7. Alison #7
“I asked what entertaining meant. He said I need to know the people around him. Their wives. Their families. What they like. What they don’t.
Who shouldn’t sit together. Who needs attention.
” Ryan gets quieter. “He said people remember when you remember things about them. If someone’s wife tells me her daughter is applying to Yale, I should remember and ask about it later. ”
Ryan looks at me. “It is extremely fucking interesting that Victor Tremblay just handed you instructions on how to gather human intelligence from every important person who walks into his house.”
I blink. Then I start laughing.
“I’m serious.”
“I know. That’s why it’s funny.”
“He wants you to listen, remember personal details, make people comfortable, keep conversations moving, and know when to change the subject.”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s investigative interviewing with appetizers.”
I laugh harder. “Put it on my résumé. Special skills: sedition, espionage, dinner parties. I’m excellent with a centerpiece.”
Ryan kisses the top of my head. “You’re hired.”
The laughter fades eventually. “He compared me to Mom.”
Ryan’s smile disappears. “How?”
“He said she’s respectable. Keeps a proper home. Raised two children. But she’s quiet.”
“And apparently that’s a defect.”
“For what Victor wants, I guess.”
“What does he want?”
“Someone with personality. He said he needs a wife people enjoy. Someone who can make his guests laugh and make twenty people enjoy being in his house enough that they want to come back.”
Ryan’s expression darkens. “He likes you.”
The way he says it makes my skin prickle. “I think so.”
“No.” His hand moves through his hair. “I fucking hate that.”
“More than him not liking me?”
“Different problem.”
“How?”
“If Tremblay saw you as an obligation, he’d still be dangerous. If he’s becoming genuinely interested in you, he’s going to want more access to you.”
My stomach sinks. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“I have.”
“Of course you have.”
“I’m having an extremely productive homicidal spiral.”
I squeeze his hand. “Stay in bed.”
“Doing my fucking best.”
I breathe in slowly. “Then Tobias came up.”
Ryan’s whole expression changes again.
“He asked why I spend so much time with Tobias. I said because I like him.” Ryan looks at me like I’ve said something obvious. “He said the fact that I care for Tobias without resenting him for needing me tells him something.”
Ryan’s hand goes still. “About what?” I don’t answer quickly enough. His eyes narrow. “Ally.”
“Motherhood.” The word lands heavily. “He said I’ll make a wonderful mother.”
Ryan’s face empties. “He said that to you. With my baby inside you.”
I put my hand over his. “Yeah.”
His jaw clenches.
“What else?”
“He said the way I talk about Tobias tells him everything he needs to know. That I’m patient. That I listen to him. That I make him feel important.”
Ryan looks away. He stands. Gray shorts. No shirt. Bare feet. Absolutely fucking murderous. Under literally any other circumstances, it might be funny. Tonight it isn’t. He drags both hands through his hair.
“I’m just trying to understand how I’m supposed to hear that Victor Tremblay sat beside my pregnant girlfriend with his fucking hand on her leg while discussing how many babies she’s going to give him and remain a person who participates in society.”
“Poorly?”
His head snaps toward me. “Ally.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Fuck.” He turns away, takes two steps, then turns back. “I’m not mad at you. Not one fucking molecule of this is aimed at you.”
“I know, Ryan.”
“Good. Because I need you to know that while I say some extremely homicidal shit.”
Victor gave me a wedding date…”
Ryan turns his head very slowly. “He did what?”
“Last Saturday in June.”
“He set a fucking date.”
“He said there was no reason to wait after graduation. He agreed to hire a wedding planner and let mom help me. Then the conversation moved away from me.”
“To what you texted.”
“Yeah.”
Ryan reaches toward the nightstand, grabs his phone, and unlocks it. “Arthur has everything. What happened with Roman?"
“I made it maybe three steps out of the bathroom before Dad grabbed me.” Ryan’s eyes flick briefly toward the bruises he already saw downstairs. “Dad thought I was showing off.”
Ryan frowns. “Showing off how?”
“Because Victor kept laughing. Which Tremblay explicitly said he liked.”
“So Roman punished you because Tremblay liked your personality.”
“He said he gave me one job. Sit beside the man who waited patiently for me for five years and show him his patience hadn’t been wasted.”
Ryan’s expression goes cold again. “What did he say after?”
“He said I’ve developed more attitude in the last few weeks than I’ve shown him in eighteen years.”
Ryan’s thumb moves over my hand. “What else?”
“He said Victor found me amusing today and I was fortunate. He said men enjoy novelty.”
Ryan’s eyes narrow. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“That a little attitude is charming when a woman is young and pretty and a man is trying to win her affection.” Ryan looks physically disgusted. “He said charm has limits. That when I’m Victor’s wife, Victor isn’t going to want to negotiate every decision with me.”
“Meaning obey him.”
“Yeah.”
“And Roman was teaching you that lesson.”
“I guess.”
“While leaving fingerprints on your arm.”