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"I looked into the backseat and there he was, gazing at me with that cold contemptuous expression he had adopted in the hospital It took the breath out of me And then came his dark monotone voice:

" 'Yes, and I enjoyed her very much too, Tarquin ¡¯

" 'You're lying, you bastard!' I said I wanted to choke him 'How dare you say that to me? I would have felt you if you'd been that close! You think you can sneak inside me!¡¯

" 'Oh, he was there,' Mona said as she pushed the car past eighty-five miles an hour 'I could feel him ' "

Chapter25

25

"AUNT QUEEN AND JASMINE DIDN'T LET s about Mona, she would not hurt Mona's feelings When we arrived, Aunt Queen, with open arms, welcomed Mona to the house, and when I announced that this was my future bride Aunt Queen received this information with sublime equanimity

"Jasmine showed Mona up to Pops' roo for her, and then ent off tothis visit, and we had a scru

"I don't re Mona eat was a trip, because I was so infatuated with her, and seeing her handle her knife and fork with such quick gestures and talk in an animated way the whole time made me more truly abandoned to her

"I knohat I a is crazy But I was so in love with her I had never known such feelings before, and for the ti they utterly erased the habitual panic I suffered, and they even took away h I should add here that there were still plenty of armed security iveof safety

"Of course Aunt Queen wanted to see s were cleared away and Jasmine had polished up the table (and by the way, Jasht navy blue suit and crisp white blouse), I was ready to lock the whole world outside if I could do it

" 'Now you understand,' Mona explained 'This cousin Pierce who, I mean this cousin is like a loaf of white bread, he has no paranormal pohatsoever and he is a lawyer already in the firm of Mayfair and Mayfair, where his father, Ryan, is a partner, and Ryan, my beloved Ryan, he's a loaf of white bread too, and their life is just a direct line to conformity and security ¡¯

" 'Then why the hell do you keep saying you're going to marry him?' I asked

" 'Because I love him,' she said 'I'm not in love, no, I could never feel that ith him, but I know him and he's beautiful to me -- oh, not beautiful like you, not even tall like you, but beautiful in a calm kind of way, and with Pierce, I hate to say it, but with Pierce I'll probably be able to do what I want to do I h intensity for three people ¡¯

" 'Exactly,' I said 'So this is a safe e ¡¯