“I’m so sorry you’re doing this all alone.”
“I’m not alone here ever,” I whisper. Then look at her, “When you landed in the city, my life changed. Now I have you, my four girls, and hockey.
The fourth wing is the most telling. A family wing. Media room. Multiple bedrooms, all with identical layouts. Neutral. Unclaimed. Prepared for people who never quite arrived, a place where right now, I imagine Claudia and I getting ready for school, having sleepovers, because she would have insisted we be normal, and I’d have fought for it.
“This isn’t what luxury should feel like. This is cold marble, everything gold-plated and silent; it’s a controlled and catered space. I have hated it my entire life, yet now I know I’ll miss it.”
Claudia’s fingers curl tighter into mine. “It’s odd not to feel even the slightest bit of envy of a life that could have been. I just wish we had known each other sooner. I think we were both lonely.”
“Not that this excuses him for not finding you, but he was too.” I shake my head. “He wanted a family to share all this with and, well, now it’s like he built his own cage.”
“It’s a stunning one.”
“The fifth wing, dining and entertainment.” I force a laugh. “Never used.”
“I imagine you’ll host amazing dinner parties one day.” She smiles softly. “Your kids will?—”
“I don’t want to raise kids like this. I want warmth, messes of toys, noise, and a dog to raise hell in a backyard. I want my daughter to try to sneak out her window and not know she’d be splattered all over concrete if she actually did so, she just… exists.”
A throat clears behind us, and we turn.
“James sent us up,” Aleks says, running his hand through his messy hair, still wet from the quick shower he took before we left the arena for Icehouse.
Chapter 20
Arriving
Aleks
My eyes meet hers,and all the anger boiling inside of me that she just left like that, with everything going on, softens.
“Are they all still down there?” Claudia asks.
Deacon grabs her and pulls her into an embrace, “Don’t do that again. Don’t take off and?—”
“I needed to be with my sister.” She whispers, hugging him.
“I have no right to chime in, tell you what to do, and I know you’re a little bad ass, but yeah, not fucking cool, Tsarina.” I try my best not to growl, but I’m not sure I pulled it off.
“Sorry,” she says.
“You need to give them a tour,” Claudia shakes her head, “This place is?—”
“Not warm enough for her,” I state, because I heard what she said.
Claudia smiles at her, “I’m sure it’s a perfect even seventy degrees in here at all times.”
“Miss Fairfax, could I speak to you for a moment?” An officer asks.
“Sofie,” a man calls, “Where are you? What is going on?”
“Fuck,” she sputters as she starts toward the voice and whispers. “Just stay right here.”
“You have company?” The man, now right behind me, says. “Why is there an officer here? What did they do? Are you in trouble?”
“No, Dad, we’re not in any trouble.”
“Good. Shall I call the staff up to get you drinks or —”
