Page 12 of Forgotten Vows

This wasn’t a hunch. It was a fact.

Swallowing hard, I took careful, light steps off the front step to the house.

Someone’s been watching.

I was paranoid by nature, always looking over my shoulder. Old habits died hard, and with my past as a daughter of a Mafia family, I would always be cautious like this.

Stepping quietly and carefully along the front of my house, I kept my eyes wide open and alert.

Someone is near.

I rounded the corner to the house, peeking past the wall.

The second I turned my view back that way, in the direction of the neighbors’ house, I held my breath.

Maybe it’s just them. The Rafaels.That would make sense. They were new here, and I was still acclimating to new people in my proximity. That didn’t explain the suited man hurrying through their backyard, though. It wasn’t Mr. Rafael. It wasn’t anyone working on or inspecting their new residence.

It was a man much like the ones I’d been so familiar with as a daughter in the Petrov family.

A spy.

It wasn’t the heat. It wasn’t the dizziness from working too much and not eating enough.

Someonehadbeen here watching.

“Fuck.” I whispered it with so much pent-up rage that I wanted to run and hide all over again. Right now. I fought the need to rush to Lev’s school and whisk him away at this instant.

All the peace and calm I’d found here in this hidden life I’d forged for us was gone. We were no longer safe here. That stranger stalking close by was proof that we couldn’t stay.

Fuck!

I didn’t know what changed.

I didn’t want to know why someone would be here now.

And I didn’t like how my first instinct was to wish thathewere here to protect me.

Ivan would never be a part of my life again. He’d left without a word, without a care. That fateful day was burned into my memory, when he’d walked away with that celebrity, letting me realize he’d been unfaithful.

“Fuck him,” I whispered as I jogged to the street, seeking the familiarity of the busier roadway to get back to work, then to grab Lev from school at dismissal. I wanted to rush to him and get him now, but I had to be practical and not rash.

If someone was here at the house snooping, I couldn’t lure them to Lev’s school.

Obsessing over an escape plan prevented me from dwelling on fantastical and hopeless wishes of Ivan being here to help me.

He never would.

But maybe Kalina can help.

Keeping a careful eye on my path, and for anyone following me back to work, I wondered if reaching out to my distant cousin in New York could be smart.

It was clear that I had to leave. Fleeing was my only option.

But maybe this time, I could reach out to my cousin. Kalina hadn’t contacted me in years, but when I cut all ties with the family, I hadn’t gone so far as to cut ties with her.

Maybe she’d help.

Someone.