Page 58 of The One Who Won’t Get Away
When I answered the call, Vera didn’t waste time with a hello.“Why does Sean think you’re in trouble?”
I blinked.“What?”
“And I got a call from an FBI agent who wants to talk to me about our adoption.”
Ugh.Nick wasn’t wasting any time.He must’ve already passed all the information to his coworker.
“They probably just want to know if there was anything weird about it,” I said, keeping my voice steady.
“Weird, like how?”
I shrugged even though she couldn’t see me.“They’re just checking if there were more cases like ours.”
She stayed quiet for a moment, then said, “Are you telling me everything?”
I was not, but there was no way I’d let her see the full picture.If she ever found out what happened during those trips, it would destroy her.Vera had spent her whole life making sure the world didn’t hurt us any more than it already had.I couldn’t pile my shit onto hers.
“Depends on what you mean by ‘everything,’” I said, stalling.The acoustics in the showroom made every syllable hang in the air too long.“There’s more going on than we thought.Nick thinks it’s not just a one-off creep doing shady adoptions.He thinks it’s a whole...something.Network?Ring?”
Vera made a noise—somewhere between a groan and a cough.“You mean trafficking.”It wasn’t a question, not really.
“Yeah,” I said, a fraction above a whisper.“That’s what it looks like.”
There was a long pause while she chewed through the implications.Was she blaming herself?The crown of martyrdom never fit her well, but she wore it anyway.
“Did they ever contact you?”she asked.
“No,” I answered.“Nick thinks maybe they forgot about us, but with Ljuba, and...”I didn’t want to say his name.Stupid, because it wasn’t like avoiding it would erase anything that had happened, but I really fucking hated that name.
“Have you told her?”Vera sounded frighteningly old all of a sudden.
“Fuck no.After what happened, I’m pretty sure Dan will be glued to her side, anyway, so she’ll be fine.”
“But not you.”Vera said it like an accusation.
The raw nerves in Vera’s voice made me wince; I could feel her pacing in the hospital breakroom, probably glaring at a vending machine for daring to exist.When the silence dragged, I let the next thing fall out of my mouth before I could chicken out.“I might have seen some of the others.That’s why Nick is worried about my safety.”
She didn’t ask what I meant—she was too smart for that.Just a fresh new flavor of guilt for her to add to the existing buffet.I heard her exhale, like a balloon letting out air.
“I should have protected you both better,” she said.“I should have—”
“Don’t,” I cut her off, voice rougher than I meant.“We were all locked in there.You did what you could.”
“But I didn’t stop it.”It was a statement, like she was just reporting the news:Sun rises in the East.Rain falls down.Vera failed her sisters.
“You got us out.First chance you had, you did it.Remember?”
Our adoptive mother had hated us.She had this whole thing going in her head where she thought we were seducing her husband and that was why he was more interested in us than in her.The moment Vera turned eighteen, the woman had thrown her out.
Best day of our lives.Because Vera was an amazing older sister, and she risked getting caught by him to get Ljuba and me out.
I swallowed hard, the familiar taste of battery acid rising in my throat.If I didn’t cut this short, I was going to say something I’d regret, or worse, something that would make Vera worry even more.
“I really am tired,” I said, and it wasn’t even a lie.“Can we do this later?”
“Fine.But you should come over for sister night.I’ll cook, or if you want, I’ll get takeout.We can paint our nails, and you can tell me all the things you’re not telling me right now.”There was a weight to her words, like she was daring me to refuse.
And takeout?That was as unlike Vera as it got.She was clearly luring me in.
