The Rome Affair by Laura Caldwell

Author:Laura Caldwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2006-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The lights were still on in the apartment, as if there’d been a party and everyone had just left a moment before. Nick’s keys clattered on the hall table, just like they had earlier that night. But everything was different. I stood there, looking into the living room and toward the balcony. Our apartment no longer seemed a stylish, urban place, but more an empty hull where something dreadful had happened. Instinctively, I craved our house on Bloomingdale Avenue, but I quickly realized that was tainted, as well. I thought about the time before Rome, and decided I would gladly go back to the moment I found out about Nick’s affair, because although there was pain and uncertainty, we still had everything then. We just didn’t know it.

Nick came behind me and put his hands on my shoulders.

I turned around. His normally expressive eyes looked exhausted, almost dead. “Nick, I am so sorry.”

He shook his head.

“Nick, about Rome—”

“I don’t want to hear about it.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.” His voice was lifeless.

“Of course it matters. Everything happened because of what I did.” I buried my head in his chest. “Nick, I have to tell you it was only one night.”

“Please. I don’t want to hear about it.”

“Why? Don’t you care?”

“Of course I care.” Nick lifted my head up with his hands. They felt large on my cheeks, like they were shielding me. “Rachel, I love you.” He said those last few words fervently, and I nearly wept with relief. I realized I had been waiting for them since Kit blurted out my sins.

“But,” Nick continued, “I deserved it.”

“That’s not true. You made up for what you did in Napa. You told me you were with someone else. And I wanted to do the same, but…I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t sure we could handle it.”

Nick gave me a sad smile. He shrugged.

“Do you think we can handle this?” I asked.

The silence was devastating.

Nick squeezed me tight. “We can do this, Rach. We’re a team.”

“So if we’re a team, we have to tell the same story. Like you said tonight, right?”

He peered down at me. “Of course. Didn’t you tell them what happened? The way we went over it?”

I nodded. I bit my lip. “But the detective told me that you were saying something different than I was.”

“What?” Nick exploded. “What was different?”

I shook my head. “He wouldn’t say. But I told the exact story, just like you told me.”

“You told the truth, then.”

I said nothing.

Nick took a breath and pulled me back into a hug. “I told the truth, too. That detective is full of shit. And we’ll get through this. We’ll show them that we’re strong. We’ll show everyone that nothing—” he seemed to be struggling for the right phrase “—nothing bad happened here.”

I nodded into his chest, but something in his words caught me. “Who’s everyone, Nick?”

“Well, you know my partners…”

I took a step back. “Nick, why did you call Joanne Weatherby from the police station? I mean, if

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