Page 255 of Merciless Daddy

She stared down at her brother for one long second. Her face showed nothing I could name.

Then she turned away from him.

Sal drew me back against his chest as men moved through the corridor and the outer alarms began shutting down one by one.

I still did not know where I was. I did not know how far we had to travel or what waited outside.

But his heart beat beneath my cheek.

Steady.

Real.

Mine only because he gave it freely.

I closed my eyes.

For the first time since the fire door fell between us, I let somebody else hold my weight.

Chapter 19

Yelena

SIX MONTHS LATER

I woke because sunlight reached my face, not because somebody had fired a gun, broken a door, or said my brother’s name in the wrong tone.

For several seconds, I lay still beneath the warm sheet.

Water moved beyond the windows. Not ocean this time. The lake was flatter, darker, cut by the pale wake of an early boat. Farther south, the city rose behind a thin morning haze. Near enough to reach. Far enough not to press its hand against the glass.

Our house sat between both things.

Water and work.

Quiet and life.

I had described it to Sal over grilled fish beneath a faded blue awning. At the time, I had believed I was inventing something impossible to see whether he would lie and promise it anyway.

He had not promised.

He had listened.

Then, after the war ended and the lawyers stopped speaking about my competence as if it were a weather condition, he had shown me six houses. I rejected five.

The sixth had tall windows facing the lake. A city view from the upper floor. A kitchen large enough for Tonio to create regional shortages in olive oil. A bright room beside Sal’s study with deep shelves, a long table, and a door I could close when I wanted privacy.

My coloring books sat openly on those shelves now.

So did my pencils.

The stuffed wolf occupied the window seat with a knitted firebird Kiryl had bought me from a market and denied choosing himself. Corporate reports shared space with fairy-tale books. Nobody moved any of it when guests came.

Nobody asked me to hide.

I rolled over.

Sal’s side of the bed was empty, but the pillow remained warm.