Page 46 of The Breath Before Forever

There, she said it.

He wouldn’t talk to a therapist, never mind a regular family physician who could just ask him simple questions once a week over the phone to monitor his symptoms that manifested as behaviors. Not all of them were good, productive, or healthy. It also took a great toll on his mental health, so Bogdan it was when things weren’t great for Vaslav.

“Hannah’s pregnant?” he asked, then, shuffling sideways so that his profile faced her where she shimmied her leggings and panties back up in place.

“Not that she wants to be,” Vera confirmed, “but life happens.”

Vaslav did little more than grunt under his breath at that statement. He eyed the bedroom space studiously instead of Vera once she was off the commode. Without explanation or warning, he walked out of sight, and Vera opted not to follow.

They both needed the space.

Unsurprisingly, his distance didn’t last for long. Vaslav darkened the bathroom doorway once more, and tipped his head toward the pregnancy test on the counter while Vera washed her hands.

“What?” she asked.

“Toss it in the trash,” he said, “and come with me.”

Caught off-guard by the total one-eighty, Vera forgot to turn the taps off before she turned around with dripping wet hands. “For what?”

He sighed.

A heavy sound.

She saw how it weighed him down.

“Your answers,” he said.

Before she could ask him to explain more, Vaslav disappeared out of view of the doorway again. She made quick work of turning off the taps, and grabbing the pregnancy test that she had no intention of throwing away like he said to. Stuffing it into the pocket of her oversized cardigan before she exited the bathroom, she stepped out to find Vaslav waiting at the doorway of the bedroom.

“Come on, it’s in the safe.”

“The safe?”

“In the den,” he clarified.

Not once had he told her about a safe in the fucking den, and only now was the time he thought to do so. Right. Typical Vaslav. The whiplash this man gave her was unreal.

“And where is this safe in the den?” Vera asked.

Vaslav scratched at his jaw. “In and around, or under my desk.”

“What?”

“What?” he parroted back.

Vera had caught onto that trick.

Even used it herself.

“Just show me the safe, Vas,” she told him.

He led the way.

13.

Vera didn’t quite know what to make of the large hole in the floor Vaslav had kept hidden with a simple rug she’d walked across more times than she cared to count. Never once did she notice that there might be something beneath it. Frankly, as Vaslav disappeared down the steps after he’d opened the hatch to the secret passageway down to his safe built under the floor, she wondered what else he had kept hidden in the house.

“Are there more?” Vera asked.