Part 3
She watched the tears appear, fast and bright. She watched Sabine’s hand tremble at her cheek. She watched her lower her gaze like a woman trying to be brave in front of a man she trusted.
“She—” Sabine inhaled sharply. “She afacked my.”
The words came out wrong in her panic, blurred by sobbing, but the accusation landed with perfect clarity.
Adrian’s eyes shifted to Nora.
Nora could not move.
Sabine pointed down at her with one shaking hand.
“She came at me,” Sabine said. “I tried to get away from her. She pushed me.”
Nora stared.
The room seemed to tilt.
“No,” she said.
Her voice was too quiet.
Sabine pressed both hands over her face. “I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want to make a scene.”
“Nora?” Adrian asked.
His voice had changed.
Not cold. Not angry.
Careful.
That was worse.
Nora pushed herself up on one elbow. The motion sent pain through her side again, but she forced herself to stay upright enough to look at him.
“She shoved me.”
Sabine made a broken sound.
Adrian looked at her, then back at Nora.
Celia remained in the doorway. Her face was unreadable.
“I didn’t,” Sabine said. “I swear to you, Adrian. I was trying to calm her down.”
Nora laughed once, not because anything was funny but because the sound came out of her before she could stop it.
Sabine looked at her with sudden horror.
“See?” Sabine said. “She thinks this is funny.”
Nora’s mouth opened, then closed.
Every instinct she had built over the last three years told her not to fight. Not to speak too quickly. Not to look angry. Anger had always been used against her. If she cried, she was unstable. If she stayed calm, she was calculating. If she defended herself, she was obsessed with Adrian. If she said nothing, she was guilty.
Sabine knew that.
Of course she knew that.
Adrian crossed the room but did not go to either woman immediately. He stopped near the glass table, looking down at the space between them. His eyes found Nora’s twisted ankle, the way one heel had slipped partially off. Then he looked at Sabine’s bare arms, her dress, her hands.
“No one move,” he said.
Sabine lowered her hands slowly.
“Adrian, I don’t want to make this bigger than it is.”
“It already is.”
His voice was calm, but it had weight in it.
Nora felt something small and dangerous rise in her chest. Hope, perhaps. She hated it immediately.
Sabine looked toward Celia.
“Celia, you know I would never hurt her.”
Celia did not answer.
The silence seemed to offend Sabine more than an accusation would have.
Adrian crouched beside Nora, not close enough to touch her. His tuxedo jacket pulled slightly at the shoulders as he lowered himself. He looked older than Nora remembered, though not by much. Not older in the face. Older in the eyes.
“Can you stand?” he asked.
Nora looked at him.
The question was simple. Kind, even.
It hurt more than it should have.
“I don’t know.”
His gaze moved to her side. “Did you hit the table?”
“I think so.”
“Did she push you?”
Sabine let out a sharp sob behind him.
Adrian did not look back.
Nora swallowed.
“Yes.”
The word sat between them.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Sabine’s voice rose. “She is lying.”
Nora flinched despite herself.
Adrian looked over his shoulder.
“Stop.”
Sabine stared at him.
“I’m not raising my voice,” he said. “I’m asking you to stop.”
The room went still again.
Nora saw the moment Sabine recalculated. It was small. Her posture changed. The grief in her face softened into something wounded and delicate.
“I’m sorry,” Sabine whispered. “I’m scared.”
Adrian looked at her for a long moment.
Then he turned back to Nora.
“What happened before I came in?”
Nora’s throat tightened.
She could feel Sabine watching her.
The question should have been easy. Sabine called her upstairs. Sabine accused her of wanting Adrian back. Sabine shoved her. Sabine lifted her heel.
But the truth never sounded simple when the people around it were waiting for the wrong version.
“She told me I was supposed to disappear,” Nora said.
Adrian’s expression changed.
Sabine laughed through her tears.
“Oh, please.”
“She said I should have taken the job in Lisbon.”
“Because you talked about it constantly,” Sabine said. “You made it sound like you were escaping some terrible situation.”
Nora looked at her.
“I talked to Celia about a job offer once.”
“Exactly.”
Adrian stood.
The movement made Sabine retreat half a step, then catch herself.
“Why were you talking about Lisbon?” he asked Nora.
Nora stared at him.
The question was not accusatory. It was genuine.
May you like
She had not expected that either.
“I was offered a position at the museum there.”
