Last Violent Call

by Chloe Gong

“I’m not Juliette Cai.” Yulun furrowed his brow in sheer disbelief. “You cannot possibly still say that when—” “It’s Juliette Montagova.” She lifted her hand and waved her fingers, flashing her gold wedding ring while she continued onward and exited the living room. “I’m a married woman. Roma, come help me get the knives, would you?” In that moment, as Roma pushed off the wall and followed her obediently, he fell in love all over again.

“You’re allowed to cry,” he said, his eyes still closed, voice husky and scratchy. “I cry all the time.” “That you do.”

“Sometimes I get shaken unsteady. It happens. There are two parent-shaped holes in my heart.” Roma reached over to get her hair out of the way. “It is quite hard to hold steady all the time with holes in your heart,” he agreed quietly. “You will always have the extra pulp of my heart to borrow from, though. It might not fill that space just right, but at least it gives you a place to land on days your balance is weak.”

“I feel like you’re getting to something, Ben. Should I keep making insubstantial remarks until you reach the grand conclusion? That usually works.