Chapter 99. Another Man

Proserpina

During the following weeks, I refrained from visiting Lucien at the hospital. I had had enough of his blow hot, blow cold behaviour. We had been together in a near-death situation, and all he could do was treat me like this? Sorry, but I was done.

The kids visited him every day, but I invented excuses not to go.

There was also the matter of my work. I was scaling new heights, and the Professor was proud of me, he declared. The university had agreed to fund an extension, so I was gung-ho about launching out on a different phase as well. With Baby Claude and my academic work, I made sure that I did not have time to mope over my Mafia Don, who seemed to be playing some childish game.

For one thing, I had a new assistant, a cheerful young man of Chinese origin, whose parents had settled in the US before he was born. He proved to be a great help in organising the details regarding our new set-up. Alex Wu was intelligent and witty. He of