Page 101 of Carbon

Even if I hadn’t been twitching inside as I waited for my damn phone to ring, I couldn’t have thought of anything I’d rather do less. “I’m happy in London.”

“But you’ve never been a town girl.”

“Maybe I’ve changed. And until you prove you’ve changed, and Mother too, I’m not coming home.”

My father no longer looked like a confident chief executive as he walked out of Starbucks. Instead, he was a sad father, a lonely husband, and a defeated man.

And I stood my ground.

“You did good,” Nye said.

I twisted the edge of my jumper with my fingers, watching as my father flagged down a cab. “I hurt him.”

“He’s hurt you too, and your wounds go deeper. Be selfish for a change.”

I didn’t want to be selfish. I wanted to share my life with Ben. The question was, would I ever be able to?

27

All leave for Blackwood had been cancelled, and employees fanned out across London as we waited for Ben to call, with a particular emphasis on the area south of the river where he’d been spotted. The digital display on the dashboard of Black’s Porsche Cayenne showed each of them as a green dot moving around a map and us as a larger black one. They sure did have a lot of people.

Beside me in the backseat, Sofia stared into space. Yesterday, when we’d sat in the Project Carbon meeting room and planned out the logistics, Black hadn’t been keen on her coming at all, but she’d insisted. Privately, I agreed with him.

Since she’d blurted out her secret to the room, I’d rarely seen her with dry eyes, and today she chewed on her bottom lip as she wiped her face with her sleeve.

“You okay?” I whispered.

She shrugged.

Oh, hell, I couldn’t leave her like that. I clicked my seatbelt undone and shuffled into the middle, wrapping her up in a hug. She stiffened for a second, then relaxed against me as I glimpsed Black’s dark eyes watching us in the mirror.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to send the plane for Leo?” Emmy asked.

“No,” Sofia croaked. “I don’t want him to see me like this.”

Who was Leo? Her boyfriend?

“He won’t judge you.”

“I know, but he’s been through enough shit recently as it is. And this... I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Enough with the thinking. It’s not good for you.” Outside, the golden arches of a McDonald’s flashed past, catching Emmy’s attention. “Hey, does anyone want a burger?”

An hour passed, then two, three, four, and I began to lose hope as well as regretting drinking two cups of coffee. It was all right for Black. We’d parked up, and he’d made a quick trip up a nearby alley half an hour before to relieve himself.

“Uh, is there a restroom anywhere near here?”

He pointed at the alley.

“Er, no. Just no.”

“Can we go to McDonald’s now?” Emmy asked.

Black shook his head. “No more junk food. You ate macarons and chocolate truffles for breakfast.”

“How do you even know that?”

He shrugged and started the engine. “Can’t give my secrets away, can I?”

---