AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So you told her what has been going on?”
I let out a cheerless laugh. “I didn’t have much of a choice. The doctors were wanting me to sign papers to not resuscitate if Nik stopped breathing again and all I could think about is what you said—that she would never forgive me if he died and she wasn’t here.”
“Do you think…” Her voice trails off for a second. “Does that mean you think he’s going to die?”
No one has asked the question so plainly. I haven’t had to really consider the possibility. But I find myself nodding. “I do. I don’t think… It’s been months. If he hasn’t woken up yet, I don’t see why he would now.”
“Yakov,” Luna breathes. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could be there with you.”
“You will be soon. When this shit is all over with, we’ll be together again. You’ll be safe. Until then, I’ll try to figure out what the fuck I’m supposed to do about my mother and brother.”
“You’ll figure it out.” She sounds certain. Right now, she has more faith in me than I do. “You always know what to do, Yakov. When the time comes, you’ll know exactly how to handle all of it.”
“Have I told you that I fucking love you yet?”
She laughs and it’s like a shot of adrenaline straight to my chest. “You’ve mentioned it once or twice, yeah.”
“That’s good. Because I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she says warmly. “I always will.”
35
LUNA
I take a single step out of my room and one sniff is all it takes for me to regret it. I clap a hand over my nose. “I can’t take anymore apple cake.”
“It’s sharlotka!” Mariya holds up a steaming forkful. “I just warmed some up. Do you not like it?”
“It smells like sadness.”
That probably has something to do with the fact that the bunker Mariya and I are currently calling home smelled like apple sharlotka the night we arrived. For as long as I live, the scent will always remind me of being ripped away from Yakov. Unfortunately, it’s one of the only desserts our hostess, Vera, knows how to make.
“Vera is trying to make us feel at home.” Mariya frowns. “Which I guess is working for me. Because my mom made this all the time when we were growing up.”
“I liked it fine the first night. And it was okay yesterday. But I can’t eat anymore.” I lay aluminum foil over the cake on the counter and crinkle the edges around the bottom to try to seal in the smell. “It’s making me nauseous.”
“The nausea is thanks to my nieces and/or nephews and/or niece and nephew,” she says.
“Is that what you’re going to call them?”
She shrugs. “We don’t know the gender, so I’m not sure how to refer to them.”
“How about ‘the twins?’”
“Oh.” Mariya laughs. “Yeah, I guess that works. Either way, the twins are making you sick.”
I sit down on the couch cushion farthest away from her and her cake. Which, considering the gargantuan size of the U-shaped couch that takes up most of the living room, is pretty far away. “Or the stress. Are you not losing your mind being locked up down here? You were climbing the walls of the mansion. But at least there we had the pool and the garden. Here, we don’t even have sunlight.”
Or an accessible door. Or a dessert free of apples.
I shrink down onto the couch. “I can feel the walls closing in as we speak.”
“I guess I’m getting used to being cooped up,” Mariya says. “Plus, at least here, Yakov gave me some kind of choice. I mean, he would have forced me down here regardless, but he talked to me about it first, you know? He explained what was going on and what he needed from me before just barking out orders. That makes all of this a little more bearable.”
When Mariya first showed up on Yakov’s doorstep, I didn’t think there was a chance in hell of those two hotheads finding any common ground. But somehow, they’ve managed to grow together. They understand each other better now. Their relationship is healing.
I’m happy for them, but it all just makes me miss Yakov even more.
