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In this bestseller from France and the follow-up to The Yellow Eyes
of Crocodiles, a woman contends with divorce, family trouble and
even murder in her journey to discover who she really is.
Forty-something mother of two Josphine Corts is at a crossroads.
She has just moved to a posh new apartment in Paris after the
success of the historical novel she ghostwrote for her sister, Iris.
Still struggling with her divorcethe result of her husband running
off to Kenya to start a crocodile farm with his mistressshe is now
entangled in a lie orchestrated by her sister. And just when things
seem as though they cant get any more complicated, people start
turning up dead in her neighbourhood.
As Josephine struggles to find her voice and her confidence
amid a messy web of relationships and a string of murders, she
and those around her must learn to push on with determination,
like headstrong little turtles learning to dance slowly in a world thats
too violent and moving too fast.
FICTION
KATHERINE
PANCOL
The
w
o
l
S
f
o
z
t
l
Wa
s
e
l
Turt
THE INTERNATIONALOR OF
BESTSELLING AUTH OF
THE YELLOW EYES
CROCODILES - over sold
2.5 million copies
E
N
I
R
E
H
T
A
K
PANCOL
The
Slow Waltz
of Turtles
KATHERINE PANCOL
TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM RODARMOR
20/09/2016 4:22 PM
15/09/2016 4:39 pm
First published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin in 2017
First published in the United States in 2016 by arrangement with Penguin
Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random
House LLC.
Copyright Katherine Pancol 2016
Translation copyright William Rodarmor 2016
Originally published in France by ditions Albin MichelParis, 2008, as La Valse
Lente Des Tortues.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968
(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book,
whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for
its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body
that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency
(Australia) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Email: info@allenandunwin.com
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.trove.nla.gov.au
ISBN 978 1 76029 016 0
Set in ITC Galliard Std
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C009448
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is
entirely coincidental.
20/09/2016 4:22 PM
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PART I
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arrondissement.
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Josphine handed over her ID. The clerk grabbed it from her
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hand and climbed down from her stool, raising first one buttock,
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then the other. She waddled off down a hallway and disappeared,
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rubbing her back. On the wall, the black minute hand of the clock
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that she knows my new address. It would be just like her to send some
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of that special tea she buys at Fortnum & Mason, a pudding, and
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some wool socks so I can work without my feet getting cold. Shirley
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always says that love exists only in the details. Jo missed Shirley, who
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The postal clerk came back with a parcel the size of a shoe box.
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The clerk blinked vacantly at the stamps, then slid the pack-
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age across to Jo, who saw her name and old Courbevoie address
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post office shelf had frayed the equally coarse string into garlands
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of dirty pom-poms.
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from a long way off. Kenya. Its been around the block, all right!
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tered some sort of excuse. It was true that shed moved, but not
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because she didnt like her suburb, not at all. She loved Courbe-
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voie, her old neighborhood, her apartment, the balcony with the
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rusted railing. To be honest, she didnt like her new place; she felt
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and when Hortense got an idea in her head, youd better follow
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t h e s l ow wA lt Z o f t u r t l e s
Queen and a big bank loan shed been able to buy a handsome
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the La Muette Metro station and beyond rue de Passy with its
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town, half country, the real estate agent kept stressing. Hortense
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Parisienne.
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Unlike her mother or her sister, who could make people obey
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or love them with a glance or a smile, Josphine was shy. She had
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boost her self-esteem. A Most Humble Queen was still on the best-
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seller lists a year after coming out. But money hadnt brought her
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life and her relationships with other people. The only thing it
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She looked around for a caf where she could sit and open the
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mysterious package.
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walked along looking at their feet for fear of a gust slapping them
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K a t h e r i n e Pa n c o l
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in the face. Josphine pulled up her coat collar and checked her
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entered the restaurant. She had a full hour before Luca would join
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her. Since her move, they always met in this brasserie, at her
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hood. She enjoyed creating habits. I think this place is too bour-
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geois and touristy, it has no soul, said Luca dully, but if you
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insist . . . You can always tell if people are sad or happy by their
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eyes. They cant hide the way they look. Luca always had sad eyes.
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She pushed the glass door open, spotted a free table, and went
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to sit down. To her relief, nobody paid her any attention. Perhaps
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she was starting to look like a Parisienne? She fingered the unusual
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ing it, decided not to. It had three fat woolen bellows topped by a
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disk of ribbed velvet with a little wool stem, like a beret. With that
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hat, she was creating a personality for herself. Just before going to
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the post office shed stopped at the lyce to see her younger daugh-
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was doing, what with the move and getting used to a new school.
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At the end of their talk, Berthier had put on her coat and the same
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Ive got exactly the same hat, said Josphine, holding hers
out. Look!
The coincidence of wearing identical hats brought the two
women closer than their long conversation about Zo had. They
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t h e s l ow wA lt Z o f t u r t l e s
left the school together and headed in the same direction, still
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talking.
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I lived there for almost fifteen years. I liked it, even though
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They all think theyve given birth to a genius, and they criticize
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and they either fall asleep in class or talk to you as if you were their
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flunkey. In fact, I just had a run-in with one of the fathers, a banker
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with all sorts of degrees and diplomas. He was complaining that his
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son had only a B average. I pointed out that a B was pretty good,
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left. Enjoy your hat. Be sure to wear it. That way well recognize
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rising from its basket. She almost expected to hear flute music
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and see the hat start swaying back and forth. She wasnt sure Luca
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They had been seeing each other regularly for a year. Luca was
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from the Middle Ages to the present. He spent most of his time in
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sion, and in all weather, he wore a navy-blue duffel coat that served
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as his home away from home. Its roomy pockets held everything
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between Lucas eyes, Josphine could tell if the news about his
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those days, Luca would be silent and somber. He would take Jos-
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phines hand and slip it into his coat pocket along with the keys,
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pack, and his old red leather wallet. She had learned to recognize
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each object with her fingertips, even the brand of the cough drops.
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The two of them would get together on nights when Zo slept over
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and Philippe and his son, Alexandre, met her at St. Pancras. Philippe
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had given Zo a Eurostar pass, and she would hop on the train,
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the best!
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t h e s l ow wA lt Z o f t u r t l e s
generosity. Whenever she had a problem, or hesitated over a deci-
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you can ask me anything. When she heard his kind voice,
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up: Careful, danger! Hes your sisters husband! Keep your dis-
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tance, Jo.
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ters, had died six months earlier. Hed been managing a crocodile
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Antoine spent his nights staring into the yellow eyes of crocodiles
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floating in the swamp, until one night he walked into the water and
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that her father was dead. Zo had said, Now Ive got only you
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wood to keep the danger at bay. Hortense had cried too, but then
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declared that it was for the best, that being a failure had pained
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her father too much. Hortense didnt like feelings, thought them
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only to self-pity. She had just one goal in life: to be a success, and
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nobody and nothing would stand in her way. She loved her father,
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of course, but there was nothing she could do for him, she said.
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Everyone was responsible for his own fate. Hed been dealt a los-
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of the time she breezed in, gave her little sister a kiss, and imme-
04
diately left. She was enrolled at Saint Martins and was working
05
like a fiend. Its the best fashion school in the world, she assured
06
her mother. I know its expensive, but we can afford it now, cant
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it. Neither did Josphine. She had complete faith in her older
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daughter.
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finished writing a novel so my dear sister, Iris, could put her name
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And now, Ive started a new life. Im waiting for Luca. Hell
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up to her. She would rest her head on his shoulder, slip her hand
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say, All right, Ill pick the movie but dont complain afterward.
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being with her. When she slept at his place, with him lying next to
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her, she would study the sparse decor of his studio apartment, the
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white light slanting through the venetian blinds, the books piled
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She glanced around the caf to make sure no one was watch-
01
ing her. I hope Luca likes my hat! If he turns up his nose, Ill squash
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it into a beret.
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Jos gaze returned to the package. She untied the coarse twine
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unwrapped the paper, glanced into the box. A letter lay on top.
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Madam,
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his life. We want to say how sorry we all are, and remem-
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drinks. Life wont be the same without him, and his seat
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had known in Kenya. They were illegible, but even if Jo had been
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able to make them out, it wouldnt have done her much good:
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with a large black dial whose bezel bore Roman and Arabic numer-
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als, an orange running shoe size sixhe hated having such small
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its head resting on its hand. The other was engraved with Antoines
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first name and birth date, May 26, 1963. The last item was a long
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This was all that was left of Antoine: a cardboard box sitting
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on her knees. But Jos husband had always felt like a child she had
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to hold in her lap. She had let him think he was in charge, but
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She started to think about the plan for her next novel. What
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sensibility, its romantic codes, its rules of social life. What do I know
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child, though shes changing before my eyes. She dreams of being like
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I used to idolize Iris. She was my role model. Today, shes adrift
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those big blue eyes. Her gaze wanders over me and then escapes into
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vague boredom. She barely listens to me. Once, when I urged her to
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be nicer to the clinic nurses, who were so considerate, she asked,
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How do you expect me to live with other people when I cant live
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with myself? And her hand fell back onto the blanket, inert.
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The last time Josphine visited, Iriss tone very quickly rose
from blandly neutral to sharp.
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Ive only ever had one talent, she declared, looking at her
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was pretty. Very pretty. And Im starting to lose even that. You
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see this wrinkle? It wasnt there last night. And tomorrow therell
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smoothed her black hair. It was cut short and square, and made
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Dont pretend to be stupider than you are, Jo. You know Ive
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and I suspect he was bored in mine. Hes closer to you, his aunt,
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ones she couldnt ask, were about Philippe. Arent you afraid
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that hes going to make a new life with someone else? Arent you
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What a pain in the ass you can be, Jo. Youre like a nun whos
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wandered into a whorehouse trying to save lost souls! You came all
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the way here just to lecture me. Next time, save yourself the trip
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and stay home. I hear youve moved, is that right? To a nice apart-
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dying to visit you, by the way, but refuses to be the first to call.
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Iris smiled slightly then, a scornful smile. Her big blue eyes,
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which had looked even bigger since shed become sick, darkened
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one who made your book successful, dont ever forget that. With-
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out me, you could never have done what I did: find a publisher,
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to get attention!
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Iris raised herself in her bed. A strand of black hair that had
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escaped from her perfect square hairdo hung in front of her eyes.
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and Id get all the fame! I held up my end of the bargain, but you
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Iris, you know perfectly well thats not true. I didnt want
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anything. I didnt want to write the book, and I didnt want the
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and Zo decently.
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Do you dare tell me that you didnt send that little bitch to
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that? You disgust me, Jo. I was your most faithful ally. I was
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always there for you. I always paid for you, always watched out
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t h e s l ow wA lt Z o f t u r t l e s
for you. And the one time I ask you to do something for me, you
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betray me. You really got your revenge too. You dishonored me!
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out, everyone will point a finger at me. Id rather die here. And
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Iriss bony arms stuck out of her the sleeves of her bathrobe,
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her clenched jaws raising two little hard bumps under her skin, her
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eyes burning with the most ferocious hatred any jealous woman
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of the line, to the place that was hers by right. But I wasnt the one
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who pushed Hortense to tell the world about our deal. I wasnt the
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one who broke our agreement. But how can I get Iris to accept the
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truth? Shes too wounded to hear it. Iris was accusing Josphine of
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ruining her life. But its easier to accuse other people than to
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confront yourself.
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That elegant woman in the handsome tan coat with the wide
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