The Promise (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 2) by Bethany-Kris (fiction book recommendations .txt) 📕

Karine’s bed, then, quieting the lies slipping out of her mouth. Or rather, the lie she was about to tell to placate the woman in to thinking she was okay. It was second nature for Karine, another way to protect herself by keeping people away. But the warm smile lingering on Claire’s face put her at ease, and she dropped that wall. It was so easy to do with her, she radiated a sense of security and tenderness.

She felt like a mother.

“You know,” Claire said, lifting the shoulder of her too-large wool sweater as she regarded Karine once more, “you really don’t owe me anything, and I hope you don’t think you have to tell me how you’re feeling just because of who I am. And it’s okay because I understand. It’s shattering every time I have to be away from Roman’s father, and I hate to say it, but it’s not something that gets better with time. You just learn how to deal with it. When you ... well, when you rely on someone and trust them like no one else in your life, and when they’re not around you when you feel like you need them, it’s normal to be a little bit lost.”

Claire could read a room, apparently.

Too well.

Karine let out a sigh, and raked shaking fingers through her hair to untangle the strands. It also distracted her from the uncomfortable fact that she didn’t know how to reply. Even if Claire was speaking the truth.

Not that woman seemed to mind.

“Especially when you still don’t know what any of this means,” Claire added softer. “And it’s new. That’s scary, too.”

The swift urge to fall into this woman’s arms, to maybe try and discover what it would feel like to have a mother’s support, welled in Karine. She couldn’t imagine what that would be like, but she felt closest to it sitting next to Claire.

She looked away, embarrassed by her own thoughts. Ashamed at the things she would like to have, but didn’t know where to begin to ask for—no one thought to teach her how. Affection came with strings. Karine was tied up enough.

“I just want to be in here for a while,” Karine said instead. “If that’s okay.”

“Of course, you can.” Claire kept that same, supportive smile as she reached over to squeeze Karine’s knee—tender and quick—before pulling back and adding, “You’re free to do whatever you like. Coping may be only a mechanism, Karine, but sometimes it’s the one thing we have. At least you’re doing something.”

It had to be some kind of terrible irony that Karine found it was too overwhelming for her—having people around her who actually gave a shit, spending days being told everything was on her terms.

The shift happened fast.

She was still spinning from the result.

“I just don’t want you to do something you’ll regret tomorrow.”

Karine snapped her head up to look at Claire, furrowing her brows. “What?”

“If you let him leave without seeing you, without saying your goodbyes—you might regret it. Tomorrow or a few days from now, whenever. This could be your one chance in a long time before you’re together again, Karine, we really don’t know what the coming days and weeks look like. Think about it.”

She did.

Not that she wanted to.

Claire clasped her hands in her lap, her smile faded though the kindness still remained in her eyes. Karine swallowed back the lump forming in her throat, but it didn’t help to form the words trying to get out.

Instead, all she managed to ask was, “Did he send you—”

“No,” Claire interjected before Karine could even finish. “You don’t have to worry, Roman hasn’t sent me here. In fact, he’s protective enough of you that if he finds out I came to speak to you about this, after he told everyone to leave you be, well ... I’ll hear about it, trust me. He’ll be nice about it—I’m his mother—but he’ll still do it.”

She gave Karine a playful roll of her eyes, and a wave of one hand. “Oh, well. I just thought I should say something—we weren’t exactly spying on the two of you, but everyone couldn’t help but see what happened when you weren’t very private about it, either. I won’t pretend my son is perfect.”

The lopsided grin on Claire’s face made Karine relax further, but her sweet laughter, drenched in the love she felt for her son, blanketed the room in invisible warmth.

“He’s not perfect,” Claire repeated, “but there’s a very good chance he wants to be perfect for you. And trust me when I say when it comes to them, that makes all the difference.”

“Them?” Karine asked.

“Avdonin men. They’re all the same. Every single one.”

“I know he’s only trying to help, and I’m grateful but ...”

“Who asked you to be grateful—to thank him, or us? I’m not saying this because any of us expect anything from you, Karine. I’m saying it so you’ll see what I mean. Everything Roman does, he’s doing for your sake. Even if you don’t like it. Nobody said you had to.”

Well.

Claire didn’t offer the truth harshly, but there it was. All the same. The former lump in Karine’s throat had now settled heavily in the pit of her stomach. Despite how much she hated the reality of the day, it still stared at her right in the face. There was no looking away.

“I don’t want to regret this tomorrow,” she murmured.

“Then go speak to him today,” Claire added. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over all these years ... well, they will make mistakes. Even if they are perfect for us, they’re still human, too. And they’ll crawl through glass if they have to—to come back to us, they will. If they have to.”

Karine knotted her fingers together, glancing at the open door. Claire hadn’t closed it, and she couldn’t help but wonder if that was by design. “I’m not too late, am I?”

“You’re not. He wouldn’t leave without seeing you,” Claire replied.

FOURTEEN

By the time Karine stood