Page 96 of Secrets, Lies and Love
Cecily
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Weeks later
I don’t have nausea.
I didn’t vomit even once. The only thing that makes me sure that I’m pregnant, besides the test results, are my extremely sore breasts.
After that dinner, something changed between us. I don’t know if it was because I confessed that I loved him, but now, in addition to lust, I feel that he has an affection for me that, I guess, he wouldn’t have for a woman who was just a temporary factor in his life.
We’re still in a clandestine relationship, and I feel Dionysus’s impatience growing like a pressure cooker about to explode, but that’s not why I came to his office at the bank today. I’m willing to tell part of the truth. Tell him I’m pregnant.
Through the tinted car window, I see the same security guard who, a few months ago, barred me from entering, saying I would never get to Dionysus. What would he think if he knew that Anderson is currently driving the car I’m in, and that, in a fewminutes, if everything goes well, I’ll tell the inaccessible Greek—who he told me is harder to talk to than God himself—that I’m expecting his son?
Yes, the time has come to stop lying, hiding. No matter how much he hates me in the future when he finds out that I came into his life through a calculated setup, he has the right to know that he is going to be a father.
“I’ll park near the private elevator, Cici.” Anderson, of all the employees, is sure that his boss and I are together, and at first, he tried to call me Miss Bradley again, which I didn’t allow. I still feel guilty about the scare I gave him, and I consider him a friend.
“It was the one I went up to before with Dionysus, right?”
“Yes. Just press twelve, and you’ll go straight to Mister Kostanidis’ office.”
“Thank you, Anderson.”
“Do you have your badge?”
“I do, yes.” I remove the special identification that Dionysus made for me which gives exclusive access to the elevator that leads directly to his office.
He gets out of the car and opens my door. When I get up, he frowns, as if he’s worried. “Is everything okay, Cici?”
Instead of answering, I respond with another question. “Do you believe in miracles, Anderson?”
He nods. “Every day when we get up, a small miracle happens, Cici. We are just pawns, arranged on the board of life by the great player: God. He can move us as he pleases, and even if we think we are immortal, that we will live forever, that is not true. So yes, I believe in miracles. Every breath at a new sunrise is a miracle.”
“The miracle of life. Yes, you’re right. Someone once told me that I’m a cat, that I have nine lives, but I’ve already used uptwo. I have seven left. I don’t need that many anymore. I want to continue in the current one. I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“Then fight to stay.”
For a moment, I think he knows everything, or at least suspects that I’m a fake.
No, it would be impossible. My history has been erased. The people who knew about my closeness to Keith and his grandmother were Jodelle and Peyton, and not even they were aware of how much my friend protected me, since he only occasionally appeared in our city.
I say goodbye and enter the elevator. Less than a minute later, the door starts to open, and I prepare to face Dionysus’s grumpy secretary. The first time I was here, the woman looked me up and down like I was an insect, and I was quite well-dressed.
To my surprise, however, the one who appears when the door opens fully is Cage.
“Cecily, you’re here!” He actually seems surprised to see me, but he recovers quickly.
“Hi, it’s been a while.”
“Not by my choosing,” he says, approaching and kissing me on the cheek.
I feel weird about this kind of intimacy, because even though we’ve texted and called a few times, as well as him being my ride to Madison’s wedding, we’ve never touched more than shaking hands. “I came to see Dionysus.”
If he’s surprised that I refer to our boss by his first name, he doesn’t show it. I suppose the reason is Joseph, since to everyone I’m still just the little boy’s night nanny.
“It must have been fate that made us meet. I have a company party to attend in a few weeks. I was actually going to call you. I want you to go with me.”
