Page 113 of Dirty Grovel

If Sydney is truly here, it’s because at long last, she’s finally out of Paul’s reach.

That’s almost impossible to imagine.

I hear footsteps. Too heavy to be Sydney’s.

A shadow falls across the doorway. I hold my breath. Is she…?

Then Artem steps back into the kitchen.

My face falls dramatically. “Oh.”

He scowls. “Gee, thanks. This is the thanks I get for staying with you and answering your incessant questions.”

“Sorry, Artem. I’m just?—”

But he doesn’t get to hear my half-assed apology because at that moment, Oleg rounds the corner…

Right alongside my sister.

“Sydney!”

“Sutton!”

“Syd!”

“Sut!”

Just like that, the curse trapping my feet to the floor is lifted.

We run at each other, head on, hands outstretched, until we collide and she wraps her arms around me so tightly that I can’t breathe.

But it doesn’t matter if I can breathe or not, or if she can, because she’shere,she’swith me,she’s free and the world at last has shown that maybe it’s capable of being kind after all.

I have my sister again.

We tumble to the ground together like we used to do as kids, her hands still locked around me, my legs wrapping around her.

I’m vaguely aware that we’re making a spectacle of ourselves but I couldn’t possibly care less.

“You’re here!” I exclaim over and over again. “You’re actually here!”

“I’m here,” she murmurs back every time. “I’m actually here.”

Eventually, we pull ourselves apart, but not entirely—just enough so we can see eye to eye.

Sydney grins as she looks overhead and marvels at the vaulted ceilings. “I can’t believe you actually live here, Sut. This place is amazing.”

I couldn’t possibly care less about the ceilings, though. I can only look at her.

“How are you? Are you okay?”

“How areyou? Should we even be doing this—aren’t you pregnant?”

Laughing, I pull back just a little just in case we do happen to be squashing the baby.

“I am indeed pregnant,” I agree, pointing to my modest little baby bump.

“Disgusting.Thisis what you look like pregnant?” she says. “Outrageous. Unfair.”

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