Two weeks before the east wing opens, Dmitri Sorel comes to Varenholm.
Not because I invited him at some point, not soon was the boundary I named at the diner and I meant it. He comes because Nadia invited him. She told me the night before: I invited my father. He arrives tomorrow. I should have asked you first and I did not and I am telling you now because it is too late to uninvite him and also because I think it is time.
I looked at her across the operations table.
She looked back with the thirty six years and the three year federal case and the jaw that comes from somewhere I am still navigating the geography of. "Are you angry?" she said.
"No," I said.
"Are you ready?" she said.
"No," I said. "But ready is not the prerequisite. Willing is the prerequisite."
"Are you willing?" s
