“I am,” he said. “Outraged.” I couldn’t tell if he was serious.
“How is my brother?” I asked.
“Very well,” Yuji promised me. “I have a present for you, but only after you tell me why you’ve been neglecting Mickey Balanchine.”
Daddy used to say that the only people who made excuses were failures. “It was harder coming back from Liberty than I thought it was going to be.”
“You mean finding a secondary school?” Yuji Ono made a face. “Why do you even need a high school diploma?”
“You would rather me be uneducated? A fool?”
“That is not what I am saying. But the things you need to learn, you cannot learn in school.”
“Every time I see you, you lecture me,” I complained.
“That is because I am counting on you, Anya. I think you will agree that I have gone to great lengths for you.”
“Of course, Yuji.”
“You are my investment.”
“I don’t belong to you though.”
The car was just passing the southeastern edge of the park. Yuji reached into his pocket. He took my hand and pried it open. On my palm, he placed a small wooden lion.
“Did Leo make this?” I asked quietly.
“Yes, he has taken up carving.”
I looked at the lion, my miniature miracle. Leo had touched this. Leo was safe. I smiled at Yuji and tried not to cry. “He’s good at this.”
I turned to thank him. I was about to kiss him on the cheek when the car passed over a pothole and I ended up kissing him on the mouth. It was not romantic in the least. His teeth knocked against mine. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was aiming for your cheek. Potholes, you know. This city!”
Yuji blushed. “I know, Anya.” He turned his dark eyes on me. “You would never try to kiss an old man like me on the lips.”
“Yuji, you’re not old,” I protested.
“Compared to you, I am.” He turned to look out the window. “Besides, I have heard that you are secretly with your old boyfriend. The politician’s son.”
I twisted in the seat. “What? That absolutely isn’t true! Who said that?”
“Mickey and Sophia suspect it.”
“They barely know me! They should keep their mouths shut.”
“You are back at your old school, are you not?” Yuji asked me.
“Only because nowhere else would have me. Yuji, it is impossible for me to be with Win. And you should know that even the suspicion of that could be disastrous for me.”
Yuji shrugged. He might have been the most infuriating person I had ever known.
“Was Sophia Bitter your girlfriend?” I asked.
Yuji smiled at me. “Is tonight the night for archaeology?”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Mainly she was my school friend,” Yuji said after a rather long pause. “She was my best school friend.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that when we were at the wedding?” I asked.
“It wasn’t relevant.”
“Neither is my personal life then.”
We traveled up Madison Avenue in silence.
I closed my hand around the lion, letting its edges and imperfections etch themselves into my flesh. Yuji put his hand around my fist. “So you see. Our lives are interconnected.”
His hand was ice around mine, but the sensation was not entirely unpleasant.
The car stopped on East Ninetieth Street, where I lived, and I opened the car door.
“I am sorry that we argued,” he said. “I … The truth is, I see you as … part of myself. I should not, though.”
I got out of the car and went upstairs. I went into Natty’s room. She had already fallen asleep, but I woke her up anyway.
“Natty,” I whispered.
“What?” she asked drowsily.
I held out my palm so that she could see the wooden lion.
“Leo? It’s Leo, isn’t it?” Her eyes were bright and alert.
I nodded.
She took the wooden lion and kissed it on its head. “Will we ever see him again?”
I told her that I hoped so and then I went to bed myself.
I had barely slept at all when I awoke to a banging on the apartment door. “Police!”
The clock read 5:12 a.m. I pulled on my bathrobe and went to the door. I looked through the peephole. Indeed, two uniformed police officers stood there. I opened the door, but left the security chain on. “What do you want?”
“We’re here for Anya Balanchine,” one of the police officers said.
“Yes. That’s me.”
“We need you to open the door, ma’am. We’re here to take you back to Liberty,” the officer continued.
I ordered myself to stay calm. I could hear Natty and Imogen stirring in the hallway behind me. “Annie, what’s happening?” Natty asked.
I ignored her. I had to stay focused. “On what grounds?” I asked the officer.
“Violations of the terms of your release.”
“What violations?” I demanded.
The officer said that he didn’t have that information—just instructions to bring me back to Liberty. “Please, ma’am, we need you to come with us.”
I told him I would come out, but that I needed a moment to change.
“Five minutes,” the officer said.
I closed the door and walked down the hallway. I tried to consider my options. I couldn’t run; there was no other way out of the apartment, except suicide. Besides, I didn’t want to run. For all I knew, this could have been some sort of clerical error. I decided to go with the police officers and figure out the rest later. Imogen and Natty stood at the end of the hallway. Both seemed to be awaiting my instruction. “Imogen, I need you to call Mr. Kipling and Simon Green.”
Imogen nodded.
“What should I do?” Natty asked.
I kissed her on the head. “Try not to worry.”
“I’ll say a prayer for you,” Natty said.
“Thank you, sweet.”
I ran to my bedroom. I took off my necklace and changed into my school uniform. I went into the bathroom, where I took a second to brush my teeth and wash my face. I looked at myself in the mirror. You are strong, I told myself. God doesn’t give you anything that you can’t bear.
I heard more banging on the door. “It’s time!” the officer called.
I returned to the foyer, where Natty and Imogen looked at me with shell-shocked faces. “I’ll see you soon,” I said to them.
I walked to the door, unchained it, and pushed it wide open. “I’m ready,” I said.
The officer was holding a pair of handcuffs. I knew how this went. I held out my wrists.
At Liberty, I wasn’t brought to the intake room as I had been the previous two times I’d been there. They didn’t even have me change into the Liberty jumpsuit. Instead, I was delivered to a Liberty guard, one I didn’t recognize, then led down a hallway.
A hallway that led to several flights of stairs.
I knew this route, and it could mean only one thing.
The Cellar.
I had been there once before and it had nearly killed me, or at least driven me crazy.
I could already smell the excrement and the mold. Fear crept into my heart. I stopped short. “No,” I said. “No, no. I need to talk to my attorney.”
“I have my orders,” the guard said without emotion.
“I swear on the graves of my dead mother and father, I haven’t done anything wrong.”
The guard pushed me and I fell to my knees. I could feel them scrape against the concrete. It was already so dark and the stench was terrible. I decided that if I didn’t stand up, then they couldn’t make me go down there.