Snakes In The Grass

Chapter 22

"What do they have over you?" I asked quietly.

Tasha's face pinched for a moment and when she looked at me, her eyes were filled with tears that fought to break.

"It was something so small, but that's what happens with a lie. It grows and festers and the longer I tried to keep it quiet, the worse I made things for myself."

"What did you do?" I whispered.

"When I was at the Academy, Kirova wasn't the Headmistress. It was Headmaster Zoyne. And I was having an affair with him. Someone caught wind of it, and the Sânge threatened to expose us. He had a wife, and if it had come out what happened, it would have ruined us. The scandal would have caused my father to disown me. It doesn't seem worth it now," she explained in a whisper, "I should have let the expose us."

"I know I don't have the right to ask, but be there for Christian? I love him more than I've ever loved anything in my life. He's never deserved to have the stain on his name, and he's much better than I ever have been."

"I can promise that," I replied, "I will be there for him."

Tasha nodded and sniffed before standing up. "I'm sorry for the things I've done to you. I can't take them back,"

"I know," I said with a nod. Tasha nodded too and bit her lip before walking away, running a hand through her raven hair as she left, passing Mia as she went. Mia furrowed her brows and then looked at me.

"What did she want?" Mia asked as she took Tasha's vacated spot. I forced a smile and picked up my coffee, taking a long drink of it before answering.

"She just wanted to say that she was glad we were okay," I lied, tapping my nail against the tabletop.

______________________________

Croft had sent a package home with Dimitri last night for me to fill out. Because I never became an official Guardian when I was pregnant, I never got the chance to fill out the things he needed, but now he needed it done. After my coffee with Mia, I decided it was time for me to get to it.

It seemed pretty basic, mostly my personal information, medical history, medications, next of kin, that sort of thing. There were a few places he had flagged for me, the note on the package saying that he needed those specific ones filled out because I was a mother. I wasn't sure why it was needed, but I did it anyways.

There was another package that Dimitri had been working over too, but most of his information was typed in, but there were flags where he needed to fill things in. Curiously, I thumbed through his. His graduation score was there, his previous charges, letter of recommendation from the Zeklos family for his posting with Lissa. The part that Croft told me I needed to fill in was flagged as well, as well as the spot to list a spouse.

My name was there written in Dimitri's handwriting and I smiled to myself. When I read further, it was indicated what to do with his pension, his insurance, and who to go to when decisions needed to be made on his behalf. His benefits were set up so half was to me, and a half was to his mother, his oldest sister as the alternate if he died.

But the only thing that struck me odd was that next to the line for the spouse, it asked for a date. In his handwriting, it just said pending.

I closed his package and went back to mine, sighing as I went through all the pages. My package was much bigger than Dimitri's.

I stopped when I heard a noise over the baby monitor. Briar had been tired all day, and I worried that she was coming down with something. She was feverish, runny nose and had a slight wheeze in her breathing. I called Janine in a panic this morning, but she soothed me, promising that as long as Briar's cough didn't get worse or sound like a bark, she most likely just had a cold.