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There’s a simple white table in the middle of the floor, surrounded by cream-colored high-back chairs. A wide, sweeping staircase with white railings leads upstairs. The hall is elegant and hints at a minimalist, refined taste, but there’s something wrong.
There are no family pictures, no paintings. Nothing.
It’s as if no humans live in this house. It’s clean but impersonal.
I’m still studying my surroundings when a soft thudding sound comes from upstairs. I freeze, fingers sinking into my palm. Maybe my premonition about this house is coming true, after all, and I’ll be attacked.
But then I recognize the sound. It’s not threatening; if anything, it seems like…
My thoughts trail off when the footsteps grow nearer and a small human appears at the top of the stairs. He comes down, holding the spindles with each step, his tiny fingers wrapping around them like a vise. He looks no older than five, give or take.
There’s no doubt who the little boy is.
He’s the spitting image of Adrian with his dark hair and gray eyes. Only, his are lighter and bigger.
My suspicions are confirmed when he hops down the last two steps, yelling, “Papa!”
As he runs toward us, head focused on his feet as if not to lose sight of his steps, my heels falter. A harsh, unyielding weight pushes against my ribcage as if intending to crush the bones and pierce through my heart.
The sight of the boy brings back memories I’ve kept buried for so long.
Tiny hands and feet.
A little face.
The smell of a baby.
“Slow down, Jeremy,” Adrian says from beside me, but I’m hearing him as if I’m underwater.
The boy, Jeremy, lifts his head and stops mid-run. His huge gray eyes meet mine and they widen even more as he whispers, “Mommy…?”
I don’t know if it’s the word or the way he looks at me as he says it, like he’s found the world after he lost it, but tears I haven’t shed in too long burst from my eyes.
They stream hard and fast down my cheeks, soaking my skin and ripping a sob out of my throat.
“Lia?” Adrian grips me by my shoulders, lowering his head so he can look at my face. My vision is so blurry, I can’t see him. That’s when I realize that I’m shaking and my limbs can’t carry me anymore.
“Lia!”
“I’mnotLia,” I whisper as the darkness whisks me away.
8
Adrian
Lia’s body falls limp in my arms, her lids closed and sweat covers her temples. I hold her small frame against me by her waist as her legs lose all strength.
Placing my arm under her knees, I lift her up as I did earlier. Her head lolls in an awkward position before it lands on my shoulder. Her lips twitch and her face turns so pale, her veins peek more visibly through her skin.
“Mommy…?”
I stare down at Jeremy, who’s holding a toy soldier and fighting back tears. He’s supposed to be in his bed this late, yet here he is. He must’ve tricked his nanny so that he could come down and meet me. He’s been doing that a lot the past few weeks, wanting to see me and throwing tantrums so I’ll pay him attention.
I know exactly why he’s acting like this. After losing his mother, he didn’t want to lose me, too. He sometimes sneaks into my bedroom merely to make sure I’m there.
“She just fell asleep, Malysh,” I say with an American accent. The Russian accent is for certain situations and the American is for others.
Being brought up by a half-American mother and a pure Russian father, the accents come naturally to me.
