“Anton,” I say simply. “He got there just in time. Freya—Marina—heard him coming and made a run for it. He found me and brought me here. He brought in a team of doctors, too. They pumped the toxins out of me and saved the baby.”
I can’t quite read the silence I get this time around. “Chris?” I say when I can’t bear it anymore.
“Quite the knight in shining armor, huh?” he mutters.
I frown. “Why do you sound disappointed by that?”
“Of course I’m not,” he says, affronted. “I’m so damn glad you’re safe. You and the baby.”
“But?”
“For God’s sake, there’s no ‘but,’ Jessa. I just… I’m reluctant to give him the credit for saving you when you wouldn’t even be in this mess if it weren’t for him. That’s all.”
“He didn’t know she was alive either, Chris.”
“I mean, who the fuck knows anything at this point?” he asks. “He’s clearly a master of deception. Just like his wife.”
I flinch at that one. It hurts deeply to hear Marina being called Anton’s wife. It hurts all the more because I know it’s true.
“He wanted to divorce her,” I say, as if that could possibly matter anymore. “That’s why she decided to—"
“Fake her own death?” Chris asks. “Gee, she sounds like a gem.”
“Which is why he wanted to divorce her."
“Is he with you now?”
“Not right at this moment,” I say. “But he’s… around.”
“Okay.”
I sigh. “What, Chris? Whatever you want to say, just say it?”
“What’s the point?” he asks bitterly. “It’s not like you listen to me, anyway.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? Every time I warn you off someone, it feels like you double down and dig your heels into the relationship.”
“When you warned me about Freya, I tried to listen. I tried to leave.”
“It was just too little, too late, wasn’t it?”
I bite back the retort on my tongue and try not to be goaded into a fight I don’t have the energy for. “You’re right. It was too late. I’m sorry.”
He’s clearly surprised by the acknowledgement because he shuts up right after.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Anton showing up at your house when you called me at the manor?” I ask. “Anton already had your phone by then, which is why you called on an unknown number.”
“I was just too focused on Freya,” he explains. “The way your landlord spoke, it gave me the creeps. I knew that was the most important information to relay to you. And honestly, Anton just came, he spoke to me, and when I didn’t give him the information he wanted, he left. I didn’t realize until later that he’d swiped my phone. And I wasn’t going to complain about my phone being taken while you could be in imminent danger.”
I feel my annoyance fade away. Chris always has my back. Of everyone on this planet, he’s the one I know I can trust.
“I’m sorry,” I say again. “I’m so, so sorry, Chris.”
“What are you apologizing for, exactly?”
“Not listening to you when I should have," I say.