We found another bottle of champagne, shared his glass, and I logged back into my StormSprint email. The report opened. Zoltán’s name was the first thing I saw.
31
Chapter 31
Zoltán
Home didn’t feel like home. The dogs didn’t even act the same.
And it had been months. I’d tried to spend Christmas alone. I’d been denied my solitude, even after Derek moved back home.
Mum wanted to spend Christmas together.
Which meant my brother and I had to make up. Or pretend to.
With the dogs, I refused to leave the house. They weren’t about to spend the holidays alone. Not on my watch.
So on Christmas Eve, Benedek arrived at midday, in joggers and a Christmas jumper.
I didn’t care for tradition. I didn’t want to decorate the tree with him.
I could hardly look at his fucking face.
Mum tried to beat joy into the room with festive music, and I turned it up until I couldn’t hear him updating her on hislife. He spoke to her fluently in Kriolu — showing off — and, for once, I found comfort in ignorance.
Whatever he had to say, he could do it away from me.
Whatever had happened to him since my demise could happen elsewhere.
Imre sang along, a few gins deep, and his mother fell asleep on the sofa before lunch.
No one mentioned Fia.
Her name popped into my thoughts as consistently as breathing. And when I saw her nagyi, I had to literally bite my tongue to stop myself from blurting her name.
I wondered if she knew what had happened.Did they avoid anything to do with her because of me, or because of her?
Imre brought a sack of presents in from his car and placed them under the tree beside mine. Well, the gifts people would receive from me. Anna, my housekeeper, had put together a list, forced me to check it over, then bought and wrapped them before she left to spend the holiday with her family.
There was only one present I had bought and wrapped with my clumsy fingers.
The present itself would be a Christmas miracle.
Imre was kneeling at the tree, unloading his bag, humming along like a good little elf — he was permanently on my bad list — when he suddenly stopped, lifting a box, tied with a drooping bow. His head was bent, staring down at the label.
I was lying on the floor, resting back on the sofa that Fia’s nagyi slept on.
He threw a glare over his shoulder, and it answered the question I didn’t have the energy to ask.
He hadn’t bought her a present in case she came.
“She’s not coming, is she?” he asked, panic risingin his voice.
I could only wish.
“Who?” Benedek asked, took a swig of his drink, and looked down at the gift. “Oh.”
“Is she coming?” Imre pressed.
