{{Unedited}}
“Love…” the whisper was distant, but still audible. “Love…” That time it cracked the silence like a gunshot. Vincent opened his eyes to the frail beauty before him. The room was black as it was the middle of the night. He glanced at the nightstand; past three in the morning. “Vincent,” she whispered again.
Her hair was gone, he’d shaved it for her not more than four or five days ago and time was wearing so thin that he couldn’t believe that he’d actually been asleep when she’d called his name.
He immediately sat up and shakily put his glasses over his face. “What do you need, Marielle?” he asked gently, taking her to him.
She bit her bottom lip as she listened to his heartbeat which was strong, but he knew that it was pounding; terrified. “I had a bad dream,” she whispered.
He wanted to tell her that he was there and that he was going to be there and everything was going to be okay and he did. He said the words. But the bad dream that they were currently in was never ending, and when it did end, it wasn’t going to be a happy one. He squeezed her as tightly as he felt that he could for her condition, and gently rocked her. “Do you want to tell me about it, Masin?”
“I was gone,” she began. His nostrils flared as he silently cried. She was about to be gone sometime soon. He was going to go again tomorrow to look for someone else to heal her, but he knew, in his soul, that it was all in vain. “And you were alone, and you were broken and without me,” she croaked in the darkness. “You crumbled and fell, and drank and slept and suffered…people called you a villain.”
He wanted to tell her that that was exactly what was going to happen, but he shook his head. “I’ll be fine, love. It might take some time, but I’ll be fine, Masin,” he assured knowing that every last word of it was a lie.
She looked up into his eyes in the dark and shook her head, “False…”
He couldn’t stop himself from breaking and drew her tightly against himself again. “Oh, Masin, Masin,” he sobbed into her skin. “I love you so much. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
There was a pregnant pause as she pulled back, and her eyes flickered to the book sitting on the nightstand; The Old Man and the Sea. “You’re going to find me again,” she breathed.
***
Vincent took in a deep pull of air and turned, looking at Marielle now.
She was asleep beside him in the darkness, and he dared to reach out and gently run a fingertip down her bare arm.
He’d found her again. “I’m in love with you, Masin,” he breathed into the night, “my heart is yours. I’m going to stop lying to you. I’m going to give up my life for you. We’ll go to the little French village and live there peacefully. No one will find us. We’ll spend our evenings by the fire and kiss, and touch, and whisper.” He gently took her hand into his and kissed her knuckles in the dark. “Please love me… please marry me. I want to see my last name next to yours. I want to have white hair with you.” He stroked his thumb over her knuckles over and over again. “You are my life, Masin. My life.” He stroked her cheek. “I want you to be my wife again.”
She stirred. “Did you say something, love?”
“I am just telling you how deeply I am in love with you, Masin,” he whispered. Then he bit his lip. “I lied just now. I was begging you to marry me.”
“Hoping to get into my subconscious, are you? You know that doesn’t work as well as they act like it does.”
He gave her a silent chuckle. “They?”
“Yes, the general, cosmic they,” Marielle replied with a yawn. Again, they both chuckled, silently.
A pregnant pause came between them. “You don’t have to answer me now.”
“But you want me to,” she said for him.
“Masin, I would have married you ten minutes after you said hello and pretended that you didn’t know my name in that folder that you were carrying.”
She smiled softly on the corner of her mouth, “it seems like so long ago.”
“Because it was,” Vincent said sitting up on the edge of the bed and rubbing his temples. He went to use the bathroom, then got a glass of milk from the kitchen and brought it back to the nightstand where Headhunter was resting. “Would you like a little milk?” he asked her gently. She was yawning again, but she sat up and took the glass from him as he handed it to her. “I’m sorry for earlier. What I said… It was so wrong of me. It just came out…” He sighed and looked down into his lap. “You’re not a whore, Masin. You’re confused, and I am the architect of that confusion.” She swallowed off the last of the glass and gave him an innocent look like she hadn’t meant to do that. He smiled at her adoringly; a look that said, you may have as much of whatever is mine as you’d like. “I orchestrated all of this,” he explained distantly. “But at the time I had no idea what Cory was doing or how terrible he truly was. I didn’t even think they’d work the equations that got them to this side out for years and years to come. Now everyone has had to pay for my mistakes,” he said quietly, “except me.”
“I think you’ve suffered.”
“I have,” he replied turning the light on finally so that he could see her better. “But not in a way that’s clear to others.” He nodded. “You were right, I am one of the reasons that Kirra is dead. I sent her out there to talk to Austin, but I had no idea that we were going to be attacked,” he added with a heavy sigh. “I’m losing my ability to be in control and all because I just want you, and none of that is okay.” He rubbed his hands over his face and Marielle watched his muscles for a moment in awe as they moved down his back. “You love Austin. I know that you do, Marielle.” He shook his head. “I just… no matter what dimension I go to you always love Austin.” He looked off.
“So why did you keep putting us together? Why do you now?”
“Marielle…” He turned to, leaning on his side and taking her beauty in for a moment. “I didn’t know what Austin was entirely when I first came here. It’s true, I warned you about him in the beginning, but I realized quickly that he was in love with you, and I knew that I could use that against him. He wants to be with you. So, I let him.”
“Why?”
“Two reasons, love,” he whispered caressing her face. “The first one you know. He will die protecting you,” she sighed and looked down, nodding. He’d practically done it when it came to Tundra. “The second is simple… I wanted you to make the choice. I’d been to enough worlds where you were married to Austin Rancor to know that the choice had to be yours. Be with him, or be with me, but you have to truly know him to make the choice.” He smoothed her shorter hair back behind her ear. “I’m crumbling inside because I know that your choice is ultimately him.”
“Even I don’t know that, yet. I gave you my body tonight.”
“But did you give me your heart?” He picked at his thumbnail for a moment. “Or is it with Austin?”
“My heart is divided, Vincent,” she explained with a heavy sigh.
“Divided. Oui.”
“A-are you leaving me, Vincent?” she whispered, using that same tone that he’d used when he’d asked the same question.
He gave her a sad, fading smile. “No, mon amour. I am with you until you decide that we are no more. I always had a feeling that it would be him but at least this way I get to love you again.” He ran a fingertip over his right eyebrow with a sigh. “I just keep praying that it won’t be.”
“I am not going back to him right now. He still has a lot of growing to do.”
“I know, Masin.” He gently pulled her to him. “I know.” He shook his head, “I will make a confession to you.” Marielle looked up at him curiously. “The night that you encountered Tundra, I prayed that he would die.” He shook his head. “When he lay on that table, I was staring into his eyes and just pleading for him to die. It would all be over, Masin. But the bastard just won’t die,” he silently chuckled, with tears in his brown eyes. “I also almost killed him a few days before that. I’m so glad that I didn’t, now.”
“You almost killed him?” she narrowed her eyes at him, angrily.
“Oui. When we found Tala. Austin knows, I told him.” He shook his head shamefully, “then I had to stop Chamber from doing it a few moments later.”
“Chamber almost killed him, too?” She groaned exasperatedly.
“Oui, Marielle.” He paused and an ironic smile spread across his face. “But what’s funny is that I think they’re friends now.” He went silent for a moment, his expression looked as if he was trying to understand anything at all. “Everything is surreal to me. I was friends with Austin.”
“Weren’t you only friends with Austin to get to me?” she pressed with a raise of her brow.
He was lost in a memory somewhere. “I was friends with Austin because I loved him. He caved in on himself. Then I wanted nothing to do with him and only wanted you.” He cupped her cheek and stroked it with his thumb. “I still want you, Masin.” He tugged at his bottom lip with his teeth. “So, so badly.”
“You had me just a few hours ago.” She blushed.
“Like you, Masin… I always want you. But I don’t mean like that. I would stay with you no matter the circumstance. I think I proved that when I, -” his eyes watered a little as he choked out the words, “-when I watched you die.” He blinked back tears as he looked down between them. He sighed and looked at the cottage cheese ceiling, “and then again when I…” his voice trailed off.
Her gaze fell, shamefully. “Excused my affair.”
He nodded. “I don’t want to keep bringing that up, Masin. I apologize. I know why you did it.”
“Why do you think I did it, Vincent?” She narrowed her eyes at him curiously.
He rested his chin in the palm of his hand for a moment as he thought. “There are many reasons. One of them is that you love Austin and I understand. I love him, too.” He sighed and folded his fingers on his chest, she gently played with his hair. “I gave you cause not to trust me and you were right, I am a liar. I lied to get to you. I did all of this to get to you… I don’t know how everyone will see me. Villain? Hero? Psychopath? Savior? It doesn’t matter anymore so long as I have you.” He paused enjoying the feeling of her fingertips moving and combing through his hair. “But I was never right… so if you left me, I would understand. I don’t want you to feel that you have to stay with me. I deserve for you to leave,” he said dejectedly.
She had trouble for a moment trying to understand whether he was manipulating her or was apologetic. After a short time assessing, she realized that he was truly apologetic. He was too thoughtful and distant to be trying to use guided conversation or manipulation tactics on her.
His brows were knit together in deep thought and he was obviously locked in some memory that she was not a part of.
Silence engulfed the room for a few minutes as Felix joined them and purred ferociously as he rubbed his head one way on Marielle, then down the right side of her body as she lay on her back and stared at the ceiling with him.
“I…” he caged his face for a moment, “I’ve just put you through too much. And I-.” he fought to find the right word, “-I didn’t treat you like you were capable. You are… you are extremely capable. So, you ran to another man; one who appreciated you the way you should be appreciated.” He turned, staring her deeply in the eyes. “How do you see me, Masin? What am I to you?”
She rolled her eyes upward as if thinking and shrugged at the same time. “Vincent, I’m still trying to work that out,” she replied. Then she twiddled her thumbs a few times. “I told you in Italy… you’re a villain to me.” She paused for a moment, sitting up as Felix squirmed his way into her lap and curled up, falling asleep. “But I still love you, and somehow I see you as a good man, even with evidence to the contrary.” She sighed and put her fingertips on both sides of her forehead.
He nodded, understanding, and reached over, taking her right hand and bringing it down away from where it was hiding her face, “Marielle, I will change for you.”
“But you shouldn’t have to,” she replied with a groan.
“Aren’t you making Austin change for you?”
She shook her head, “no.” She looked off, distantly as she smoothed her hand over Felix’s soft fur. “I’m making Austin change for Austin.” Vincent thought on this for a moment. “Whatever happens after he changes is what happens,” she finished, dismissively.
Vincent sat up more fully on the bed and put a muscular arm under her knees, the other under her upper back, and drew her over onto him, looking down into her green eyes. “What do you want, Marielle? Do you want to be with me?”
“I want to get through the end of the year.”
“It’s not an answer.”
“But it will have to be good enough for you for now. I need to see what you’re going to do.”
He nodded and gently lay her back with her head hanging over the mattress so he could expose her long neck and kiss it several times before he held her again, whispered, “I love you,” and turned the light off again, easing her back to sleep by holding her close.
***
The next day brought their second funeral in a matter of weeks and another plot was filled with a simple pine coffin and the remains of an extraordinary woman and caring friend.
Kirra lay between Tala and Sasha and after the words were spoken, everyone said goodbye. Once again, Wei Ling lay over the grass where Sasha had been buried not ten days before and cried. Everyone left her alone and after speeches were done Marielle could feel the stares at her and Vincent even with her back turned.
She knew that many of them blamed Vincent for Kirra’s death and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Technically, Vincent had done nothing except tell Kirra to go talk to Austin. He’d done so out of fear that Marielle herself would go out and be with Austin, but Vincent didn’t know that Kirra was going to be shot; he hadn’t planned or even expected it, so Marielle was having a difficult time understanding everyone’s disdain.
Then she remembered that this was human nature. Whenever someone died it was common for people to look for someone, anyone, to blame, because many of them had nowhere to direct their anger, hurt, frustration, or self-righteous tendencies.
Austin lingered over the rich, overturned lump of soil where Kirra lay, staring. Exhaustion was finally getting the better of him as his eyelids were feeling like barbells and he was feeling like the skinny kid in gym who’d been asked to lift them. It was becoming a losing battle. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t save you,” he whispered, tearfully as he thought about the last time that he was standing in this same spot. She’d been standing with him. How weird. What had she said? Before the vulgar joke… I feel like even though we’re not super close, I can say with some strong certainty that whoever he was… that’s not you… She’d been referring to Tundra.
The fact that Kirra, Han, Marielle, Chamber, and a few others seemed to recognize a change in him gave him a deep sense of worth and hope that he’d never felt before. Four to six months ago if someone had told him that he’d be living his life by the end of the year without prostitutes, hookers, hook ups, one-night stands, random encounters in alleys and so on, he might have laughed at them and he wouldn’t have wanted to change. Now he did… and he found more and more that the reasons were shifting.
He wanted Marielle. He didn’t want to be Tundra. He didn’t want to be the kind of man who just used women and men for pleasure regardless of how fun it was. He wanted to be a better man and knew that these kinds of addictions only impeded growth. He knew from many resources that fasting from such things cleansed the mind, body, and soul. He wanted a family someday.
Austin glanced at Marielle. She was looking at him, but quickly looked away. He narrowed his eyes at her a bit, questioning the break away. She wasn’t trying to hide that she’d been watching him, but she apparently wasn’t interested in having any eye contact, either.
He wanted a family with her…
-Are you okay? He asked, reaching out.
-I’m broken, Austin…
He sighed and looked down at the plot again, -What can I do, Marielle?
-I don’t know, Austin.
-I tried to save her.
-I know.
He glanced at the second building, beside Valorant Headquarters, where most of the action had taken place. It was the building that held the offices and the foyer where the party had been last night.
-Meet me in the foyer of the office building in an hour?
She cut her eyes to him, -why?
-Don’t trust me? He smiled, brokenly.
-I trust you, Austin.
-Just want to do something to make you feel better.
Marielle bit her lip and looked to Vincent who was sitting in a chair, facing away from everyone. -Maybe. I think he is going to work on the spike today.
-I’ll be there whether you are or not. He finished and Han came to stand by him.
Her eyes were red and her face was blotchy. “No one even knew she was gone until it was too late,” she whispered.
“I did,” he replied, quietly. “I tried everything in my power to save her and get her to Wei Ling.”
Han tried to hide the rise of bitterness in her tone as she flicked her eyes to Hazal… weird, loner Hazal. “Yeah… instead, we got the witch.”
“Don’t call her that,” Austin countered with a heavy sigh and a scratch at the back of his head. “She’s…” he bit his lip as he fought for words, “she’s so much more.” He swallowed, thinking about how he’d learned that Hazal was a man in Vincent’s world and how Hazal was close with Vincent and loved Marielle. He would have been yet another man trying to get her attention if Tundra hadn’t slipped in there and taken her away from everyone. For the briefest of moments, he wondered if this Hazal was also in love with Marielle, but smiled softly as he truly considered this… she wasn’t, but the fondness and desire to be close to her were the same. Hazal wanted Marielle to like her, and wanted to be her friend. In fact, this Hazal probably thought of Marielle as her best friend; maybe her only friend. He could see that in their interactions.
He smiled softly; he understood that, he wanted Marielle to like him and be his friend… and wife… and the mother of his children.
He excused himself from Han, hoping that he’d left her a little better in her mind regarding Hazal.
A gathering was held in the meeting room and coffee was poured, hot, bitter, and stale. Marielle kept wishing that they’d let her bring her French press to these meetings and pour out for everyone but presently, none of that seemed to matter. There was another empty seat at the long oval table, and the lack of Kirra’s intellect matched with her bright green eyes.
Liam tapped the top of the table with his big fingertips until everyone settled, quietly.
The silence that suddenly encompassed the entire room sent a cold, icy spike up everyone’s spine. The room felt haunted to everyone in it, and Vincent – who was standing at the window, looking out at the plot of land where three of their team now rested – knew that it was in large part because of him.
“I’ll speak first,” Vincent said quietly. Most of the eyes in the room went to him in anticipation. Sabine continued to stare at the table. “I never meant for anyone to get hurt or killed,” he began. “But I did this… and regardless of your feelings about me, I now take full responsibility for everything that has occurred,-” hands loosely in his pockets, he turned to the rest of them, “-and I’m going to come clean about everything,” he whispered, then he pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked down.
Sabine crossed her arms and met gaze with him tightly. “That’ll be interesting,” she said under her breath.
He flicked his gaze to Chamber, who’d wandered in at the last minute from Kirra’s gravesite; he stood quietly with Austin who gave him a friendly shake of the hand and the two stood in companionable silence. “I came here for Marielle. It was always for Marielle,” he explained. Then he paused, thinking… “And I never thought that they’d work out the movement between worlds so soon after I left. I figured that I would run,” he locked his gaze with Austin for some reason, and Austin saw the look in them; he was asking for any form of reassurance and maybe from the one man in the room that wasn’t part of Valorant officially. Austin gave him a strong nod, keep going. “And that they wouldn’t follow. I knew shortly after I left that they would follow, and they were doing so, but I never dreamt that they’d catch up to me so quickly. No one in this room asked for this.” He looked down dejectedly. “No one in this room agreed to this,” he said quietly. “I can’t make up for it… but, I’m sorry for what’s happened.”
“You mean the fact that you’re the cause of Kirra’s death?” Sabine hissed.
Austin broke in, “now wait a minute,” he began. Everyone looked to him in surprise. “I don’t exactly think that’s fair… and she died in my arms,-” his eyes met Marielle’s for a moment, “-after basically telling me that she loved me. So, if anyone has a right to be pissed about this, it’s me.” Vincent was narrowing his eyes at him inquisitively. Austin leaned over the table, palms to the surface. “Vincent might have sent her out there to talk to me, yes,-” he glared at Vincent, “-but he didn’t know what was about to happen, nor did he ask for it.” He briefly looked to everyone in the room, but his eyes eventually landed on Sabine as she spitefully glared up at him. “Anyone could have died out there, it could have been me, frankly. At worst Vincent is responsible for telling her to come comfort me… at worst,” he said concretely, eyes locked with Sabine’s.
“It’s a good point,” Chamber said under his breath.
“No one asked you,” Sabine snapped glowering at him. She stood, “in fact, no one invited you, either.”
“I did, Sabine, sit …down,” Liam said broke in pointing down, sharply.
“I don’t mind that he’s here,” Wei Ling spoke from the back of the room. All eyes went to her. “He’s helped us every time we’ve been in need,” she said softly.
“Yeah, only because his master snaps his fingers and he comes running like a good little dog,” Kiritani sighed.
“That’s not fair either,” Hazal replied twisting the pendant that she was wearing in between her fingers, “they help each other.” Austin nodded.
“Help each other kill people,” Erik added to the mix, as he crossed his metal arms over each other.
“The point isn’t that he killed Kirra,” Sabine began. The room fell silent again and everyone turned their attention to her. “The point is that he reacted out of fear and the need for control. And as a result, someone died.”
Marielle looked down into her lap feeling the weight of Sabine’s words, Varun and Zayana were nodding their agreement with Sabine. Even she knew that Sabine was right. The rest of the room seemed to be considering this as well. “Yeah, for someone who is so in control- you certainly have a weak spot when it comes to Marielle and what she may or may not be doing,” Kiritani growled, leaning near Erik; the two of them looked certain that they wanted nothing to do with Vincent or his antics.
“We’ve all made mistakes,” Amir voiced from the back. “Let’s not pretend like our own actions haven’t caused issues as well. Even before Vincent.” Many eyes frightfully met his masked face knowing that he had information and secrets on all of them. Chamber snickered under his breath and into his coffee cup. “Remember, I know many of your secrets… Erik.” He eyed the large Swede in a way that told him not to forget exactly what he had on him, but since no one could actually see Amir’s face, the effect was eerie. Erik straightened his back a little and scoffed as he twisted his arms around one another in a gesture that Marielle knew as nervousness. She smirked softly; he was trying so hard to hide it. For as intimidating as Erik was, he was mostly talk.
“My point remains… Vincent continues to make decisions based on fear,” Sabine growled, gesturing to Vincent but not looking at him.
There was a brief pause, “how did they even get into the event?” Mateo spoke up from the back of the room.
“And why were they here?” Varun added.
Liam sighed, “One of the waiters told me that Cory had used his Ultimate to gain access when he got hold of one of them during a smoking break in the garage. They actually waited for about fifty minutes before they entered so Cory could build his strength back up, or –” he lifted his hands, palms out like a shrug, “-that’s what I was told.”
“As far as why they were here,” Vincent let out a heavy sigh, “I think it was pretty obvious that the answer was just to hurt Marielle and I.” He shook his head, “I think that Cory is losing it a little bit and that probably makes him more dangerous. He’s a plotter, but after losing Tundra,” Vincent’s voice trailed off. Austin looked away to avoid everyone’s gaze although almost no one was looking at him. Han put her hand on his forearm and rubbed. “I’ve made a decision.” The room got eerily still. “I’m going to go back to my world and finish this. Alone.”
Marielle’s eyes bugged in terror, and she stood, grabbing his arm. “No!” She said, but she couldn’t be heard over the uproar from the rest of the room. Voices both agreeing and disagreeing all at once provided a cacophony of sounds.
Liam slammed his fists onto the table with a boom; the effect was like a judge banging a gavel except this gavel was a mallet on concrete. Everyone went silent. “That’s not happening, soldier.”
“If you fail, man, then we’re stuck with the problem,” Mateo growled.
“Alright, but we’re stuck with the problem anyway, yo…” Jamie said from his left side.
“You kind of are,” Tala peeped, and everyone looked to her. “You know more worlds – more,-” she gesticulated for a moment, “-dimensions are doing this same thing right now, don’t you all?” Everyone looked like they were deep in thought for a moment. “I heard Cory say that there is actually an Alpha and an Omega world out there somewhere. They’ve been doing this for a while,” she said flicking her eyes to the ground. “Vincent’s not the cause of all of this, and I kind of wish that everyone would stop beating him up over it,” she said. Mateo reached down between them and laced their fingers together, pressing his palm into hers. “This would have happened whether or not Vincent had come here.”
“Yeah, Vincent might have made some bad decisions,” Hazal said from the left of Marielle. “But I feel like no one in this room could say that they would have done anything differently. Maybe you wouldn’t have lied as much, sure… but if you could be with your wife or husband, or child again…” a pregnant pause as she flicked her gaze to one specific woman, “wouldn’t you?”
Sabine looked down into her lap and swallowed hard.
“You’re not going alone,” Austin said, cracking the silence open. “I’m coming too,” he added with a strong nod. He wasn’t looking at Vincent when he said this, he’d been staring into the slate carpet. Chamber moved to Austin and put an arm around his shoulders with a strong squeeze. Vincent felt his chest ache.
“You know that I am,” Chamber said, raising his hand.
“I’m going, too. Assuredly, Cory has caught on to our plan by now. I’m certain that he’s going to be prepared with other doppelgangers and Kingdom slugs,” Liam said crossing his arms over his chest.
“I’m definitely going,” Hazal said flatly.
Marielle’s saw Vincent’s eyes glitter before he looked down.
“I’ll go,” Sabine whispered.
“As will I…” John said with her.
Vincent wiped his face. “Okay.”
“Question,” Varun said, lifting a hand.
Liam nodded at him, “Yes.”
“Do we know if they’re coming back?”
Vincent shrugged a single shoulder and rolled his hands in his pockets for a moment, “they could already be here again. I don’t know when they came in yesterday.”
“And if they’re here…” Klara said, taking Tayane’s hand, “they’re definitely coming for Marielle, and you, right?”
“I think so, but I’m concerned now that he might also be coming after Austin,” Vincent added, readjusting his glasses.
Austin’s shoulders became dead weight for a moment as he let out a sigh. “Cory wants Marielle… he knows that it’s the best way to make you suffer,” Austin explained, “I could see it in his eyes.” Vincent looked down; there was a lull. “Let’s go make a spike, build our own teleporter, travel to the other dimension and blow the son of a bitch to kingdom come,” Austin added.
“I agree,” Zayana said grimly.
Wei Ling was also nodding her agreement, albeit sadly.
“Finishing the spike will take a few weeks if we want to do it properly,” Tayane reminded.
“Not to mention working out the dimensional gate and anchor on our end,” Klara added.
Vincent nodded, “I say that we get through the holiday,” he meant Thanksgiving. “Aim for December thirdish, and finish this.”
Liam looked around the room, “Everyone in agreement?”
There were yes’s and nods from the everyone.
“There’s one last thing,” Vincent said and he looked to Mateo and Tala. They narrowed their eyes at him. “The two of you will not be fighting, or coming with us.”
“What?” Mateo boomed, letting go of Tala’s hand.
Liam raised a hand and approached slowly, “Vincent and I have already talked about this. You two are the youngest, we’re not taking any chances on this mission. We’re getting you two through the holidays and you are welcome to train and prepare for the next fight. Right now, we feel it best for you both to spend time together, and work things out.”
Mateo and Tala exchanged looks with a nod and a sigh.
“Adjourned for now,” Liam added. Everyone started to leave.
“I also say that I want you on Marielle’s couch tonight,” Vincent said looking to Austin. “If you’re willing.”
Austin understood, Cory might try to make an appearance. “Sure.”
Everyone was leaving the room, but Liam approached Sabine. Marielle strained to hear but only caught a few words. Then a name… one that she remembered well. Jeanine Trench. But the hours ahead would cause her to forget all of this.