any money?”
She did not answer.
“Here.” He pulled a few francs out of his pocket and handed them to her. “I’m sorry I
don’t have more. Interns aren’t very well paid.”
“Thank you,” Noelle said.
She sat at a small street café sipping a coffee and deciding how to pick up the pieces
of her life. She knew that she had to survive, for she had a reason to live now. She was
filled with a deep and burning hatred that was so all-consuming that it left no room for
anything else. She was an avenging Phoenix rising from the ashes of the emotions that
Larry Douglas had murdered in her. She would not rest until she had destroyed him. She
did not know how, or when, but she knew that one day she would make it happen.
Now she needed a job and a place to sleep. Noelle opened her purse and took out the
piece of paper that the young intern had given her. She studied it a moment and made up
her mind. That afternoon she went to see Israel Katz’s aunt and was given a job modeling
in a small, second-rate fashion house on the rue Bour-sault.
Israel Katz’s aunt turned out to be a middle-aged, gray-haired woman with the face of
a harpy and the soul of an angel. She mothered all her girls and they adored her. Her name
was Madame Rose. She gave Noelle an advance on her salary and found her a tiny
apartment near the salon. The first thing Noelle did when she unpacked was to hang up her
wedding dress. She put it in the front of the closet so that it was the first thing she saw in
the morning and the last thing she saw when she undressed at night.
Noelle knew that she was pregnant before there were any visible signs of it, before
any tests had been made, before she missed her period. She could sense the new life that
had formed in her womb, and at night she lay in bed staring at the ceiling thinking about
it, her eyes glowing with wild animal pleasure.
On her first day off Noelle phoned Israel Katz and made a date to meet him for lunch.
“I’m pregnant,” she told him.
“How do you know? Have you had any tests?”
“I don’t need any tests.”
He shook his head. “Noelle, a lot of women think they are going to have babies when
they are not. How many periods have you missed?”
She pushed the question aside, impatiently. “I want your help.”
He stared at her. “To get rid of the baby? Have you discussed this with the father?”
“He’s not here.”
“You know abortions are illegal. I could get into terrible trouble.”
Noelle studied him a moment. “What’s your price?”