EPILOGUE: EMERY
A FEW WEEKS LATER
The blanket fort hasn’t come down for two weeks.
Off-white sheets and quilts drape over furniture and hang from hooks I screwed into the walls. String lights glow on the back wall. Yesterday, we absorbed the television into our realm so we could watch cartoons while we colored.
“When is Adrik going to come inside?” Isabella asks me, not looking up from the coloring book she’s vandalizing.
“Inside the blanket fort?” I ask.
"He hasn't even seen it yet. It's cool. And we made that side tall enough for his big head."
Isabella had specifically suggested we make a section where Adrik could sit without hitting his head. It was heartbreakingly sweet.
“Well, he’s been busy with important work,” I remind her. I’ve been giving her the same line for the last fourteen days, but it hasn’t gotten any easier to say. I’ve never been a good liar.
“What kind of work?”
“He has employees to manage and… other stuff to worry about."
“Because the big house is being fixed?”
“That’s part of it, yeah.”
The compound has been under construction since a few days after the fire at the cabin. Since a few days after Yasha died. I tried to get Adrik to take some time and process the loss, but he immediately jumped into hiring a contractor and arranging the rebuilding of the collapsed wing.
I wasn’t alone in that losing effort. Even Stefan tried to take the reins from him. “This kind of thing is what you have me around for,” he’d protested. “Let me handle the construction.”
Adrik shook his head. “You’re going to handle the police.”
“What do you mean ‘handle the police?’” I asked, looking from Adrik to Stefan. I’d never seen both men so grim-faced before. “Didn’t you already handle the Pietro situation?”
Stefan nodded. “Yeah, but with Yasha and Veronika dead…”
The words seemed to suck the air out of the room. Adrik’s face didn’t change, but I could see it was affecting him. His shoulders tensed and he held himself perfectly still. Like if he moved, he was afraid he’d crack.
“Well, with the two of them dead, the police will be sniffing around even more,” Stefan continued.
Adrik pulled a recorder out and laid it on the counter. “Here is Yasha’s confession. I got it on tape before Veronika shot him.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around Veronika killing Yasha and herself. I still can’t. Every time I try to imagine what that must have been like for Adrik, to stand there and watch his brother and sister-in-law die like that, my mind shuts down. It won’t let my imagination go there.
So for Adrik to have been there in person… it’s unfathomable.
“Doesn’t he need to play?” Isabella asks, reeling me back to the present. “You told me playing is important."
I lean over and kiss the top of her head. “It is important. But right now, Adrik has other important things to take care of. But as soon as that’s done, he’ll play again. I know it.”
I hear the click of a door down the hallway, and my heart leaps.
Isabella isn't the only one who hasn't seen Adrik much. He's been locked away in his office more often than not, dropping into bed after I'm asleep and getting up before I’m awake. I feel like I’m sharing a home with a ghost.
"I'll be right back, okay?"
Isabella has a crayon suspended over a coloring page, her eyes on the television. The theme song for her favorite cartoon has just started. It's about superhero ponies or astronaut dogs or something like that. Either way, she'll be entertained for half an hour.
I crawl out of the fort and hurry down the hallway—only to run smack into Stefan.
"Oof." He grabs my shoulders and keeps me from toppling backwards. "Expecting someone else?"
"Is it bad to say I've stopped expecting anything?" I ask quietly. "Hope is a dangerous thing to have these days."
Stefan gives me a sad smile. "He just needs space."
"I've given him space, Stef. Plenty of it. But he seems to pull farther away every day."
I didn't expect to get emotional, but tears gather in my eyes. I wipe them away before they can fall, but Stefan's sad smile grows even more sympathetic.
He pats me on the shoulder. "I know what you mean. I've never seen him like this."
"Not even after Sofia died?" I wince. "Died the first time, I mean.”
"Not even then.”
"I guess that makes sense. I mean, this is his brother we're talking about. He kept telling me he wanted to kill him, but I knew he'd regret it."
"Sometimes, I think killing him might have been easier than this."
"How do you mean?" I ask.
Stefan shrugs. "He'd just decided to spare Yasha when Veronika shot him. Like you said, hope is a dangerous thing. Adrik expected Yasha to live and moments later, he was gunned down."
“He watched him die,” I say softly, my throat growing thick with sympathy. “That’s horrible.”
“Adrik can survive anything,” Stefan says confidently. “He’s the toughest son of a bitch I know. But even he gets wounded from time to time.”
“What can we do?”
Stefan shrugs. “I wish I knew. I’m trying to take what I can off of his plate, but he’s holding on tight. Staying busy.”
I sigh. “Okay. Maybe I should… Should I talk to him?”
“You’re his wife.”
“You say that like it means something.” I chuckle humorlessly. “I don’t know if he’ll listen to me.”
Stefan reaches out and squeezes my wrist. “You might be the only person he’ll listen to right now.”
He must see the utter lack of confidence on my face because he shakes my arm slightly and then pushes me towards the door. “Good luck.”
I spin around to ask him what he expects me to do, but Stefan is already crawling into the blanket fort with Isabella. I turn back to the door and take a deep breath.
Then I knock.
“What, Stefan?” Adrik barks from the other side of the door.
I crack it open and peek my head through. “Hello.”