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I shook my head.
Anna mumbled something, but Jack ignored her and strode toward me. Placing his wet hand on my shoulder, he squeezed me once. “It’s because I know what you are, and after what you’ve lost...I wanted you to have at least one safe place to go.”
My eyes shot to his. “You know...what I am?”
Letting me go, he nodded. “You’re here illegally.”
Ice frosted around my heart.
“I figured you’d probably run before they could interview you. You’re alone without anyone to rely on. You also know you’ll either be detained or shipped offshore for processing. Or worse...be deported back to your home.”
The ice thickened, blowing a blizzard in my lungs.
Jack’s voice turned husky. “Answer me two things. Give me honesty and then we’ll eat dinner and afterward...we’ll talk. Properly. With no fear that we’ll tattle on you.”
The rock was back in my throat.
“Ask.” I balled my good hand.
“Where are you from?”
“Turkey.”
“How the hell did you end up here of all places? Turkey is insanely far. If you had to leave, why not stick closer to home? Europe perhaps, or—”
“Australia was my father’s goal.”
“Why?”
“Because it was the farthest country he could get to without moving to Antarctica.”
“And you sailed the entire way?”
How much could I tell them? How much was too much?
Weighing every word carefully, I said, “My family wasn’t poor. We had passports and money. We left the usual way—on a plane, just like everyone else. But...” I tensed and did my best to forget the many airports, the many flights, travelling a little farther from Turkey with each one. By the time we landed in Indonesia, my parents’ panic had reached manic levels to rid themselves of our identities by any means necessary. Next thing I knew, Afet, Melike, and I were somehow on a boat, surrounded by other nationalities, sailing out to sea.
“We traded planes for a boat on the final journey,” I admitted.
Jack studied me for a while before nodding and accepting my unwillingness to share more. Inhaling heavily, he asked, “If you get sent back home. If I tell our government about your status and they choose to ship you back the way you came, would you survive?”
I held his stare.
I stood as tall as I could.
And I uttered the most honest words of my life. “The moment I step foot back there, I will be caught, tortured, and probably be made to beg for death before they grant it.”
Jack stared into me as if searching for a single lie. He flinched. “You are never to tell Nerida that, do you understand me? Not a single hint that you’re in danger.”
“You have my word.”
After a long pause, he sniffed, cleared his throat, and grinned. “Then let’s eat. I’m starving.”
Chapter Eight
*
Aslan
