Page 160 of Requiem for Love

The photographer appeared in front of her. “Hi. I’m sorry. I know you’re tired, but the way you’re sitting here with the white dress and the yellow shoes gives me an amazing idea for a black and white photo. Do you mind? I just have to grab another memory card.”

Ayesha shook her head. “No, I don’t mind. Sounds like a beautiful idea.”

The photographer hurried off.

She yawned.

Joel searched the venue. When he spotted her, his gaze lingered a moment before he returned to the conversation an old family friend had roped him into.

In the middle of another yawn, something stung her in the neck. At first, she thought it was a mosquito, but the sting was too deep to belong to something that small.

This felt like a bee or a wasp.

A shadow moved over her.

Then she felt herself being lifted and placed on something cold, like a metal cart. A curtain fell on both sides, obscuring her body, and as she drifted off, she realized who this was.

CHAPTER38

Mo peered into the tent the guys had used to prepare for the wedding and found Giorgio inside. Aleksi was asleep with his cheek pressed against his father’s chest, and she didn’t know how Giorgio had found a matching tux that small for their son.

“Hey, boo. I was looking for you.”

He didn’t look up.

“Gio?” She grabbed a folding chair and sat down in front of him. “Hey, did something happen? Why are you in here? What’s wrong?”

Still, he didn’t answer.

“Baby? Talk to me. Please.”

“This what you want,” he said. “This what you tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

He gestured to her ring. “You want ring. You want Aleksi. Bez, you tell me this, from your mouth, this what you want.”

“I don’t understand.”

“At night, when you leave, it is to fight?”

She rested a hand on his knee. “For the most part. Sometimes, I walk around the property or stand by the lake.”

“Only this?”

“Yeah. Why, what…” Finally, she picked up on what he didn’t say. “Giorgio, no. No, no, no. If that’s what you…I can’t even fathom…baby, no. None of this involves another man, alien, microorganism, piece of lint…nothing.”

Not only did she not want anyone else or could see herself with anyone else, but the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons hadn’t been signed yet. Giorgio, on the loose, with theinklingthat there might be someone else, could be classified as a nuclear weapon.

“Gio, baby, that’s not what’s wrong with me. It has nothing to do with you or Aleksi.”

He looked into her eyes. “What is wrong? You will not tell me.”

“I don’t…” Her voice trailed off. “Gio, I don’t know how.”

“Bez, say anything.”

“I mean, I don’t know what to tell you. Honestly, I just feel…empty. I think I might have had the baby blues right after Aleksi, and I’m not entirely certain they’re gone.”

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