Page 123 of Queen’s Gambit

“Wow…can we go now,” she asked, making me laugh.

“Not yet, but when you get here, we’ll go, promise.”

“Okay, baby, I need to talk to Eddie.”

“Bye, Eddie. I’m excited to see the magic place.”

I cringed, wanting so badly for her to call me Papa.

“Bye, Lilya. I’ll see you soon.”

“I’m sorry that took so long. I know you need to get going,” Ana said as I stood from my desk.

“No, I always have time for my family. I’ll message you when we are ready to take off. I love you, Ana.”

“I love you more.”

“Impossible.”

1 Day Later

Yulianna

“I’m going to miss you so much,” Mom said, grabbing my hand.

I couldn’t stop my knee from bouncing as I looked at her.

“I’ll miss you too, Mom. Do you think you’ll ever be able to come and visit?”

She wiped away tears and patted my hand.

“I’ll make sure of it. I’m not going the rest of my life not seeing my girl. We spent so long at odds, and the last few years have been a rebirth for me. I’m never going back,” she said, and I smiled.

Lilya was sitting across from us, explaining to Vlad why the rainforest was called the rainforest. She gave him a complete rundown of all the animals that lived there and nowhere else in the world. Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind and was listening intently to her tutorial.

“Do you think Father will come for us,” I asked, hating that my mother would be in the cross-hairs of this drama about to unfold.

Mother sighed and looked out the car window for a long time before answering.

“At one time, I thought I knew him well enough to answer that with a firm no. But honestly, the way he has handled this entire situation makes me question if I ever really knew him at all.”

“So, yes,” I said, shaking my head.

“Unfortunately, I would lean that way.”

“Are you going to be okay? He won’t do something to you, will he?”

She scoffed and crossed her arms.

“No, don’t you worry about that. I’ll be just fine. If Vadin insists on being an ass, I’ll go to my retreat until he’s prepared to act like a human with a heart and a brain.”

“You know that was always my favorite story, and now Lilya loves The Wizard of Oz just as much,” I said.

Mother squeezed my hand. “I remember.”

We began to slow and pulled into the private airfield’s driveway. My heart started to race, and my knee started bouncing again. The tall chain-link fence gates rattled as they slid open. I glanced outside. At least the weather was fair today, so Eddie wouldn’t have had any issues landing or us taking off again.

The hangar door was closed, and I didn’t see his plane, but maybe Eddie was being extra cautious. I gave my mother a tight hug as the guards hopped out.