After the show, I avoided him. As I walked back to change from my costume, I could hear Esmé’s voice coming from her dressing room. Her tone was sharp. “Get out!”

He opened the door, and I saw his face. “What has happened?”

“She is angry,” he said. “She persists that she loves me. It’s like a madness. Finally, I wrote her a letter telling her that I could not be with her and to go away. She sent me a ticket anyway, then sent the two clowns to summon me back here. I just told her to leave me alone. She is angry, as you can hear.” He motioned to the room. “She says we will regret what we’ve done.”

“What we’ve done?” I cocked my head and pulled my collar tight around my neck.

His face softened, and I knew that she’d told him about our baby. I inhaled sharply. While he should have heard it from me, the fact that my sister had felt it was her place to tell Émile my news was a betrayal. Her door was shut tight and likely locked. I thought what I would do to her if it weren’t. “I didn’t intend for you to find out this way.”

“I’m not sure you intended to tell me at all.” He winced and held his hand.

“Are you okay?” I noticed a steady stream of blood falling to the floor from his sleeve.

“Oh, I’ve cut myself, that’s all.” He motioned to Esmé’s dressing room. “There was a shard of glass near her door. I picked it up.”

I led him to my dressing room, which was two doors down, so I could tend to his hand. The cut was a small gash in his palm. I cleaned the wound and wrapped it, but I feared it was far deeper in the center. “You should have a doctor look at that.”

“Do not worry about me.” He touched me briefly on the cheek. “I should be worrying about you.”

“I’m fine.” I moved my cheek away from his hand.

“If you recall, I had suspected as much when you were sick.”

I gave a small snort.

“We can live in my apartment. It’s not big, but it will be fine for a few years.”

“I’ve told you.” I sank into my seat. “We can’t be together.”

“You need to stop thinking of Esmé and begin to think of our child,” he said. “What is your plan—to raise our child here?” He looked around the walls. “This is a place of horror. I’d been warned of the darkness here, but it seeps into your bones.”

“This is my home,” I said.

“But it will not be our child’s home.”