Page 8 of Smoke

4

Alina

“I finally gave up yesterday,and here I am.” I spread my hands as I shrugged. “There was nothing more I could do.”

“You could’ve tried to contact your family.” Uncle George glowered at me from behind his desk, which I sometimes still thought of as being Papa’s.

It had taken almost a half-hour to extricate myself from the hugs and questions and concern of the clan and make it to his office. “I was just about ready to send out the search parties.”

“I know, and I’m so glad I made it back in time to stop that,” I said, meaning every word. “I’m sorry to have caused you so much worry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Obviously.”

“I wanted to find Jasmine.”

“Which you didn’t.”

I looked down at my lap.

Only he could’ve made that sound like an accusation. The man was born without the ability to empathize.

“I didn’t. I’m a failure.”

“Now, now, I wouldn’t go that far.”

But he just did.

“I’m sure you did everything you could. I know how devoted the two of you were to each other.”

The fact that he was already using past tense was promising. Could he be that easily fooled? Or was he that eager to be rid of Jasmine as one of his advisors? I hadn’t considered that yet, but it made a degree of sense.

I raised my eyes again to study him. His blonde hair, a lot like mine, swept back from his forehead. He had Jasmine’s eyes, bright green and clear. But while hers had a softness to them—except when she was being stubborn—his were always hard. Cold. Calculating. He looked so much like Papa but was nothing like him in all the ways that really counted.

“I did find the car,” I offered. “It was a wreck. I couldn’t even tell you exactly where it landed, but there’s no way she could’ve survived that.”

“But there was no body inside.”

“The doors were both open, though,” I said with a shudder. If I imagined my sister being part of the wreck, it was easier to act as devastated as one would expect. Tears filled my eyes when I thought of her body slumped over in the car, tumbling down the side of the mountain, breaking and shattering. “She must have either been thrown from it, or animals pulled her from it. Either way…”

“Enough.” He shuddered. “It’s all too gruesome to consider. You’re lucky no animals found you out there.”

“I didn’t exactly linger,” I said as I wiped my eyes. “Once it was all clear, I couldn’t stay there a second longer than I needed to. It hurt too much.”

“I’m sure it did, dear.”

My skin crawled when he used endearments like that. I knew he didn’t mean them.

“I’m very sorry you’re going through this. We’re all going through it with you, and you have our full support. As always.”

“Thank you, Uncle George.”

“I’m sure you must be exhausted by now.”

I nodded, standing. That was the perfect exit point. “Yes, I am. I can’t wait to clean myself up.”

I said too much, and it was clear from the way his eyebrows knitted together over his long, thin nose. “You don’t look very dirty to me. In fact, you look downright clean.”

“I’ve been washing in river water for days,” I shrugged. “Even this old thing. I had to beat it against a rock, can you imagine? Like back in the olden days.”

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