Chapter 40

• Aleen POV::
• My heart stops. I stare at the shattered ceramic cup on the floor in horror, the black coffee spreading on the porcelain floor. I had tried to move in a hurry and knocked it down by mistake. I hear my mother ask Stephane if he had a guest and the silence that follows the question is so awful, it rings loudly in my ears. I can't believe how close we are to being discovered.
• She just has to walk into the kitchen right now and see me sitting here, wrapped up in a duvet, naked underneath, the sin written clearly on my face, the hickeys on my neck, the flush of my skin, the haphazard pattern my hair is set. There is literally nothing I can say to redeem the situation. For all she knows, I am in school, building a whirlwind romance with Benjamin. Innocent and cute. Not here. With her husband. In this basement.