MasukCHAPTER SIXTY THREENALA POVAfter Nova excused herself to go attend to the kids I realize I couldn’t possibly leave Isla here, her condition might deteriorate if care is not taken so I decided to take a big step without overthinking shit. I mentioned to Ivin to come closer then I borrowed his phone and dialed Sue.She picked on the second ring and I gave her a crash summary enough for her to know Isla but not enough to make her sound like a charity pity case. If I would be travelling to God knows where with Ivin and Isla ragged along it might not end well cause Isla seem to be afraid of Ivin even if she won’t say it out loud. “So she’ll have a job,” I said into the phone. “Not just a place to sleep. An actual reason to be there. That matters to her and really keeps her busy enough not to overthink or remember all those bad memories .”“Course it matters.” Sue’s voice came through warm and immediate, no hesitation in it at all. “Girl needs purpose, not pity. I got a spot behind the
CHAPTER SIXTY TWONALA POVThe estate looked exactly the way I remembered it, which felt strange considering how much of me had changed in the weeks since I’d last walked through those gates. Same warm colored corridors. Same smell of something baking somewhere. Same sense of a house that had learned how to hold a lot of people’s worst days without ever looking like it minded.I walked in slowly, careful not to let my ribs pain obvious or announce themselves. Small steps. Even breathing. The trick was in not thinking about it too hard, because thinking about it made my body remember it had permission to hurt.“Nala.” Nova came around the corner with Aurora on her hip and that bright, easy smile that always made a room feel warmer just by existing in it. “You’re here. You’re actually here.”“In the flesh.” I smiled back, kept my voice light, let it skate right over the top of everything underneath it. “Couldn’t stay away.”Her eyes did a quick pass over me, the kind mothers and older
CHAPTER SIXTY ONENALA POVThe line clicked on the third ring.“Sue’s, we’re closed, call back at a decent hour—”“Sue.” My voice cracked right down the middle of her name. “Sue, it’s me.”Silence on the other end. “Nala.” She said it like she was checking the word still worked in her mouth. “Nalayna Brooks.”“Yeah.” I pressed the phone harder against my ear like that could close the distance. The wind off the water kept trying to steal the sound of her voice and I hated it for that. “It’s me. I’m okay.”“You’re okay.” Something sharp came into her tone, the kind of sharp that only showed up in people who’d been scared for a long time and just found somewhere to put it down. “You call me okay after weeks and months of nothing. Weeks, days and months, Nala. I called that number your Ethan left me a dozen times. A dozen times and nobody answered and nobody told me a damn thing and I sat behind that counter every night wondering if I was gonna hear you were—”She stopped herself befor
CHAPTER SIXTYNALA POV“Pack light,” Ivin said, already halfway out the bedroom door. I noticed the way he talked and behaved around me like he was walking on eggshells and I won’t be having any of that. “Pack light for what, exactly.” I was still sitting on the edge of the bed pressing careful fingers against my ribs, testing how much protest they’d give me this morning. Less than yesterday. Progress, I guessed.“We’re leaving.”“Leaving for where.” He didn’t answer. Of course he didn’t. Ivin communicated in riddles and silences and the occasional devastating one liner, and apparently marrying the man hadn’t upgraded his customer service at all.I pulled a duffel out from under the bed and started folding things into it without much thought, mostly because moving my hands gave me something to do besides sit there turning his non answer over in my head. I've gotten good at packing light lately, seeing as my whole fucking life these days seemed to fit into whatever bag someone handed
CHAPTER FIFTY NINE : NALA POVI woke up not knowing where I was.That was the new normal apparently. Eyes open, body frozen, brain running a full threat assessment before it allowed itself to register that the ceiling was different from the room's ceiling, that the smell was different, that the bed beneath me was soft in a way that concrete floors and cots were not soft.Safe house. Ivin's.Right.I breathed.The breathing thing had become a whole process now cause it had to be deliberate and counted, the only breathing you did when your body had forgotten it was allowed to just breathe without checking first.Ivin was in the chair.Of course he was.Same chair energy as the hospital except this time he was awake, forearms on his knees, eyes on my face, and when he saw me register him he didn't move or speak or make it a thing. Just stayed exactly where he was and let me take my time coming back to the room.I appreciated that more than I had words for."Isla?" I said. First word out
CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT NALA POVThe priest was a small man with kind eyes and he definitely looked like someone who had married people in stranger circumstances than this and had made peace with that being his life.He looked at me over his glasses when Ivin introduced us and said nothing about the bruising or the jacket or the fact that I was wearing clothes that weren't mine and had clearly not slept in something that felt like years."Are you here of your own free will?" he asked.I looked at Ivin standing beside me.Ivin looked back at me with that face."Yes," I said.The door opened behind us and Scar came in with Isla close to his side. She had Scar's jacket around her shoulders now, swimming in it, her dark hair loose and her eyes moving around the room with the careful attention of someone who had learned that new rooms required immediate assessment.She assessed the priest.The desk.The candles.Ivin.Me."What is happening?" she said in her careful broken English."We're get







