“I don’t know. I tried to investigate it a few years ago, but I kept running into dead ends. I think it was a top-secret level operation, so there’s not much information on it available. There were a lot of boys there still when I broke out. I sometimes wonder what happened to them. There was one nurse that I would talk to. I sometimes wonder what happened to her too.”
“Can you remember her name?”
“I don’t need to. I stale her key card to get out. I still have it,” he said:
“Have you tried looking her up?”
He shook his head no. “I thought about it, but I was too scared. She was the only one that was ever nice to me. I don’t know if I could handle knowing that something happened to her because I took advantage of her niceness and stole her card to get out.”
“That’s fair. But don’t forget that she was choosing to work there. Day after day, knowing what was happening there. She’s your Max. You’re ignoring her red flags because she was all you had at the time.” He was quiet for a moment, then pulled me closer to him. He kissed the top of my head again. “Sometimes I ha te it when you use my advice on me. I ha te it even more that you’re right.”
I laughed. “It’s good advice. Fcan’t keep it all to myself.”
Sophie
Once Misha and Andrei came back, I spent a little time playing the plane, so Misha could add to the recordings he already had. 1 had a new melody in my head for a new song that I thought of while staying awake for Ivan. I started to play with it and a new song started to form. I wasn’t sine il I got it from my dad, since he was the one that planted the melody of my song into my head and then let me tunish it. That was how I usually wrote songs. I would just think of the melody and the more I played with it, the more the song would form around it. My dad has probably been planting melodies in my head my whole life without me knowing.
Once I was done, Misha said, “that’s not one you’ve played before, is it?”
I shook my head no. “I just thought of that one the other night. It’ll change a few more times before I figure it out.”
“You just made all of that up? Right now?” I nodded, laughing at his expression. “That’s amazing. It sounds like a finished song.”
“Only because you can’t hear it in my head. It’s not finished yet.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t tell. No one will ever know.”
We walked back through the kitchen to find van passed out on the couch. He finally gave up and fell asleep. I looked quickly to Misha, who ran to his room to get a charger. He rushed back as quietly as he could, plugging the phone in close to Ivan. He turned it on and turned the volume up loud enough that Ivan could hear it.
He pulled me back toward the kitchen, saying quietly. “It’s not set up to play on repeat yet. I have to mess with it and the videos I took at the gallery to make one long recording, but if we stay close, I can just start it over when it reaches the end.”
I looked at the time. “I think it’s perfect. I was going to start on dinner right about now anyway, so it works out. You can help me. Whether you want to or not.” I grinned at him.
“Are you kidding? I will gladly help you. My stomach was so lucking happy last night. I’ll do whatever you want. What are you going to make this time?”
“I was thinking of making ravioli. It’s one of my favorite recipes that Max’s grandmother taught me. I haven’t made it in a while.”
He just stared at me for a long moment. “I love you so much right now,” he said as his broad smile stretched across his face.
I couldn’t help but smile back at him. “I know,” I said as I winked at him.
I was still finishing up dinner with Misha when Adrik, Viktor, and Stephen got home. Misha and I were busy talking and laughing quietly as I ordered him around the kitchen. Ivan was still passed out on the couch. Misha had it timed perfectly. He would run in and restart the recording just as it finished each time.
He had just walked back in the kitchen and I said, “we’re going to have to wake him eventually so that you can stop having to restart the recording and make it longer for him. But so far, it’s working smashingly well.”
Adrik, Viktor, and Stephen walked into the kitchen. I smiled at them, putting my finger up to my lips to ntake sure they stayed quiet. They walked over to the counter before talki “Ivan is finally asleep on the couch. I don’t want to wake him up just yet. He needs it,” I said.
Adrik walked to my side, his arm sliding around my waist. “So, heating you play works just as well as you talking to him?” He pressed his lips to mine when I looked up at him to answer his question. I smiled against his lips as I nodded my head.
“Misha got more recordings today and he’s going to put them all together so it will play continuously for him. Then we just have to remember to plug in the phone, so he and Viktor don’t need to wake up in a panic again.”
Viktor sighed. “I’d prefer to not have to fight him in the middle of the night, but I’ll do it if necessary. It usually takes all of us to hold him down. He’s a beast on a good day, but when he’s like that, he’s out for blood. It’s hard not to take it personal sometimes.”
“He doesn’t see you guys when he’s like that. It doesn’t matter who is in front of him, he can only see his memories. He’s not fighting you guys. He’s fighting his past,” I said, looking at him sympathetically. The fallout of trauma. It affected everyone.
“But he sees you when he’s like that,” Viktor said, somewhat perplexed.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.