my truth. Only then did I dare look at Derek. Our eyes met for just one brief second before he buried his face in his hands. It was over, finally. And he knew it.
Blinking tears from my eyes and aware of the shakiness, though whether it was from nerves or lack of having eaten a thing since the night before, I didn’t know. When the questioning was officially through and people packed up their things and began their side conversations, I was in the middle of it all, alone.
“Are you all right, dear? Is there anyone we can call for you?” I looked up at a kind-faced middle-aged woman, part of the prosecuting team.
I shook my head. “I’m alone but I’m fine.”
Nevertheless, she fetched me a cup of cold water which I sipped. Derek had left the room by then and now all I needed to do was call a taxi to take me to my hotel. Then who knew what? I was off for a week.
Maybe I’d look up some of my old friends, go visit my aunt.
It was altogether possible that I’d never step foot in this beautiful city ever again.
Outside the conference room, I glanced around under my eyelashes while keeping my face pointed toward my phone. I was Googling numbers for a taxi service but also trying to avoid accidentally bumping into my parents.
Much to my shock, they weren’t there and my brother was gone already, too. It was entirely possible that Derek had had a friend drive him here. Perhaps the parents didn’t even know. Though that would seem odd. Suddenly I felt light, giddy with relief.
I was only a few kilometres from home. It would have been nice to be able to go pack up a few boxes of my things. But did I want to chance the inevitable confrontation with them?
With firm strides out the door and into the sunny afternoon, I decided it wasn’t worth it. I’d lived without those things this long, I could go longer, perhaps forever. This strange mixture of relief and loneliness was doing things to me, however. As I made my way down the overabundance of concrete steps toward the curb, tears prickled the backs of my eyes.
This too, would pass.
Remember how badass you are.
The minute I thought of that phrase again was the same minute that I saw them. Three figures on a nearby concrete bench. Upon seeing me hit the bottom of the stairs, all three of them stood.
Mum, Dad and standing right in between them, Derek.
I froze and the needles behind my eyes exploded with sharpness and pain. My vision blurred and my throat clogged. Damn it. Not the best time to burst into tears like a little girl.
Not when I was trying to be a badass.
I stood still and slowly they walked toward me, Derek lagging behind the other two. I sniffed loudly and blinked my eyes, then admitted to myself that I needed to give my cheeks a quick swipe with the back of my hand.
Dad stood right in front of me. Mum off to the side, a little behind him.
“Katya,” he said. “How are you doing?”
With another self-conscious sniff, I tore my eyes away from the scrutiny on my mum’s face and looked at Dad. “I’ve been better.”
“I missed you, girlie. Why didn’t you ever call?”
I swallowed and stuffed my hands into my pockets. “I was under the impression that You stick with this family or you’re gone for good, meant, yeah, that I was gone for good.”
He flinched, clearly not appreciating his own words repeated back to him across almost two years. Mum spoke up at his side. “Derek was just telling us you came all this way back home just to tell everyone you won’t help him.”
I cleared my throat and turned to her. “I came back to tell the truth. I don’t know where he was that night. And I had to get this over with because your very expensive lawyer tracked me down and was trying his hardest to get me kicked out of the States. I didn’t appreciate that trick, either. Maybe now you’ve learned that I’m not a little girl you can intimidate anymore. Maybe you haven’t missed me at all. Especially if the first things you have to say to me are how upset you are that I didn’t commit a crime just to cover Derek’s ass.”
Mum started shushing me and that just pissed me off more.