Till Death Do Us Apart
26. House Hunting
Chapter 26
Tania took him home and got him out of his clothes, cleaning him up with a warm cloth while he mumbled things she couldn’t quite follow. She lay beside him afterward, listening to his heartbeat until his breathing finally evened out into sleep.
She left early the next morning for the pharmacy, needing to refill her own medication before the hospital opened. She nearly collided with Cecile in the aisle.
“What are you doing here?” Cecile asked, then her eyes dropped to the bag Tania had just fumbled, pills spilling across the counter.
“Complications,” Tania said quickly, scooping them back up. “With the pregnancy. It’s nothing.”
She nodded at the box in Cecile’s hand before Cecile could push further. “And what exactly are those for?”
Cecile opened her mouth to answer just as Nicole came rushing in from the parking lot, already talking before he’d fully crossed the threshold.
“I swear it was an accident, I didn’t mean to make a pass at you, I don’t know what came over me—”
Cecile slapped a hand over his mouth, mortified, but the damage was done. Tania already understood exactly what she’d walked into.
• • •
Nicole looked thoroughly ashamed once Cecile stepped away to take a call. “I took what you said seriously,” he admitted. “About letting Vivian go. I’m trying. But it feels like I’m betraying her by even looking at someone else.”
“Then stop looking at it that way,” Tania said. “Follow your heart, Nicole. Just don’t you dare break Cecile’s.”
Her phone rang mid-conversation. Caleb. She waved Nicole quiet and slipped a few steps away to answer, keeping her voice low.
Nicole watched her go, brow furrowed, something about the whole exchange striking him as strange.
• • •
“Where were you,” Caleb asked the moment she walked in, not looking up from his tablet.
“With Cecile.” The lie came easier than she liked. “Why weren’t you at work?”
He turned the tablet toward her instead of answering, a row of house listings filling the screen. “Which neighborhood looks better for raising a kid?”
Tania’s eyes stung before she could stop them. She blinked it away fast. “Anywhere’s fine.”
“It matters. We need somewhere decent.”
“Why are you suddenly so invested in babies?” she asked, a little sharper than she meant. “You dote on Sophia’s daughter constantly. Doesn’t it worry you our own might get jealous of the attention someday?”
Something shuttered behind his eyes at Sophia’s name. He set the tablet down and walked toward the bedroom without a word.
Tania followed, still talking, still needling at the subject, until he turned and kissed her hard enough to cut the sentence off completely.
“Just shut up, Tania.”
• • •
Tania stood there a moment, torn between nerves and something warmer she didn’t want to name. Why hadn’t Sophia’s name made him happy? She hated how pleased that made her feel, even as guilt pricked at her for Sia’s sake.
She wrapped her arms around him instead of chasing the thought further.
“I won’t bring her up again,” she murmured against his chest. Then, quieter, playful, “Can you stop yelling, though? It’s bad for the baby.”
Caleb’s hand settled over her stomach. “Behave yourself, Tania.”
But how was she supposed to behave, now that she’d finally found the one thing that reliably softened him? She leaned into it shamelessly for the rest of the evening, asking for things she didn’t even want just to watch him give in.
Knowing how little time she likely had left, she finally asked for something bigger.
“Take me back to the ice city.”
• • •
“Why there?”
“I don’t know. I just want to.” It wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was that she wanted whatever last days she had left to belong entirely to the two of them, somewhere far from Sophia, from Dora, from all of it.
She called the detective once Caleb agreed, telling him about the strange girl from the coffee shop. He promised to look into it.
Cecile called soon after, worried by how quiet Tania had sounded lately. When she heard about the trip, her voice brightened instantly.
“Can I come?”
Tania smiled despite herself. “Why not?”