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“I’m attempting to rid myself of an intruder in my home,” Kingsley said. “I’ve shown her the door.
She simply needs to walk through it.”
“I’m not leaving until someone tells me what’s going on with Nora. No, that’s not true. I’m not
leaving until I see Nora.”
“I think she means it,” Wesley said, standing at Grace’s side.
“Mon Dieu, the entire vanilla world has taken over my house. Fine. Both of you stay. Have tea.
Turn everyone in my house boring. If you need me I’ll be trying to find Nora if only to get rid of you
two.”
Kingsley turned and stormed out of the front room.
“Charming, isn’t he?” Grace turned to Wesley. “Thank you.”
“So you’re Zach’s wife?”
“That would be me.”
“I’m Nora’s fiancé.”
The look of shock on Grace’s face prompted Wesley’s first laugh in over twenty-four hours.
“I know. Long story,” he said.
“Nora never ceases to shock me. I’m not even going to ask.”
“Good idea.”
“I will ask this—do you know anything about what’s going on?”
“Really, really long story.”
“I’d like to know it. This may come as a shock to you, but Nora’s about my only female friend in
this world.”
Wesley walked over to the sofa and sat down, sinking deep into the black-and-white-striped
cushions. He felt light-headed, tired, lost. He knew he needed to eat something, check his blood sugar,
take care of himself. But he didn’t have the energy for it, didn’t have the will.
“Nora doesn’t have many female friends, either. She says she scares women.”
“I’m not scared of her. Maybe I should be but I’m not.” Grace sat next to him on the sofa and spun
her wedding band on her finger. “When Zachary and I reunited after our separation, my closest friends
were furious at me for taking him back. He’d run off to America, had an affair with another woman. I
forgave him but they wouldn’t. The only person who seemed to be genuinely happy for us was—”
“Nora.”
Grace nodded. “She’s been a good friend to both of us. I’m sick to my stomach with worry.
Zachary’s in Australia at a conference and now the one friend I had in the States I wanted to see is...
God, Wesley, what on earth is happening here?”
“I probably shouldn’t tell you.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and his
forehead in his hands. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this sick or this tired or anywhere near this
scared. “But I guess it doesn’t matter now. When Kingsley and Søren were teenagers, they had a
relationship.”
“They were lovers?”
“Yeah. That. They were in school together. It was a—”
“Catholic school, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was.”
“This is starting to sound familiar.”
Wesley told her what he knew of the story. Kingsley and Søren falling in love, the sister, Marie-