Page 16 of Reverie

I gape at her.

“Her parents kept her in the States until she came ‘of age.’ They were traditional like that, I guess,” she says.

“When was she considered ‘of age,’ then?” I ask.

“Fifteen.”

I expel a breath. “How was that even legal?”

“Well, she had her parents’ permission. Plus, who was she to go against the entirety of the USSR?” Luna shrugs, but the haunted look in her eyes doesn’t match her ambivalent pose.

“So then she had Misha and…what? Dropped him in the tundra and hopped back over to the States?”

Her chuckle is humorless. “Not quite. Dimitri immediately got Amelia pregnant, and she gave birth to Misha within a year of arriving in Kyiv. She was miserable to hear her tell it, but then along came your father.”

Wow.

“So my father just…took her too?”

Luna gives a noncommittal shrug.

“Why did he take her?”

She raises her eyebrow in response to my question.

“My father, why did he take my mom from Misha’s dad?”

Luna sighs. “I suspect because he loved her.”

The thought is appalling.

Luna stands up. “I just want you to know that this may be confusing as fuck right now, butthisis the best part of everything that’s going on right now.”

This is thebestpart?

A knock sounds at the door, and in a second, Misha’s in the room, sucking up all the air.

“Come with me, Brigham. There’s much to discuss.” Misha sports a small tan band-aid where I cut him, and the sight makes me smile. With the quirk of an eyebrow, he turns and heads for the door without waiting for my response.

“Go where? I’m going back to my family.” I lean back in the chair, applying unspoken resistance against Misha’s command.

I need to find August. He needs me. And I need to get back to Winter. She needs me too.

He pauses in the doorway but looks over his shoulder at me. “Your woman is fine. Your son is being tended to. Don’t you want to know what’s happening before you face her? Don’t you want to give her more certainty rather than more questions?”

I want to punch him in his too-straight teeth. But instead, I stand without a word.

“Excellent,” he says in a flat tone. Then he’s out the door.

I take a step to follow him when Luna puts her hand on my forearm.

“Remember that this is bigger than you or me. This is about all of humanity.” She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

“No pressure then,” I reply in a dry voice.

She smiles wider.

THREE