I watch as Liza enters, a small gift bag in her hands. It’s been months since I’d last seen her, months since she left to travel toLA in hopes of patching things up with Sissy. She looks smaller than I remember.
Behind her, stepping through the door with wide-eyed caution, is Sissy.
My former best friend, my almost sister, the girl I shared a bedroom with until I was eighteen and then vanished from my life. She looks the same, just a little older, her hair lightened from the sun and her skin tanned.
“Hey, Sis,” I say from the top of the stairs.
When she looks up at me, her eyes brighten instantly. For just a moment, we’re back to being five-year-olds who couldn’t leave one another’s side. I rush down the stairs, letting out a little shriek of excitement as we throw our arms around one another. The hug is awkward yet fierce, and long overdue.
“I can’t believe it’s you!” she shouts, squeezing me tightly.
“And I can’t believe it’syou!”
“I’m so glad you’re here,” I tell her.
I let her go, and she holds up her gift—a little stuffed elephant.
“I didn’t know what to bring. Then I remembered when you were little, you had that little stuffed elephant, the one you’d always bring over. What was his name?”
“Trunky!” I exclaim, the name coming out of my mouth with an enthusiasm that surprises me.
“That’s it!” She smiles broadly. “I figured, like mother, like son, right?”
I take the elephant, giving it a little squeeze before going back in for another hug.
“Thank you so much, Sis. And thanks for coming.”
She tilts her head back at Liza. “You can thank Mom for talking me into it. Easy to get sucked into an LA bubble when you’re out there and forget the rest of the world exists.”
I glance at Liza. Her expression is warm but tense, suggesting that the process of reconciliation between the two of them has only just begun. But I’m glad to see it happening.
Sissy purses her lips, and I can sense that what she’s going to say next isn’t easy.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” she says. “Mom told me everything. I can’t… Thea, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say.
“I know. It’s okay.”
To be honest, it’s not okay. Not yet. Memories of what happened with Kolya still feel fresh.
But it’s a start. The two of them being here means more than I ever expected.
Liza hangs back by the door, watching us. It’s good to see her again. Gabriel didn’t keep her around for much longer after the Kolya incident. In fact, he doubled her pay for the couple of months she worked here and made sure to give her a handsome severance package—a nice big check, a plane ticket to LA, and an apartment in Santa Monica with a 12-month lease, already paid.
The message had been clear—go to LA, find your daughter, make things right.
“Good to see you,” she says, coming over and offering her gift bag. “And congratulations.”
“Good to see you, too.”
We hug. Our weird little family is back together. I couldn’t be happier.
By two o’clock, snow is falling. We’re all gathered in the living room under the shade of the massive Christmas tree Gabriel picked out.
“I can’t get over the size of this thing,” Liza says, looking up at it, positively dwarfed.
“Gabriel insisted,” I say with a smile.
He’s seated in an armchair by the fire, Lev dozing peacefully on his chest.