Page 45 of Stalk

I stop breathing. That’s alotto read. I assume most of it is incredibly personal, too. I would imagine they would be extremely difficult to go through. If my father had written in diaries, I’m not sure I could read so many so fast. “That must be hard. Are you okay?” There I go, being empathetic again.

“Yeah.” Ren gives me a weak, unconvincing half smile. But for once, their sadness doesn’t bother me. It’s warranted here. “I think I’ll move slowly. Only read one or two entries a night andstart going through all the other stuff we found during the day, so long as I still don’t have any assignments taking up my time.”

“That’s a good idea.” I take a long pull of wine, then top off my glass.

Ren motions for the bottle, and I hand it over. “It’s promising though, right? Who knows what I’ll find.”

“Definitely promising,” I agree. “Any word from your boss, or is she still silent?”

Ren swallows roughly. “Totally silent.”

Questo non va bene.“I see.”

A normal boss would be checking in with Ren at the very least, I would think. There is definitely somethingoffabout her. A heavy feeling settles in between the bottom of my rib cage as I swallow more wine.

“Well. Any luck on your side?”

It’s time for me to drop the bombshell, and I’d rather not. What I have to share is shocking, and unfortunately, I don’t have many details to give Ren. Time to rip the Band-Aid off, I suppose. “I couldn’t access our main database from here, so I had my sister do some research for us. She essentially is the office manager at our company, and she’s more familiar with all of our records. Turns out, your mother came to Italy in the early 2000’s to work with us on what we can only assume was a high-profile case.”

Ren pales in seconds, then swallows roughly. “Uh—why do youassumeit was high-profile?” Their voice comes out almost as a squeak, and though I understand the news isn’t easy to take in, I wish Ren could be a little more steady for this. They seem like they might fall out of their chair if I tell them any more.

My heart races, and it’s an ugly combination of nervousness and feeling deeply annoyed. Not so deep down, I’m glad Ren hasn’t made me totally soft.

Maybe there’s hope for me yet.

I shake my head to snap out of my thoughts. “I shouldn’t give you this information, but I do not know how to explain otherwise…” I pinch the bridge of my nose as my shoulders tense. “When I tried to look up your mother, I found nothing, which wasn’t a shock. However, when I reached out to my sister and asked her to look into it, she found your mother’s name attached to a case file, but the file could not be opened.”

“What do you mean?” Ren asks, their voice strained.

“From what my sister explained to me, our files supposedly have different levels of security. Most of our past cases are available to me, but there are a select number that no one has access to. Not even my sister. She told me she was surprised that your mother’s name showed up at all.”

“So you’re saying this case—whatever it was—was so serious that your sister could only see my mother’snameattached to the file? Did any other names come up?”

“One did,” I say roughly.

“Whose?”

“My father’s.”

CHAPTER 18

Ren

My father’s.

What the?—

I was already hyper aware of my body before Mattia dropped this bomb on me, but now everything is intensified. My breathing is too loud, my lungs are too heavy, my joints feel as though they’ve been locked in place; rusty. Somehow, I manage to state the obvious. “Our parents knew each other.” I force my eyes to meet his.

Mattia nods once, his lips downturned. “Yes.”

I stare at him, and he stares right back. Those dark, irresistibly piercing eyes that keep me awake at night. For a split second, they almost look like they’re filled with empathy. For once, I don’t look away. I expect him to say something, but he doesn’t. He just leans back in his chair, slowly twirling his empty wineglass by its stem.

Somehow, after what feels like many minutes, my joints unlock. Somehow, my jaw relaxes and I can breathe again.

He must notice the change in my body language, too. “There you go,” he says, voice deep.

“What?”

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