Page 53 of The Marriage

“Are you?”

“Usually, yes. I’m not sure how much money this place is going to get for keeping me here, but I’m sure you’ve figured out already that I don’t come from great people.”

Good people.

“Well, I know a little. Just enough, anyway,” Sylvia replied. “But it’s not really about you. There is so much about you that I’d like to know.”

“I’m not sure there’s much you’ll like hearing about,” Karine replied.

Sylvia’s smile had faded, but there was a softness in her eyes that made Karine think she might actually care.

But she was one burned, twice shy, and wouldn’t be falling into that trap again.

“I don’t make judgements, Karine. Sometimes hearing the worst about humanity is a part of my job, and you should know I am very good at it,” Sylvia said. “If only you’d give me a chance to show you.”

Karine went to the door, and Sylvia stepped aside.

Outside in the hallway, she was surprised to find there were no guards. She was certain they would follow them outside but for now, Sylvia had chosen to trust her. Or at least, extend a show of it for the moment.

She glanced back over her shoulder at the woman to find Sylvia had raised her brow, a silent question hanging between the two of them—like she was asking, well, now what, Karine?

“I don’t know what you want from me.”

“Just to talk,” Sylvia said. “You can do that.”

“I can’t, actually. I’ve never been able to, mostly. I don’t know if maybe I don’t want to. There’s so much ... a lot has happened, and I—”

She couldn’t make a coherent sentence. Thoughts and feelings became one big jumbled mess at just the idea of discussing her past.

Sylvia reached over to close the distance between them, touching Karine’s shoulder—maybe for the first time, she couldn’t honestly remember.

It was soft, though.

Light.

“Your husband believes in you. He told me all about the progress you made in a short time—he knew all you needed was a chance, Karine. You don’t know how strong you are, but I know you can do this. Even if the way you do it is by taking it one day at a time.”

Above everything, the emotional whiplash was the worst for Karine. One second she was angry at the world, the next she wanted to cry, and right then, she found herself longing for the man who’d put her here.

Irony was a bitch.

A cruel one.

The women walked down the hallway side by side, and Karine wished Roman was there with her. At the same time, a part of her was glad he wasn’t.

Like spiritual warfare, she was being ripped apart. Karine didn’t know how to stop it.

*

“Did he call today?” Karine asked Sylvia.

It had been a few days since the first time they went on that walk together—a step in the right direction, Sylvia said after they had headed back to Karine’s room.

Karine didn’t think she would be admitting as much, but she was actually beginning to feel like she could trust Sylvia. She wasn’t at the same place of trust she’d reached with Michelle or Claire, but maybe she could get there. At some point in the future, if she was still stuck here staring at the same four walls.

So to speak.

What option did she have?