“I appreciate your understanding.” She pauses and looks across the garden to where Mia’s telling Kyle and Mikhail a story about her plants.
All I can see is her carefree smile and the way her light eyes twinkle under the afternoon sun. I have the urge to go there and devour that smile and feast on her full lips. But since I’m sure that would only result in my balls being cut off by Kyle, I focus back on his wife.
She studies me closely. “I admit I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of you after Maya told me you’re like my nephew Killian, and I’ll probably always be wary of that.”
I knew Maya was campaigning to be the president of my anti-fan club.
“However,” Rai says. “I can see how much Mia has changed since the last time I saw her, and according to what she told me, it’s all because of you that she smiles more now and seems more comfortable expressing herself. So thank you for bringing back my daughter, Landon.”
“As much as I would like to take the credit, I can’t. Mia is the one who worked on herself and is fighting to find her voice. And I’ll be there every step of the way until she manages to do so.”
And I mean it.
I don’t care who I have to upset for Mia to regain what she lost against her will.
If that means her family will hate me, so be it.
None of them matter.
The only one who does is the girl who keeps stealing looks at me whenever her dad isn’t looking.
“Is everything okay?” she signs from the distance.
I nod but stop there before I accidentally say what I’m thinking.
Everything is always okay whenever she’s in my sight. Not even my demons could interfere with this sense of peace.
She’s managed to tame them by merely existing.
And I’ll make sure to bring her demons to their knees before they hurt her, even if it’s the last thing I do.
38
MIA
If someone had told me a few weeks ago that Landon would be a doting boyfriend, I would’ve called the psych ward.
But here we are, two days after we got to New York and he’s already met—and completely charmed—Aunt Reina, Grandpa Mikhail, and even my uncles and aunts from Dad’s side.
His bruised face didn’t stop him from conjuring the charming god in him. He openly told them it was Nikolai being slightly overprotective. He even had the audacity to tell Aunt Reina, “I never liked Killian, but now that I see you’re his mother, I can try to tolerate him for your sake. And my sister’s, of course.”
He was invited to dinner with Grandpa—who’s more paranoid about strangers and security than a US president—and even played against him in chess.
Mom was a bit wary of him, despite not saying it out loud, but she eventually warmed up to him.
Even Maya has kept her illogical distaste to herself and, as promised, tried to be civil.
The only unchanging variable is my dad. The more others liked Landon, the harder he glared at him and threw jabs in his direction.
He does it less in my presence, especially since Mom and I elbow or try to stop him.
And while Lan’s muddied relationship with Dad saddens me a bit, it’s not enough to drown out everything else.
For the past two days, we’ve been on a rollercoaster ride. We eat together. Landon introduced himself to my family as my ‘boyfriend’ with a hand at the small of my back. If he couldn’t do that, he interlinked our fingers together. At the end of the dinner we had with Grandpa, Lan said, “We’ll surely see each other again, Mr. Kozlov.”
I never expected Landon to be perfect boyfriend material, but he’s proved that he’s so much more than that. Maybe it has to do with his superior people-reading skills. Or the fact that he knows exactly what people want to hear.
While a part of me likes this. The other part is confused, to say the least.
“Why do you think he’s doing this, Iris?” I ask my favorite flower on my balcony. A whole bed stretches over the entire terrace, sparkling in different colors. This is the only place where the monster couldn’t slither into the corner.
In fact, I developed my love for plants and flowers because it was the only sanctuary where I could escape the monster’s sharp claws.
Aunt Reina has done a marvelous job at keeping them beautiful and alive. I can tell they missed me, though, because they’ve become much brighter since I came back.
Or maybe I’m seeing them through the rosy lenses I’ve been wearing lately.
Sweat trickles down my temples and I wipe it with the back of my arm.
The sun descends in the lake, casting an orange reflection on the clear water. And just like that, our stay here will come to an end.