The Marriage (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 3), Bethany-Kris [books for 8th graders txt] 📗

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?

“No, we haven’t heard from him today,” Sylvia replied.

Sitting in the gardens next to the small fish ponds, Karine had a paper bag with a sandwich and a banana for her lunch. Sylvia was eating a protein bar beside her on the bench. She could have opted for something tastier—crepes had been on the brunch menu—but she only wanted easy today.

Karine had woken up that morning with the sudden urge to hear Roman’s voice. It was the first thing she asked when she laid eyes on Sylvia, and it hadn’t been far from her mind since.

However, he didn’t call.

When she asked Sylvia to find out why—she was told that he hadn’t called in over four days. He’d called repeatedly, several times an hour, for days. Then stopped without warning.

Because he’d given up—was he angry?

She didn’t know.

It broke her heart.

She couldn’t blame him for the silence—mostly. It wasn’t his fault. Karine didn’t feel like she deserved any better than that.

“I’m sure he’ll call soon. Your husband sounds like a busy man,” Sylvia continued.

Karine blinked away the hot sting of tears in the back of her eyelids. She could picture him standing right there in front of her, if she leaned over and stretched her hand out she was sure she’d be able to touch him.

Her imagination had always been vivid.

Far too real.

That was part of the problem.

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Karine replied, shrugging as her grip tightened on the paper bag. “He’s busy—he’s got a lot of things to deal with.”

“There you go. I’m sure he’ll call soon.”

Karine shook her head. “Or he’s too busy to deal with me. I’m a nuisance to him, I think. I keep fighting him, I’m always in the way. I don’t even know why he married me.”

Sylvia ate the last piece of her protein bar, then stuffed the wrapper in her jacket pocket. She gave Karine a look from the side as she said, “We talked about this already, didn’t we?” You shouldn’t doubt the positive things that happen to you because they happen for a good reason. Do you consider your husband to be a foolish man?”

She thought about that.

“Not usually.”

Sylvia grin. “All men have their moments. Do you consider him to be a liar?”

“He lied to get me here.”

“And that’s what hurts the worst.”

“Shouldn’t it?” Karine asked.

Syliva hummed under her breath. “You know the circumstances that found you here—did he have another way?”

She didn’t answer that.

The therapist seemed fine with her silence.

“You just have to trust him, and understand that he married you with good reason. He married you because he loves you, and it’s exactly what he wanted to do. That one thing can exist and be true outside of the other things he’s done, Karine. You can hate the sin, and love the sinner. They don’t have to be mutual or exclusive.”

Karine didn’t add the fact that Roman may also just have married her to keep her safe from Dima—so he couldn’t claim her as his property.

She’d rather believe Sylvia’s version instead of the poisonous doubts that constantly left Karine floating in uncertainty and pain.

Sylvia smiled, saying quietly, “He will call. I’m sure he has a valid reason for not doing so in a few days. Give him a chance to explain it.”

Which meant waiting.

But for what?

Even though Karine nodded her head, she wasn’t feeling as confident as Sylvia did. Maybe she had pushed him too far. Maybe, like her father, Roman wanted to wash his hands clean of her entirely.

She hated the part of herself that understood why.

*

Nighttime was the worst.

She used to never dream—or rather, she never remembered them come the next morning. Lately, she couldn’t escape the nightmares. Constant and vivid, they trapped her between sleeplessness and memories she didn’t want to relive.

It was even worse when she couldn’t tell the difference between being asleep, or awake. Karine gasped for air as she peered through the crack between the door of the closet. The faint ringing in her ears deafened all other sounds.

Katina and Dima’s voices were muffled. She couldn’t even hear her sister crying anymore or the crack of his fist when it fell against her skull for the final time.

Katina must have slumped down to the floor, but there was a blinding white light splashed all over the bedroom.

No, that’s not right.

Karine hadn’t been in the bedroom.

She blinked rapidly but still couldn’t see anything, but that was the first moment she’d come back into awareness, and left the nightmare. Not that it mattered, she still knew what happened. She had seen it so many times that she memorized every detail of the scene. Even the smell of her sister’s perfume.

She cried out for Roman when her body jolted awake all at once. She sprang up in bed, realizing her nightclothes were damp from her own sweat and so were the sheets surrounding her.

Where was she?

Where was Roman?

She shouted his name again.

Nothing.

No one answered her back.

The room was dark, and she jumped out of the bed searching for a switch along the wall. Stumbling in her fear and confusion because she couldn’t remember where she’d fallen asleep. She was blind in her dream and now that she was awake—she was blind still.

“Roman. Please.”

Her whispers disappeared into the darkness until her fingers felt the shape of a switch. A harsh yellow light flooded the room, and that’s when she remembered where she was. Finally, Karine could breathe, but her chest was still tight.

She stared around the sterile bedroom, realizing that the faint hope she would wake