"I am."
"You are the fourth one."
"I am."
"Okay."
She returns to teaching Ronan how Brontos says hello. Finn watches her for a moment. Then he turns to me at the doorway and says, very quietly, "Lex did the right thing."
"With Andreev."
"With all of it."
Then he goes back to listening to his niece.
? ? ?
Nico finds Lex and me in the kitchen at 3:47 PM.
Nora is in the living room with five uncles around her, one of them Konstantinos and four of them O'Brien, plus Sofia in Eleni's arms, and Cormac is on the floor showing Nora how to make Brontos and a small giraffe Cormac has produced from a paper bag say hello to each other in Irish. Lex and I have been allowed, by silent Greek family agreement, to step away to the kitchen for ten minutes.
Nico sits down at the kitchen island.
"You did good," he says.
"I should have caught Andreev sooner."
"You caught him at all. The federal case will hold. The Sokolov thread is in Petrov's hands now. We will work it."
Lex nods.
Nico is quiet for a long second. Then he says, "Lex. About the brother thing. About the lying. We are past it. I want you to know that."
Lex's throat does what it does when he’s being given something he cannot ask for. He says, "Thank you, Nico."
"Don't thank me. Just don't do it again."
"I won't."
Nico looks at me.
"Maeve."
"Yes."
"Welcome to the family."
I hold his eyes for one full second.
"Thank you, Nico."
They leave at 5:30 PM.
Eleni stays with Theodoros until 6:00 PM and then goes home with him. Ronan and Finn go with Cormac to the O'Brien apartment in Brookline. Declan returns to Konstantinos security rotations. The brownstone is quiet.
I take a bath.
Lex puts Nora to bed.
