“Come on!” she tells me. “Let’s go outside!”
He seems emboldened by her enthusiasm, and he follows behind her and me as we head towards the back door, the one that leads to the immaculate lawn beyond. Just as I expected, there are two guards there, and they both step out to stop me before I can slip outside.
“What is it?” I ask, tossing my hair over my shoulder, mustering all the confidence I can in the face of this.
“You need to stay inside,” the man tells me bluntly.
I sigh, shaking my head. “Alexei didn’t tell you? He thought it would be a good idea for the kids to get some fresh air and sunshine. You know, keep them from being locked up in the house all day...”
The guards exchange glances, clearly not trusting a word that is coming out of my mouth right now. I feign annoyance and look over my shoulder.
“Look, why don’t you go and ask him?” I suggest. “I just want to enjoy the sunshine while we still have the chance.”
The guards look back at each other, and one nods.
“I’ll go,” he replies. “You stay here, keep an eye on them, don’t let them any further out than the fountain, okay?”
The other man nods, and I reach out my hands for Nina and Max and lead them into the garden. As soon as the sunshine hits my skin, I know that it’s worth it, even if it ends up pissing off Alexei. I get the feeling he’s not going to take too kindly to this, but when he sees how much fun the kids and I are having, I’m sure he’ll feel differently. At the end of the day, he’s a parent as much as I am, and he just wants to see his son happy, feeling free, enjoying an adventure.
“Okay, what about here?” I ask, as I point down to a spot underneath a shady tree where we can sit without getting burned. Max and Nina plant themselves down in the grass together, and Nina spreads the book out before her, looking down at it with a smile as she begins to admire the work again.
I lean against the trunk of the tree and just watch them as they sit together. And, for just a moment, everything feels normal. Maybe not quite as it did before, not quite as settled as I once was, but it’s a damn sight closer than I’ve been in a hell of a long time. I stretch my limbs out, settling in, and take in the sight of the two of them. Just two kids, becoming friends, getting to know one another. What could be better?
And then, I hear a voice from behind me—a voice that makes me snap upright.
“Cara!”
It’s him. Alexei. I had thought I might have more than a couple of minutes before he came storming out to join us, but it looks as though I’m not going to get so lucky. Both the kids look up to, but I lift a hand to them, letting them know to keep reading while I deal with whatever this is.
“Hey!” I call back to him, lifting a hand to shield my face from the sun. He’s already closing the distance towards me, and I can tell from the look on his face that he’s furious.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he hisses as soon as he is close enough to talk to me.
“I wanted to bring the children outside for some sunshine,” I reply, gesturing behind me to where the two of them are sitting. “Not that you’d have a problem with that, right?”
“You need to get yourself and them back inside. Right now.” His tone is harsh, sharp, and it slices straight through me.
I jerk my head back in surprise. “You can’t talk to me like that?—”
“You have no idea what we’re dealing with here!” he fires back. “If anyone sees them?—”
“What are they going to be able to do even if they do see them?” I point out, nodding towards the guards who are watching our every move. “Nobody could get close to them.”
“Because people don’t know Max even exists,” he snaps. “Or that I have a daughter living here too. And as long as I can keep them inside, there’s no reason for them to.”
My head jerks back in shock. I knew that he kept Max under lock and key, and that he had become entirely too protective of Nina and I in the process, but I hadn’t expected that, of all things.
“Nobody knows about him?” I whisper back in shock. The weight of what I’ve just done begins to settle in on top of me as I try to make sense of it. Jesus Christ. What the fuck have I just done? Bringing them out here, someone could have?—
“Someone could be watching this place right now, even if they can’t get inside,” he tells me. “And if they see him in the garden…”
I rush back over to Max and Nina, standing behind them in an attempt to shield them from view of anyone who might be lurking around.
“Come on,” I hustle them, trying to keep my voice as light as I can so they don’t panic. “We should go back inside now. It’s going to rain soon.”
“But I thought you said?—”
“Nina, let’s just go back inside,” I insist, and I look back up at Alexei. Max is already doing as he is told, no doubt all too aware of what might happen if he defies his father. I suddenly feel stupid for letting things go as far as this, for thinking that I knew better. I need to remember that, no matter what, this world is his, not mine, and the sooner I can wrap my head around it, the better.
