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If it still exists.
I grab what I need from my room and bolt back, relieved to find everyone standing and sitting exactly where they were when I left. Scarlett has her back to the wall, eyes watchful. Hadria doesn’t miss the reassuring nod I give her, judging by the way her eyes narrow.
I approach Sarah, holding out the ratty, one-eyed Mr. Fluffikins. “Remember him?”
Her eyes crack open and something flickers in them. A glimmer of something.
Of longing.
Her rigid posture loosens just a fraction. Progress. I look at Scarlett and jerk my chin at the zip ties binding Ariadne’s wrists. “Cut her loose.”
“Are you crazy?” Scarlett snorts, but she’s only echoing the scoff from Hadria, too.
“I’m getting there,” I snap, my patience fraying. Hadria, when I turn to her, has one questioning eyebrow raised, but says nothing.
I know it’s a risk, but my gut tells me this is the right move. I jerk my head at Scarlett, who shakes hers, but pulls out a knife and cuts through the ties.
As soon as her hands are free, Ariadne reaches for Mr. Fluffikins, taking him almost reverently. She stares at the bear, while the rest of us watch her face closely.
Confusion, wonder, recognition. It’s like watching a glacier thaw, the first cracks appearing in the ice.
Then her face crumples and she looks at Mrs. Graves with a raw, childlike vulnerability that pierces my heart. “Mom?” she whispers, her voice small and broken.
Mrs. Graves makes a choked sound and pulls Sarah into a crushing hug, years of grief and love pouring out of her. Sarah doesn’t resist this time, instead burying her face against Mrs. Graves’s shoulder as big, heaving sobs wrack her frame.
Scarlett is watching the reunion with a hand pressed hard to her mouth, and I know she must be thinking about her own fractured family.
After a long moment, Mrs. Graves looks up at me, Hadria, Aurora and Scarlett. There are tears streaming down her face but her voice is firm. “Give us the room please. I need to speak with my daughter alone.” Hadria opens her mouth to protest but Mrs. Graves cuts her off with a sharp look. “Please. I’ll be alright. Just go.”
None of us like it, the idea of leaving Mrs. Graves alone with a killer, even if that killer is her own flesh and blood. But there’s no arguing with her, so we file out obediently, closing the door behind us with reluctance.
The instant we’re in the hall, Aurora whirls on Scarlett, her lovely face hard with fury. “Yuri was my friend and you killed him!”
Scarlett blinks, looking taken aback by the smaller woman’s vehemence. I tense, ready to intervene if things get physical, but Scarlett surprises me by just dropping her head and nodding in understanding.
“I…really wish I hadn’t done that,” she says, genuine regret threading through her voice.
Hadria steps forward, getting close to Scarlett in a way that makes me take a step forward, too. “You think that changes anything?”
But Scarlett just looks up again, meeting Hadria’s gaze without blinking. There’s a quiet strength in her that makes something warm unfurl in my chest.
“I know it doesn’t,” she says evenly. “But I’m sorry all the same.”
Aurora turns on me next, when it becomes clear she won’t get a rise out of Scarlett. “How could you, Lyssa?” she demands, anger making her face red. “How could you lie like that, betray us so easily?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Hadria chimes in. “Anyone else—anyone else—they’d be dead already.” And if looks could kill, I would be dead.
“Listen—” I begin, but the door opens again and Mrs. Graves is there, her face ashen and grave.
“You all need to come back in,” she says heavily. “I want you to hear what happened to Sarah.”
CHAPTER 17
Lyssa
“She was trafficked.”
I let Mrs. Graves’ words really sink in, and from the way no one else says anything, I’m guessing they all feel like I do. Like this is going to be something we’d rather not hear.
