena—Viktor and I talk about everything. And I know Levin very well, too. I know he wouldn’t have married again outside of these very–uniquecircumstances.Unwantedmight be a strong word, but it’s the best one I could think of. What I’m trying to say is that I know things must not be easy for you right now.”

I don’t know what to say. Everything that comes to mind is either something that I don’t know Caterina well enough to say out loud to her, or something that I know is too sharp and acerbic to say out loud. The silence goes on for a few beats, and then she sighs.

“How well do you know him, Elena?”

I blink at her. “I’m married to him.”

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