Page 103

He clutches the fabric of his trousers on his knees and looks at the ground, then away at the pretty window. "How did you... come to terms with sharing your... Raven?"
I swallow my annoyed groan and avoid looking at the corner of the room, which is a tendency I have when I want to roll my eyes. I do, however, blink in his direction, much like my little bird does me when she’s annoyed. “Are you having…issuesperforming with your wife while Parker is in the vicinity?”
Though his eyes slightly widen at the mention of Parker, he shakes his head. “No, I… enjoy it. The… being watched.”
Patient MRG – questioning his enthusiasm for exhibitionism.
"I see. While I do not usually share my personal life with clients, I will make an exception for you," I reply coolly, and he faces me again. "I ask that you keep your judgment to yourself while you're in my office, as my relationship is sacred to me, as is your marriage to you. I also ask to keep in mind that I do not owe you anything. This is a kindness I am offering simply because your wife is important to my partner, and I know you and I will be seeing more of each other in the future. It is imperative we build rapport. Do we have an understanding?"
Maksim dips his chin, dark eyes steady on me.
"Raven was my patient at Lorne Wood Mental Institution before she was my partner," I emphasize the word. "While I was infatuated with her before I ever even entertained the idea of sharing her, I understood there were many things out of my control once she left my care and was no longer my patient. She re-enrolled at Rayne-Moore University, where your wife was also an alumni. I proceeded to... follow her."
I wait for my words to register. When Maksim makes no facial movement, I continue.
"Under my care, in the gilded cage I had welded for her, she could spread her wings but could not fly. Once at Rayne-Moore, I watched as she began to... for lack of a better word, unravel. Along with weaning herself off of the medication I had her on, came Jonas. With him, I saw the genuine love he had for her. He allowed her to be silly; to not be weighed down by life, he reminded her that it was okay to feelpositive emotions. Maverick, on the other hand, allowed her to lose control as much as he himself lost control.
"And you?"
“I...reveledin watching my little bird fly. I reveled in watching her come, in being watched while making her come. It seems the rest of the world falls away when she moans for me or her partners.”
I tap my index finger to my chin twice and grin. "Once I realized what she needed was far more than I could give her alone, I... encouraged it. I made sure she knew she would never be fully alone again, that she would be loved and cared for no matter how dark it seemed. Our perception, our love for her, would not change–only grow. She... blossomed before my very eyes."
Maksim runs a hand through his dark, wavy hair and exhales. "My wife has these... tendencies. Ticks. I don't know, fits. Sometimes it's like she's in her own world. She puts on this impenetrable mask..."
Good, he's noticed it, too. "Yes, Sabrina had to put her acting skills to very good use in order to protect herself. It's a coping mechanism. Just like the self-isolation. Just like the pink."
He nods and points to me as if saying, "Bingo!" But then drops it to his lap again. "Parker seems to know how to put her at ease, and I seem to make her blow up. I want to be her anchor... but I don't know how."
"I see," I nod slowly. "Women like your wife, and Raven... people that go through very traumatic things that affect their psyches in the most damaging of ways, impacting their entire lives in more ways than one. Usually, they tend to want something nobody else can give them. It's something they desperately need to be able to find…” I wave a hand in the air “closure. To be able to close that chapter in their lives and finally move on. Move forward. It will never fully go away– these tendencies as you've called them–but it does help."
One dark brow slowly rises. "Which is?"
"Revenge," I answer in one breath.
"I can give her that."
"Can you?" I ask a little too quickly. "It is a beautiful thing to witness feminine rage in all its glory. Scary, sure. But I watched my Raven be reborn from the scattered ashes she left behind."
"So you suggest I let Sabrina what, unravel, as you said?"
A soft chuckle leaves my throat, and I rub the pad of my thumb against my middle finger. "Oh no, Maksim. See, Raven had to unravel, because she had to find the answers to all the questions she never thought to ask. They came at her one by one, and the deeper she dug, the worse it became. Naturally, she had to set fire to her world."
He blinks at me, waiting to continue, to give him the answers – but it'sso much more complicatedthan that.
"Now, a woman like Sabrina, who knows the answers and has no questions… under the weight of that mask and pink armor, well..." I make sure to maintain eye contact, so he understands the gravity of the situation as the seconds tick by. "She'll snap."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sabrina.
Whilst congratulating my client – who is as old as my mother and spent twenty-seven of her years with her ex-husband, including the years they were together as teens, who couldn't take any more of the cheating – not only for getting the maximum in child support for her youngest child but also well-deserved alimony cerulean eyes meet mine.
Where she should look happy, she looks... confused. Sheepishly, she asks, "Now what? I spent almost thirty years with him. He's all I know. I quit college to raise our children... I have to start all over again. Meanwhile, he already has some ditzy trophy lined up, the age of our eldest.”
I smile broadly, "Now, Ms. Witherby, you get to find yourself. You're on a new adventure. If you’ll allow me to be forward, I've seen your paintings, and I think they're incredible. I have a friend who's a gallerist in Brooklyn. I took the liberty of snapping some pictures when you weren't looking and sent them to her. She's very excited to hear from you. I'll forward you her information."
She blushes with the compliment. "They're just macabre sketches and doodles. Nothing grand."