Vivienne's POV
The name sat in me like something I couldn't find the edges of.
Not loud. Not the kind of thing that took over the available space and demanded immediate attention. More like a splinter that had gone in clean and smooth and you couldn't see it but you could feel it every time you moved a certain way.
Maria.
*I'm sure it's nothing. Forget I mentioned it.*
Louis had said it and walked away down Renton Street like it was an afterthought. Like it had simply slipped out. I had watched him go and I had known two things simultaneously. First, that nothing Louis said was accidental. And second, that whatever Maria was, she was not nothing.
....
I didn't ask Charles.
I thought about it. Day three, on the phone at eight in the evening, there were at least four moments where th
