Page 152 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

“Yes.”

“And if it works?”

“It will work. That’s the point.”

For this to end safely, my son has to be afraid first.

Aleksander’s gaze doesn’t leave my face. “She doesn’t get him to the car.”

I believe him. That does not make the waiting survivable.

For two minutes, nothing happens. Then his phone lights again.

“She’s at the desk.”

Another message follows almost immediately.

“ID accepted.”

The coffee cup buckles in my hands. Liquid rises to the rim but doesn’t spill.

Aleksander reaches over and takes the cup from me before I crush it completely. He sets it aside.

“Tamara.”

No.

Do not say my name like that.

Do not make me human right now.

His phone lights again.

“They’re calling him from the art room.”

I turn toward the window before I ask him for the impossible: stop time, undo eight years, make my son know me when he sees me.

On the sidewalk, the light has gone thin and blue with late afternoon. A woman in a puffer jacket walks a small dog past the café. Two teenagers share a pair of earbuds and ignore the chill in the air.

The world should not be allowed to continue so normally.

Aleksander’s phone lights again before he can read it aloud.

“What?” I ask.

“Anna left her house.”

That is the first thing that truly scares me.

“She’s early?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know.”

Across the street, a gray Subaru turns the corner and slows near the school.