Chapter 10: Cry Less

Nils's POV

I did not sleep the night Marit left.

I sat in the kitchen with a bag of frozen peas on my face.

Florian sat across from me and did not say a word until it was light.

"She'll come back or she won't," he said at six.

"I know."

"We can't do anything about that."

"We can do something about him."

He raised his eyebrows.

I had been awake for twenty-six hours, and my cheek had stiffened.

For the first time in my life I knew exactly what I was going to do.

"Don't go there angry," Florian said.

"I'm not angry."

"You're something."

I went anyway.

The Brandau offices were on the fourth floor of a glass building by the Binnenalster.

The receptionist knew me, because I had been to the Christmas party twice.

"I need ten minutes with the head of the firm," I said.

"Clemens or his father?"

"His father."

The old man kept me waiting twenty minutes and then gave me three.

He sat behind a desk the size of a car, a heavy grey man with Clemens's mouth and none of his charm.

"You're the nurse," he said. "My son's friend."

"I'm Marit's friend. I'm here about Marit."

His face closed.

"I've heard about Marit," he said. "A very unfortunate business. I'm told she's been sleeping around."

"Who told you that?"

"My son."

"Then your son is a liar."

The room went still.

I kept my hands loose at my sides, because I knew how they wanted to curl.

"Your son stood up in front of sixty people and told his fiancée he was leaving her for her best friend," I said.

"I was there. Half the room filmed it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Thought I Was Asleep, So I Let Them from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.