Page 68 of Where Quiet Hearts Scream
“When what happened?” I glance again at Viola.
“Sera, it’s all over the news…”
I’m running out of patience. “What’s all over the news? Trilby, will you please cut to the chase? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Governor Grayson is dead.”
I clap a hand over my mouth. “What?” I whisper through my fingers. “Grayson is dead? How?”
Viola lifts a hand and presses it to her chest. This must be news to her too.
“He was shot. One bullet between the eyes. His wife found him bleeding out on their yacht in the early hours of this morning.”
My voice shakes chaoticallyas I breathe. “Oh my God.”
“If Andreas comes home, can you please pass on the message that Cristiano needs to speak to him. He isn’t answering his calls.”
“I will,” I say quietly, then I hang up the phone and flick on the T.V.
The newscaster is speaking with a solemn voice and the camera zooms in on brightly colored police cordoning. I stare at footage of the yacht currently filled with forensic investigators and the FBI, unable to believe it’s the same the one I ate dinner on last night.
“He’s dead,” I murmur. “Governor Grayson is dead.”
Viola takes my hand. “Do you think this has anything to do with Andreas slamming the door off its hinges?”
Oh. My. God.A part of me thinks Grayson’s murder has everything to do with Andreas’ anger last night, but another part of me refuses to believe it.
“I don’t know.”
I tear my eyes from the screen to look at the phone in my hand. “I want to call my husband.”
Viola swipes the screen and presses a number, then nods.
What was it Trilby had said? Andreas isn’t answering calls?
He answers after one ring.
“Viola. How is she?”
I drag in a breath. “It’s not Viola, it’s me.”
Viola gulps loudly and I rest a reassuring hand on her arm. “I made her give me the phone.”
He doesn’t speak but I hear him breathe deeply on the other end.
“I need you to come home.”
He hesitates. “I?—”
“I’m not asking, Andreas. I’m your wife. Come. Home.”
I hand the phone back to Viola who puts it back to her ear as she leaves the room. I can hear her muttering something into it but she doesn’t return.
I shower quickly and dress in a T-shirt and denim shorts. I don’t care if my scars are on show. I feel more comfortable in my skin than I ever have, and besides, no one is going to see me except Viola and Andreas. I stand at the window and wait.
When his car rolls up to the house, my heartbeat picks up. He’s changed his clothes since last night and is wearing a fresh suit, his black hair gleaming beneath the sun. I half-wonder how he isn’t boiling in this heat.
He enters the house and I hear him exchange a few words with Viola before climbing the stairs. Eventually a firm knock sounds at the door. I turn my back to the window and rest my spine against it.
