17

After a moment, he spoke again: “And how are you feeling? Are you taking your medication?”

His question gave Mishi pause for a moment. She wasn’t sure whether, in her current state, she had taken them today.

“Yes, I am,” she replied. “They’re making quite a bit of progress. Now they’re just little pellets—two a day is enough. I’m glad those old capsules are gone. Sometimes they gave me awful headaches. But it looks good—they say I’m still a long way from the final phase. They’ve extended the estimate again. They believe I could be around for another seven or eight years in full strength. So… I believe it too.”

Mario’s cheeks fell into a serious expression. “They’ll definitely move forward in that time. We’ve directed some new resources there, opened additional laboratories. Tay is doing everything he can.”

“I know,” she reassured him, “and I’m very grateful that you care.” She patted Mario on the shoulder. “I owe you so much. Both of you. All I can offer is another slice of homemade pie.”

She moved the pie closer, preparing to serve him more.

“That’s not true,” Mario objected. “You don’t have to feel indebted, little mouse. That’s nonsense—you’ve done a lot for us too. You have no idea how many contracts we closed mainly because you stood next to Tay being absolutely charming. No one expected such a clever little flower who understands market economics. People are always asking him where he found you. From our side, you’ve done more than enough. In fact, I think you’ve done far more for Tay than he could ever do for you. And that’s not even mentioning that you went back from Rohn and gave him a second chance. You gave him Sheena. He’s incredibly lucky you’re with him. I don’t believe that with his ‘wonderful’ nature he could have put this together with any other woman.”

At his last words, Mishi stopped the knife in the apples, because she felt one of those figurative ones pass straight through her conscience.

“I wasn’t the one who gave a second chance back then,” she responded quietly. Normally she wouldn’t have minded talking about this, but with this morning, the wound had become fresh again. “I was the one who acted like an ungrateful cow and caused Tay trouble.”

Mario could see he had touched something in Mishi, though he didn’t know how deeply. He immediately explained, “I don’t really know how it all went back then. Or how things turned out between you and Rohn.”

“Didn’t Tay tell you?”

“Are you kidding? Tay, talking? He avoids talking about you so he doesn’t have to talk about himself. I can tell from his face whether things between you are good or bad, but that’s about it. He told me back then that you’d left, then that you’d come back, and after that I was completely tied up with the Agram conflict. After the ball he told me you were staying indefinitely. Suddenly you were pregnant, in the maternity ward, and now I’m here. I know I haven’t had much time for you lately, for us to talk.”

Mishi smiled at how neatly he had summed up something she herself perceived as a long, complicated stretch of her life.

“That’s all right,” she said. “Well… there isn’t much to say about it. It was a terrible mistake. I should have listened to Tay more even back then. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s always right about everything. Rohn and I weren’t together even three weeks. When he saw that I truly didn’t intend to take anything from Tay, it stopped working. For several days Rohn and I did nothing but argue and throw old things at each other, until it dawned on me that he really only wanted the money. That was enough for me—I was done with him and wanted to leave again as quickly as possible.

There just wasn’t anywhere to go.