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I remember my mother standing at the kitchen table with a letter from me in her hand. I had written that the importer kept me busy and I would be home before the harvest. She knew I was lying. When I finally returned, she made tea and asked whether I planned to stay. I said yes, and she let herself believe it.

“I regret that she spent those years believing I chose to stay away.” I release the edge of the blanket. “Telling her who I worked for would have put her in danger, so I let her believe the internship was keeping me in Seattle.”

Cassie steps closer. “Do you think the truth will make me leave?”

“I know what people can do with the truth about me.”

“That wasn’t what I said.” She reaches out and touches my arm.

I meet her eyes. “Yes, I think you’ll leave.”

“Because of what you did?”

“Because I’ve spent ten years trying to build a life away from it, and people from that life may have found their way here. You went into the stable today thinking of a horse you wanted to help. I looked at the coin afterward and wondered whether the fire happened because you’re close to me.”

“That’s frightening,” she admits. “I’m frightened for you and for everyone here. I’m also frightened that you’ll make another choice for me and call it protection.”

I have no defense she hasn’t already heard. I can see the faint soot still caught near her hairline, beneath where the paramedic cleaned it. After everything that happened today, I’ve given her one more reason to be afraid and too little to help her make sense of it.

“I won’t lie to you.” I keep my hands at my sides, resisting the urge to reach for her. “If you ask me a question I can’t answer yet, I’ll tell you that I can’t. I won’t give you an answer meant to lead you away from the truth.”

Cassie’s chin lifts. “I need you to tell me when the danger changes, even if you’re still working out the rest.”

“I will,” I promise.

“And I need you to hear me when I disagree with you,” she insists.

“I hear you.” I take a breath. “I’m learning how to let that change my mind.”

She studies me, searching for the promise’s boundary. “I don’t know how I’ll feel when you tell me everything.”

“Neither do I.”

“But I’m here tonight.”

I reach for her hand slowly enough to let her refuse. She places her fingers in mine.

“I want you here,” I tell her. “I wanted you here before the fire.”

She steps closer. “I chose to come upstairs with you. I’m choosing to stay, too.”

I touch her cheek. She closes her eyes for a moment, then opens them and looks directly at me. Questions hang between us that I’ve left unanswered. Her hand comes to rest against my chest anyway.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says. “Andrei, I’m sure.”

I kiss her gently. She grips my shirt and pulls me closer, but when I move my arm around her waist, she makes a small sound of pain. I release her at once.

“Your ankle?”

“My forearm.” She looks down at the dressing, annoyed. “I keep forgetting until I move it.”

“Then let me take care of you.”

“Ask me what I want,” she says, smiling now.

“What do you want, krasavitsa?”