Page 52 of Coming Home

"Nadia?" Her lips parted around a name that wasn't mine.

"Guess again," I said, stepping straight across the threshold.

Relief hit me so hard my knees almost buckled.

She staggered backwards, her eyes widening. She was dressed in an oversized white hotel bathrobe. Her eyes were swollen, her face bare of makeup.

I moved forward, occupying the space, and she retreated a step on pure instinct, allowing the heavy door to click shut behind me, sealing us inside.

The room was suffocatingly small. A single queen bed, a peeling vinyl chair, a cheap television bolted to the drywall. Her pink suitcase sat open on the carpet like a wound, clothes spilling out of the seams in absolute chaos.

I stared back at her, my insides trembling.

"Ralph, how did you find this place?"

"Who the hell told you that you could disappear again?" My voice came out raw, panic bleeding through the delivery. "Who gave you the permission to pack a bag and walk out of my house without a single word?"

She backed up until her shoulder blades hit the far wall, her fingers clutching the lapels of the robe, her bare toes digging into the cheap carpet. Her blue eyes were wide, burning with defiance that made my blood run hot.

"I don't require your permission to leave a house, Ralph."

"You're right. You don't. What you required was to pick up your goddamn phone." I took a massive step closer, closing the distance between us until the heat of her skin was fighting the damp chill of my shirt. "I called you six times, Emma."

"And I didn't possess a single word to say to you!" Her voice fractured on the last syllable, her eyes bright with tears. "Theo was right. Every single word that came out of his mouth at that pool deck was the absolute truth. I run. That is my singular talent. The exact second someone gets too close, the exact second a life starts to feel real, I grab the handle of that suitcase and I hunt for an exit."

"Theo doesn't blame you for this, Em."

"He should!"

"He blames himself!" I roared.

"He's been driving a blind grid down Sunset because his little sister vanished and he believes he's the monster who caused it." I took the final step, my boots nearly touching her bare feet.

I cupped her chin, forcing her to look at me. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to retreat.

"You left me once before, Emma. And like an absolute coward, I watched your taillights leave the driveway. I didn't follow you. I didn't call your phone. I convinced myself that 'respecting your choice' was the same thing as protecting you, when really I was just too terrified to let you see how much I needed you."

I leaned closer, our breaths mingling. I traced the tears down her cheeks to her glittering ocean eyes.

"I am never being a coward with your life again," I breathed. "Never."

"Ralph..." Her voice was a tiny, fragile thread. "I don't know how to stop the engine. Running is the only play I know how to make."

"That is a lie. You know how to swim. You proved that to every soul in that facility today. You know how to construct a meal for a man you care about, even if it takes you three disastrous attempts to clear the smoke. You know how to sit on a concrete deck, call out split seconds, and hold your own against an Olympic coach without flinching." My breath was coming in short, ragged bursts, the air in the room spent. "And you knew how to dial my number that night in the middle of a thunderstorm. You did that, Emma. You chose me. You don't get to unchoose me just because your brother's feelings are bruised."

"It isn't that simple," she choked out.

"It's exactly that simple. You called. I came. That's the contract. That's been the deal between us since you handed me a melted popsicle under Theo's lemon tree, put your headphones over my ears, and didn't ask me to explain why I was bleeding. You just told me to listen." My voice was shaking now, the raw weight of everything I was hiding rising up to my throat, and I let it shake. I didn't hide a damn thing. "So I am asking you for the same thing today. Don't analyze it. Don't fix the family dynamic tonight. Don't run to an air mattress. Just stay in the room and listen."

Her eyes overflowed, two heavy streams of silver breaking past her lashes and racing down her face.

"You don't get to disappear from me," I whispered, leaning down until my forehead was touching hers. "Not again. Not ever. I won't survive a second exit, Emma. I'm telling you that right now so it's locked into your brain. Whatever this is, whatever terrifying thing we are building out of the weeds... I need you to stay in the room. Even when Theo yells. Even when the past is loud. Even when your head is screaming at you to grab the suitcase. Just stay."

"Why?" The word was torn directly from the center of her chest—raw, bleeding.

"Why does it matter to you this much, Ralph? I'm a disaster right now."

"Because you are the only thing on this earth I can see clearly. I love you, Emma."