Page 3 of Unbroken

Zoya is everyone’s younger sister and my close friend. I can’t help it.

“I’m fine,” she says, an adorable divot forming between her brows. “Hey. Seriously. The better question is, how are you?”

“Fine,” I lie.

I’m here, aren’t I? The truth claws at my throat. We don’t need to talk about the sleepless nights, the anxiety attacks, the memories that surface like ghosts when I least expect it.

I hate working here now. Every time I set foot in this place, I remember everything that happened that night in sordid, nightmarish detail.

“How are they?” I ask Zoya quietly, not meeting her eyes. She knows exactly who I’m talking about.

I haven’t seen Vadka or my nephew in weeks. Months, even. I can’t. It’s too damn painful, and honestly, I feel like a piece of shit because of it. Who abandons their dead sister’s husband and child?

Me, that’s who.

But it kills me every time to look at little Luka and see my sister’s eyes. To see the raw pain in Vadka that mirrors my own.

“Luka is great,” Zoya says quietly. “He likes to play with Stefan.”

“Ooh. Perfect.”

Stefan’s sister Anya married into the Kopolov family.

“Stefan is so good with him. Honestly, they all are.”

A lump rises in my throat. I know. It was one of the things my sister Mariah loved best about the Kopolov family, the family she married into by proxy. Found family. Immediate extended family for her son. Something neither of us could ever offer him.

“And Vadka?”

Zoya looks away for a moment, not replying. I hate how sometimes no replyisa reply.

My heart aches, and unbidden tears spring to my eyes.

“I don’t know about Vadka,” Zoya says softly, her face pained. She bites her lip as if she’s said too much.

“What?” I lean in closer. “What are you talking about?”

It’s been three months.

An eternity.

Yesterday.

“Well, he—he’s not doing so well after Mariah’s death, is all. He took it hard.”

How could he not? He fell in love with her when they were young. They got married, bought a house, and had a child. And they weresmitten.Madly in love. I didn’t believe in fate until those two met.

My nose tingles, and my throat aches.

I can’t think of this now. I have work to do.

So I turn halfway to the side so Zoya can’t see me, even though I can’t hide the husky tone of my voice. “Yeah? What’s he doing?”

Zoya shrugs a shoulder. “He’s kind of gone… well. Rogue, I guess you’d call it? If he wasn’t Rafail’s best friend…”

Rogue?

What?

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