Chapter 79
When Filip emerges from ?reg?rden, a man in a gray jacket is standing across the street, smoking.
The sight makes Filip want a cigarette, even though he has promised Emily that he will cut down.
They are on their way to Supper for dinner. She has booked a table in an attempt to distract him from that awful article on his mom. He has spent all day holed up in his room, driving himself crazy with rage and shame.
That journalist certainly had him fooled.
He has made a fool of himself, and is thoroughly embarrassed.
Worst of all, people are going to believe terrible things about his mom.
And he is the one who helped paint that picture.
He is finding it hard to forgive himself.
He has been so naive, there is no excuse.
“Wait!” Emily calls out from the main entrance as she tries to catch up with him on the slippery street. “Don’t go so fast!”
He slows down and puts his arm around her, kisses her forehead. They have been together since high school, and he loves her so much. Her family is like his family now; he has stayed over at her house countless times.
Her parents are still married, and no one talks about money or business at the dinner table. Her mother is a math teacher, and her father works in vocational training.
“I don’t know how you put up with me,” he says, kissing her again.
Emily smiles, and for a moment everything seems the same as usual. The world goes away. He stops and kisses her in the middle of the street; he just wants to hide in her arms and forget what has happened over the past few days.
A car sounds its horn, and they jump up onto the sidewalk, hand in hand.
When they turn into Morviksv?gen, he sees a dark figure out of the corner of his eye, doing the same. He looks a bit like the guy who was smoking outside ?reg?rden just now.
It’s almost as if he is following them.
Filip glances over his shoulder, but the man is gone. It’s probably a journalist, wanting to ask more intrusive questions.
“Let’s go,” he says to Emily, increasing his speed.
He has no intention of letting some other bastard get a hold of him.