Ava looked at Victor. Back at her parents.
“Because I’m tired of lying. Because you deserve the truth. And because…” She touched her face, her changed eyes. “I can’t hide what happened. It’s written on me now.”
Her father stood. Crossed to her. Pulled her into a hug so tight it hurt.
“You should have told us,” he said into her hair. “We would have found another way.”
“There wasn’t another way.”
“Then we would have lost the restaurant.” He pulled back, holding her shoulders. “Buildings can be replaced. Daughters can’t.”
“Your souls can’t either.”
He had no answer for that.
Her mother joined them, wrapping her arms around both of them. For a long moment, they just held each other.
Then her father stepped back and looked at Victor.
“You kept her alive.”
“She kept herself alive. I just made sure she had the chance.”
“Fifty years. That’s what you gave up.”
“Twenty-five. We split it.”
Her father extended his hand. Victor took it.
“Thank you,” her father said. “For bringing her back.”
They ate dinner together. Quieter than usual. Her mother kept looking at Ava’s eyes, then looking away. Her father askedcareful questions about the firm, about demon law, about what Ava’s life would look like now.
“The same,” Ava said. “Mostly. I still work there. Still do contracts. Just… knowing what I know now.”
“And the fifty years?”
“Not until after I die. We have time.”
Her mother reached across the table, taking Ava’s hand.
“We’re glad you’re home,” she said. “Whatever you are now. Whatever you’ve become. You’re still our daughter.”
It wasn’t acceptance, exactly. More like the beginning of a longer conversation.
Mia cameto the penthouse Saturday.
She stood in the doorway, arms crossed, dark circles under her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
“You’re alive.”
“I’m alive.”
“Derek told me. Some of it.” Mia’s voice was flat. “That you did a ritual. That you used me as a witness. That I helped bind you to a demon.”
“Mia…”
“I thought I killed you.” The words came out hard. “I spent six days — do you know what — and Derek, Derek of all people had to tell me you were alive. Six days of not knowing if you were dead or worse than dead, and it would have been my fault because I trusted you.”
