Page 11 of Forgotten Vows

Creeping toward the window, I used my pinky to slowly nudge the pleats of the curtains apart. Not enough to give away to anyone lurking outside that I was moving the fabric. Just enough to see through a slim slit.

I squinted, narrowing my eyes to sharpen my vision. All my senses were heightened, but it all looked the same. The same lawn. The same empty street. The same bird pecking at the grass in the corner.

“Stop. Just stop it,” I chided myself. It was just a whisper of admonishing myself, but it sounded so loud and clear in this solitude.

I backed up, shaking my head as if that would clear my frantic thoughts.

Why would someone be here?

Why now?

Knowing I didn’t have all the idle time in the world to dwell on this feeling or freak out any further, I retreated toward the kitchen. A glass of lemonade would do me well.

Frustrated with myself for feeling afraid of nothing—twice in one day—I furrowed my brow and grabbed a glass to fill it up with the sweet, tart, and sugary drink.

I’ve been here for three years now. Just me and Lev. No one’s come around.

I sipped the drink, determined to carry on with the refreshment.

No one’s here.

It’s just the heat getting to me. The heat and the hustle of working so much.

I sipped again, feeling better and less shaky.

Hell, maybe it was just hunger. And being thirsty.

It wouldn’t have been the first time that I neglected to eat and drink enough. Maybe that was it. Low blood sugar and pushing myself too hard during this heat wave. That was completely plausible.

Because no matter how I looked at it, it didn’t make sense why someone would come looking for menow.

After all these years…

“Stop.” I shook my head again and set my glass in the sink, ready to hurry back to work.

I couldn’t keep doing this, letting my fear get the best of me.

I was glad Lev wasn’t here to witness this freak-out and panic attack. I noticed how it wore on him when he saw me so worried.

It’s been years.

All that time and nothing had happened. No matter how long we went without an incident of being spotted, I’d stay diligent and aware.

I’d cut ties with my father. I’d severed all connections to him and the Mafia families I once knew. That was the old me. This was the new me, in the present, as a hardworking single mother to a wonderful boy.

It’s been years. No one’s coming.

I wanted to imprint that in my brain. I wanted to scream it to myself until the message stuck. I was as stubborn as they came,but the instant I set foot outside and pulled the heavy front door closed and locked behind me, it was back.

That tingle of being seen.

That vulnerable rawness of having nowhere to hide.

Once more, I reacted instinctively.

My pulse raced. My lungs couldn’t hold enough air. Dizzy again, I scoped the scene.

Someoneishere.