“No one will take her phone.”
Stella looked at him.
“Excellent. We understand each other.”
“I’m not certain we do.”
“She keeps her phone.”
“She keeps her phone.”
“And she calls me whenever she wants.”
Niko glanced at me.
“She calls whomever she wants.”
Stella appeared almost disappointed that he had agreed.
“Fine,” she said. “I will develop a more difficult list.”
After she left, Niko stood beside me without speaking.
The garden smelled of jasmine and damp stone.
“You should have told me before the wedding,” I said.
“Yes.”
The answer surprised me.
I turned.
“That is all?”
“No. I should have told you before the wedding, but your father believed you would refuse.”
“I might have.”
“I know.”
“And you did it anyway.”
“Yes.”
I looked away.
“You say terrible things very calmly.”
“I’ve found that volume does not improve the truth.”
“Sometimes it reveals remorse.”
