Page 9 of Born Wicked

“Sebastian proposed to you some months ago,” Teresa moves on without batting an eye. “What were to be the living arrangements once you two were married?”

I barely resist the eye roll, but the sigh still comes out. “It was in the air. I wanted to find a new place, somewhere we both chose. It always bothered me, living in a space he owned. I voiced this concern. But it wasn’t discussed heavily. So, I cannot give you a definitive answer.”

“Was there talk of a prenup?” She asks it without hesitation, no tact, no sensitivity.

“No,” I answer as I cross my arms over my chest.

For the first time, she leans back and writes something down on the notepad in front of her.

I’d guess that is in my favor. If there was no prenup, why would I kill Sebastianbeforethe wedding? Then I’d get nothing.

Not that I killed him.

Not that she believes that.

“The relationship between you two ended badly,” Teresa says as her cold eyes return to mine again. “Tell me about the end.”

“You get this one last question, Superintendent Day,” Sylvano warns. “Unless you wish to charge my client with something, she is here, cooperating out of the goodness of her heart. Doctor Doe is a very busy woman, cleaning up the mess her ex-fiancé dropped.”

“I value everyone’s time,” Teresa says with that smile I’m growing to truly hate. “And I can only imagine how you value yours. Last question, Dr. Doe. For today.”

My teeth grit. This is the last thing I want to be doing. I’m trying to move on. I’m trying to not be angry every moment of every day. And she’s asking me to relive it all.

“Sebastian got paranoid,” I say. “He’s lost people in the past, and it hurt him. Badly. As our relationship got more serious, he started getting worried that something bad would happen to me too. He started asking me where I was and who I was with. All the time. I found out he was tracking my phone. And then, eventually, I realized he was paying someone to follow me.”

It’s satisfying when that raises her eyebrows in surprise. When she sits back in her seat. When that puts a crack of doubt in that judge-and-jury expression of hers.

“When I confronted Sebastian about it, he didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t sorry,” I say as my eyes fall to the floor. “And that was it. I never went back to that apartment. It didn’t feel safe anymore. Sebastian and I only spoke once after that, the night I gave him his ring back.”

It’s a tiny bit of a lie. I spoke with Sebastian one other time, the night he killed Roman, and we all discovered my gift is the ability to die for others.

When I’m finished, Teresa Day stares at me for several long moments. I can see the gears turning in her mind as she processes everything I’ve just said. It’s obvious she believed me to be one-hundred percent guilty. But now… Now maybe she’s seeing me as human just a little bit.

“What is your relationship with Roman DeLuca?” she asks, turning the conversation in the last direction I expected.

“You’ve already used up all your questions for today, Superintendent Day,” Sylvano says as he stands from his seat, buttoning his suit jacket and then brushing his hands over his pants, as if the meager city budget has rubbed off on him. “If you wish to ask my client any more questions, you will have to make another appointment.”

“I will be in touch,” she says, knowing she tried to sneak one last question in there, one that might have complicated things further. “Soon.”

I stand from my seat and don’t care to say another word to the cold woman as I turn and walk out of her office.

“How did I do?” I ask Sylvano as we walk down the hall. If I were human, I’d be a shaking mess. Instead, I just feel jittery.

“Fine,” he says honestly. “The fewer details you can give the woman, the better. But the game changed when you brought up Sebastian’s stalking.”

“I thought that, too,” I admit. “Sylvano, is there any chance she really might peg me with something happening to Sebastian?”

He stops abruptly as we reach the doors. He looks back at me, intense conviction in his eyes. “I swear, Dr. Doe, that woman won’t make you spend one night behind bars. Unless she can find a body with your DNA all over it, or footage of you stuffing him into a trunk, she has nothing on you.”

I swallow hard, nodding. My heart is thundering in my chest. My brain is already spinning with what’s next. What’s next?What’s next?

Sylvano releases me, and we step to the doors. He slips his sunglasses on as I reach into my bag for mine. “She will bring you in again. I will be working on your case. Trust me, Juliet. She can’t put anything on you.”

“Thank you,” I say as we step out into the blinding sunlight.

And there, standing just to the side of the door, braving the blinding and painful sunlight with some top-of-the-line sunglasses, is Roman.

He stands straight and walks over, giving Sylvano a nod as the man walks away.

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