Page 66 of Winter
“He’s not a good person, Inca. I don’t want you around him.”
She slammed the bowl down. “Jesus Christ. Really? It’s getting really old, Olly, really very old.” He saw tears in her eyes. “Please, Olly, just go.”
He took a deep breath in. “Just listen to me; there was a murder in Seattle last night. The victim was stabbed to death, no motive, no robbery. Her body was found on the grounds of the hospital. She … Inca … she looked just like you. I did some digging.” He put a piece of paper down on the counter. “Seventeen women of Asian descent murdered over the last few years and guess who was in the cities when the women e died? That’s right—Tommaso Dario Winter. All of the women were repeatedly stabbed in the stomach, some of them disemboweled. Like your birth mother. Like Jasmine Khan. All the women look like you.”
Inca was staring at him, her mouth open. “I don’t believe this. I don’t believeyou. Have you actually gone insane?”
“Inca—”
“No. No. Shut up. Just shut your mouth. Tommaso’s harmless. He’s been a good friend to me. Both of them have. And you come in here and accuse him of ... are you actually fuckinginsane? Do you have any proof he has committed any crime at all, let alone slicing and dicing some women who, gosh, happen to look like me? You know how many Asian people there are? Lots of them look like me, and some of them get murdered. But somehow this translates into Tommaso Winter is going to kill me?”
Olly winced. “I’m just trying to protect you.”
She threw the mixing bowl against the wall, shocking him with the depth of her distress. “You don’t get to do that anymore; do you understand me? You don’t have the right.”
Olly ached at the anguish in her voice. He reached for her, but she backed away from him, hurt in her eyes.
“Just stop it. This isn’t fair, Olly. I can’t—” She put her face in her hands, and he heard her sob. Just once. “Please, Olly, you have to stop.”
“I can’t just stop caring about you. I can’t stop it. I love you.”
“No! You don’t get to say that to me again.Ever.” She was angry now. More than that. Furious. “God, I was so stupid to think, to let myself hope we could still be friends, but you’re making it impossible.”
She was sobbing now, and Olly managed to get his arms around her. Inca struggled with him, but he wouldn’t let go. She went limp, burying her face in her hands.
“You can’t just hold me and think that it’s going to make everything okay. I won’t let you do this to me again. You’ve broken me, Olly, and you can’t fix me this time.”
He let her go then, her words cutting into him, fracturing what was left of his heart.
“Please go.” She turned away from him.
Olly’s throat was closed, his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry.”
She looked at him then, and he saw the heartbreak and the endless loss in her eyes. “It’s not good enough.”
After he left, Nancy quietly slid back into the kitchen. Inca was still crying, albeit silently, and her mother wrapped her arms around her. “It’s okay, darling.”
There was a knock at the back door then, and Nancy opened it to see Luna outside. “Hi,” she said uncertainly.
Nancy pulled her in out of the cold. “See if you can cheer Inca up. Your brother’s just upset her.”
Luna’s mouth formed a line, but she rolled her eyes. “That’s what he’s good at.”
“I’m okay,” Inca said shortly, wiping her eyes. She didn’t look at Luna. There was an awkward silence, then Luna looked at Nancy.
“Look, Inks, why don’t you stay with me tonight? I bet you could do with a girl’s night in for a change. Although I know, it must have been hell trapped in the luxurious mansion with those two gorgeous billionaires.”
Inca looked sharply at her old friend, then realized she was grinning at her. She smiled and rolled her eyes. “Utterhell.”
Luna shifted her weight to her other foot. “Well? What do you say? Chili and aFriendsmarathon like the old days?”
Inca smiled. “That sounds good to me, Loons.”
“Don’t call me that. That okay with you?” She looked at Nancy, who shrugged.
“Fine with me. I’m not Inca’s keeper.”
“Will Tommaso be okay with it?”
