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Elara nods and takes the rabbit to the counter. She pays for it, refuses the paper bag, and carries it against her chest when she walks back toward me.

“She asked for you,” I say.

Her expression tightens. “She has you.”

“She asked for you too.”

“She has family.”

I hear the bitterness in the last word.

“Elara, I should have stopped Irina from keeping you outside.”

“Yes, you should have.” She looks down at the rabbit’s ears and smooths one of them with her thumb.

“I know Anya comes first,” she says. “I wasn’t asking you to leave her.”

“I know.”

“But you didn’t say anything.”

“I should have.”

She gives a small nod and holds the rabbit out to me. “Give this to her.”

I don’t take it. “Come with me.”

She looks toward the hospital doors. “It’s all right. She’s with you.”

“She wants you there.”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“She asked for Elle.”

Her fingers tighten around the toy.

“She was frightened,” I add. “She kept asking when you were coming back.”

Elara looks at me then. She’s still hurt, and she has every reason to be, but the mention of Anya changes her expression. “Is Irina in there?”

“No.”

“She’ll come back.”

“I won’t let her stop you again.”

Elara watches me for a moment, as if she’s deciding whether to believe that. “Fine,” she says. “But I’m not going in there to pretend everything is normal.”

“I’m not asking you to,” I say.

We walk back through the hospital together. She keeps her hands in the pockets of her coat, and I carry the rabbit between us. For a while, neither of us says anything. I can feel the distance she is keeping, even though our shoulders nearly touch whenever someone passes us in the corridor.

I want to reach for her. I also know I have no right to expect her to let me.

When we reach the lift, she presses the button and watches the doors.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” she says.