Page 42 of Breaking Point
“Shut up,” she muttered to herself and drank more port.
When the quiet knock on the front door sounded, Luciana presumed it was her imagination.She was reaching for someone,anyone, to come and tell her how to fix everything that had gone wrong.How to save her son.
That wasn’t going to happen, though.Not even Brice could change anything.If hewastrying to change anything.She still didn’t believe him.Not at all.Not just because he had signed the charge sheet, but also because if Brice Falcon said he was working to change things, then hewouldhave changed things.He would have fixed them already.He was Brice Falcon, after all.
Yet no miracles had happened.Ergo, he had been lying.
“See?”Luciana muttered to the glass.“I wash…was right.”
The quiet knock came again.A tiny bit louder this time.
“Shumone at the door,” Luciana said.She got to her feet and moved over to the door, only weaving once.She opened the door and staggered back, shocked.“Rayen!”
Rayen Todd gave Luciana a taut smile.“I didn’t want to wake whoever is sleeping on the couch.”Her voice was low.“I need to talk.”
Luciana wiped at her eyes.“Caelen.On the couch.”
“Devar’s love?”Rayen murmured.She was a tall, dark silhouette in the night.“He was going to bring her to dinner, to introduce her to Barny and me.”Her voice dropped.“Then all this started.”
Luciana stepped back.“In.Come.”
Rayen stepped in, took the door out of Luciana’s hand and shut it softly.“Upstairs,” she murmured.“We can talk there.Go on.I’m right behind you.”
Luciana drew herself upright.“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m not, idiot.You want to wake Caelen?”
Luciana sighed.“I’m not sober.”
“I couldn’t tell.”Rayen’s tone was dry.“Do you want to stand here and talk, or talk upstairs?”
She was asking, at least.
Luciana turned and made her way to the stairs, then slowly took a step at a time, up to the second floor.She moved into the bedroom and lowered herself carefully to the bed.Except the bed was unexpectedly lower than she thought, and she sprawled.
She sat up again, and felt the room tilt.
This was not a good state to be in, to deal with Rayen.
Rayen walked in, carrying a mug that steamed.“Here, drink.It’s coffee.”
Luciana wanted to protest that Rayen was once again telling her what to do.Only, with the room shifting around in her vision, she recognized that she wasn’t capable of deciding what to do herself.So she took the cup and sipped.It was, of course, the way she preferred her coffee.Rayen hadn’t forgotten.
Rayen didn’t sit on the bed beside her.Instead, she pulled over the low stool and settled on it.She wrapped the hem of her dress around her ankles, held them, and put her chin on her knees.
“Your hair is gray,” Luciana observed.She thought it was remarkable that she had noticed.
Rayen touched it.“It happens.”
“You should color it.”
“No, thank you.”
“You used to rage about people who didn’t take you seriously as a woman and a professional,” Luciana pointed out.“How much more seriously do you think they’ll take you as a gray-haired woman?People don’t see older people.”
“They’ve seen you lately, though, haven’t they?”Rayen’s voice was back to dry again.“Brice Falcon, Luciana?”
Luciana straightened her back.It kept slouching into a curve.“It was a thing.It’s over now,” she said.
