Page 30 of Never Have We Ever
She went into their room but did not lock the door. She should have, for André soon followed and stood in the doorway, blocking the only real exit from their marital chambers.I’m not afraid of you, André.He might be a bastard, but he wasn’t an abusive one. Eventhen, when he looked angrier than Valeska had ever seen him, she didn’t fear him. The worst he might do was raise his voice, and she could handle that.
What she couldn’t handle, however, were the sour words dripping from his lips.
“You never read them.” André smacked his hand against the doorframe. “Never.”
Valeska narrowed her eyes. The rest of her remained perfectly still in front of hervanity. “What are you talking about?”
“The letters I’ve sent you since we married. You haven’t read any of them.”
Those things?Valeska received her last one when she was in Austria. She had burned it without bothering to open it. The rest of them, however, were stored away in boxes in the bottom of her closet. “How can I read those letters when you don’t write in a language I can understand?”Valeska could smack her hand in frustration as well. “I’ve been going crazy for almost ten years because I feel like I live in a stranger’s land! I wish I had known what I was signing up for when I married you, André Dubois. Between France and Monaco, I never had a fighting chance to keep my own identity. You once promised that we might at least live in Berlin for a while. Whatever happened tothat?”
“It didn’t work out with my job.”
“Of course it didn’t! But that never concerned you, because no matter where we lived, you knew the local language and customs. Meanwhile, my own daughter can’t understand me. She’s a little French girl until my dying day!”
“So what will you do? Take our son to Vienna and make a good Austrian boy out of him?”
“Gotthelp me.”
André shook his head indefeat. “You never read them. I should have known.”
Valeska grunted as he left. “You bastard,” she whispered. “How am I supposed to read them if I cannot even fucking read French?”
“You should try again!” he called from the other end of the hallway. “You might be surprised!”
Valeska ignored him. Her mind was already robbed of the ability to think of anything but him. Why would she subjectherself to those letters if it only meant thinking about him some more? She finally had more self-respect than that.
