Three
1845 Words
The snowball fight did not really end until Maya finally put both hands on her hips and announced in her most official voice, “The dragon surrenders! This fort belongs to me now.” Grant looked like he had just survived a natural disaster. His coat was caked with snow, his hair was going in five directions, and one glove was mysteriously gone. He muttered something about needing more firewood and escaped inside before anyone could drag him back into the war zone, leaving wet footprints and the last shreds of his usual stoic composure behind.
Maya was still completely wired. Her cheeks were bright red, snow was stuck in clumps on her eyelashes and the ends of her curls. She kept marching back and forth between Vanessa and Nikolas like she was reviewing her troops after a victory.
“This is the best day of my entire life,” she declared, throwing her arms wide. “But now I am freezing. And starving. Again.”
Vanessa laughed even though she had not meant to.
“You literally just drank hot chocolate.”
“That does not count as food. I need real food. Cookies. Pizza. Both. With extra chocolate chips.”
Nikolas caught Vanessa’s eye. “Cookies we can do.”
Maya pumped both fists in the air. “YES! Cookie victory party!”
They trudged back toward the house, kicking off boots and shedding soaked layers in the mudroom. Maya flung everything in random directions and ran ahead yelling over her shoulder, “I get to pick the kind! No boring oatmeal raisin allowed!”
Vanessa hung the snow pants slowly, smoothing them over the hook even though it did not matter at all. Nikolas was right beside her doing the same thing. Their arms brushed, not on purpose, but it happened anyway.
She felt it. That small, stupid spark under her skin.
He did not move away.
She did not either.
A long moment passed.
Then he spoke, voice so quiet it almost disappeared under the drip of melting snow.
“You are shaking.”
“I am fine.”
“You are not.” He reached past her without asking, grabbed a thick throw blanket from the bench and dropped it over her shoulders. His knuckles skimmed the side of her neck, just barely.
Vanessa forgot how to breathe for a second.
Maya’s voice crashed in from deeper inside.
“Mom! Prince Nik! Hurry or I am eating all the chocolate chips straight from the bag!”
Nikolas gave a small, crooked smile. “Duty calls.”
Vanessa let out the breath she had been holding. “Saved by the sugar monster.”
They walked toward the kitchen side by side.
The rest of the afternoon felt strangely gentle, like someone had turned the volume down on the world just for them.
Maya insisted on baking. Which mostly meant she stood on a step stool giving orders while Nikolas measured ingredients and Vanessa tried (and mostly failed) to stop her from eating raw dough by the spoonful.
“More chocolate chips,” Maya ordered, pointing at the bowl. “Like, double.”
Nikolas obeyed without a word, tipping another generous handful in.
Vanessa watched from the island, chin resting in her hand.
The way Maya’s curls bounced every time she leaned forward.
The way Nikolas’s mouth twitched every time Maya issued a new command.
The way he slid her tiny extra bits of dough when he thought Vanessa was not paying attention.
She pretended she was not noticing.
She pretended for a lot of things.
The kitchen slowly filled with the smell of vanilla, warm butter and brown sugar. It wrapped around everything: the counters, the air, her lungs. It smelled like something Vanessa had not let herself want in years.
When the first tray came out, golden, edges spreading, chocolate pools still soft, Maya gasped like she had witnessed actual magic.
“Those are perfect,” she breathed. “We are geniuses.”
Vanessa smiled despite herself. “We are definitely something.”
They ate the first few straight off the tray, too hot, burning their fingertips, and them not caring. Maya licked chocolate off her thumb and sighed like she had just tasted heaven.
“This is better than winning the lottery,” she said, completely serious.
Nikolas chuckled low in his throat. “You have never won the lottery.”
“I just did. Today.”
Vanessa felt her throat tighten for no reason she could explain.
They made two more trays.
By The second batch Grant walked into kitchen like he was drawn to the cookies.
"Umm Boss? I thought I caught a whiff of chocolate it led me here. May I?" He asked and Vanessa smiled.
" Knock yourself out." Nikolas said.
"Help yourself Grant. Your boss and Maya have eaten themselves to stupidity and by Providence I am still sane." Vanessa said smiling and Grant took one and took a bite.
"Oh wow that's good." He looked at Nikolas."Boss, Permission to eat this delish cookies to stupidity?"
Nikolas nodded. "Like I said. Knock yourself out." Grant took a handful and walked out, groaning as he took a bite. "But be in good shape to drive me will ya?" He said after Grant.
"Ya!" Grant replied back and walked away.
By the third, Maya was starting to crash. She yawned so wide her whole face scrunched up.
“Movie?” she asked, hopeful, eyes already heavy.
Vanessa checked the clock. “One movie. Then bath. Then bed. No negotiations.”
Maya groaned like she had been deeply betrayed but did not actually fight.
After the cookie galore, Maya took a shower
and they ended up back in the theater room. Same huge recliners. Same giant screen. Maya picked Encanto this time because “I like Isabella.”
"No wonder you're sassy." Nikolas said
" Mooooooom?" Vanessa looked at mother sulking.
"What? He's kinda saying the truth." She said smiling. She curled against Vanessa’s side almost immediately.
Halfway through “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” her head dropped onto Vanessa’s shoulder.
A few minutes later she was out cold, mouth slightly open, one hand still clutching a half-eaten cookie like a precious trophy.
Vanessa eased herself up very carefully and lifted Maya into her arms.
Nikolas stood right away. “I will get the door.”
They walked down the hallway in almost complete silence.
Only the soft creak of the floorboards and Maya’s slow, even breathing.
Vanessa laid her down in the sleigh bed.
Brushed a curl off her forehead.
Tugged the blanket up to her chin.
Stayed there a second longer than necessary, just watching her daughter breathe.
When she finally turned, Nikolas was still standing in the doorway. Watching them both. That same look on his face: soft and serious and impossible to read.
She stepped past him into the hallway.
He followed without a word.
They did not speak until they reached the living room again.
The fire had burned down to glowing embers. Shadows stretched long across the walls and floor. Vanessa wrapped her arms around herself even though she was not cold anymore.
Nikolas stayed a couple steps back.
“You are quiet,” he said after a long moment.
“So are you.”
“Yes. Fair.”
More silence.
Then Vanessa’s phone buzzed sharply on the side table, loud, rude, wrong.
She flinched.
She had turned the sound down earlier. Apparently not enough.
She picked it up.
Frieda.
Six missed calls.
Seventeen unread messages.
Her stomach dropped straight through the floor.
She opened the thread. Fingers unsteady.
The newest text was only three minutes old.
Frieda: V. Damian just left the building. He had a lawyer with him. They wanted your current location “for official correspondence.” Becky was right behind him taking pictures like it is a magazine spread. I stalled as long as I could. Call me NOW.
Vanessa could not get air into her lungs.
Nikolas stepped closer. “What happened?”
She held the phone out without speaking.
He read quickly. His face stayed mostly calm but she saw the muscle in his jaw tighten once, then again.
“He is escalating,” he said quietly.
Vanessa laughed but it came out empty and sharp. “That is one way to put it.”
She scrolled up. Saw the earlier messages she had skimmed before the fort.
Board rumors.
“Emotionally compromised.”
“Unreachable.”
“Prioritizing personal matters."
She looked up at him.
“You said you were moving pieces.”
“I am.”
“How many pieces?”
“Enough.”
“That is not an answer, Nikolas.”
He exhaled through his nose. “It is the only answer I can give you tonight.”
Vanessa closed her eyes tight. “I cannot do this again.”
“Do what?”
“Let someone else fight my fights. Let someone else decide what I get to know. Let someone else make me feel safe and then just… disappear.”
He took one slow step closer.
“I am not disappearing.”
“You did before.”
“I know.”
The fire popped. A log settled with a soft crack.
Vanessa opened her eyes. “Why should I believe you this time?”
“Because I am standing right here. Looking at you. Telling you the truth. I am not running. I am not hiding. And I am not letting Damian get anywhere near you or Maya if there is anything I can do to stop it.”
Her throat burned so much she almost could not swallow.
“I want to believe you,” she whispered.
“Then believe me.”
She looked at him. Really looked.
The guy who used to steal her last fry and laugh when she got mad.
The boy who disappeared without a word and left her heart broken in a way she never quite fixed.
The man who dragged her car out of a snowbank.
The one who read dragon books in a silly voice and let a seven-year-old boss him around like it was the most natural thing in the world.
For one long, aching second she let herself imagine what it would feel like to just… stop fighting him.
To stop fighting everything.
Then her phone buzzed again.
Frieda: V. He filed an emergency motion for custody review. They are saying you are unfit because you are “off the grid.” Call me. Please.
Everything cracked open.
Vanessa stepped back.
Nikolas did not chase her.
She stared at the screen. Then at him.
“I have to call her.”
He nodded once. “I will be right here.”
She walked away, phone tight in her hand, blanket still around her shoulders like some kind of shield.
Behind her Nikolas stayed by the fire, staring into the glowing coals, taking in the scene with a serious face the bossed around man gone and replaced by a boss.
- Writer
