Page 113 of Pas de Trois
Chapter 27
Anya
1 Week Later
“Lidia?” I drop my bag at the front door of the townhome Ezra rented just outside of Philadelphia. “Lidia!” I run to my little sister and throw my arms around her, knocking into her a little too hard.
We tumble to the floor in a fit of giggles and sobs as I hold her tight, stroking her hair as we lay on our sides. I pull my head back to look at her and fresh tears pool and fall.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she tells me as she cries.
I press my forehead to hers. “I’ve missed you, too. So much.”
“I’m just gonna—” Ezra literally steps over us to continue on past, and Kostya follows suit.
Lidia sits up, swiping beneath her eyes. “You’re gonna make me mess up my mascara.”
I sit up, reaching out to stroke her hair with a smile. “And you did such a nice job of putting it on, too. I remember the first time you did it when you were…maybe thirteen? You put on way too much and just when you finished—”
“I sneezed.” She chuckles.
“Tiny little black lines all the way across your cheeks.” I laugh. “You thought it was the end of the world.”
“At the time, it was.” Lidia laughs and the sound of it is so sweet. “I cried for an hour and all the black lines dripped down to my chin.”
I smile at her. “And you’re going to have them again if you don’t stop crying now.” I’m having a hard time seeing her as an adult. But it’s been five years and she is one.
“Are you really okay?” she asks after a beat.
I nod. “Yes. I will be. Nothing’s easy right now.”
“I know. I just want you to be okay.”
“I’m alive.” I grin at her reassuringly. “And I’m here now. No one is ever going to take me away again. I won’t let that happen.”
A comfortable yet anticipatory silence falls.
“Do you want to…Are you ready to meet Brandon?” she finally asks.
I suck in a sharp breath as a bundle of nerves tugs tight in my gut. I got to see him on video chat every night this week while Ezra and I settled things and traveled back to the States. But this is my first time coming home.
Home.
Such a strange thought.
It’s a happy one, but strange.
Ezra didn’t want to live in New York anymore, not when he knew it would make us easier targets for the four families to track down, especially since we’d both lived there before we were taken. He’d lived in Philadelphia for a while with a foster family growing up and the foster father had a connection with a landlord here. He helped him rent a townhome for a steal, and Ezra created a life for us here.
Well, he created a life for him and Brandon and Lidia here. But he was clear with me before we came back that he wanted it to feel like my home, too.
I think it will just take time.
I climb to my feet and Lidia does the same. “I’m nervous,” I admit as Ezra holds out his hand for me to take.
He grins at me and my heart melts. “Nothing to be nervous about.”
“He won’t know who I am,” I remind him, looking nervously down at the space between us.
