Livy hands me a stack of books and climbs up onto my knee. Her hair, still damp from her bath, curls around her face. At the edge of the room next to the heat vents, her snowsuit, hat and mittens are laid out to dry. Outside our window, the streetlight catches the snow, falling like silver feathers. Snow is piled along the street where plows have pushed it into mountains. Livy sighs happily as she settles into my lap.
Megan’s apartment is small, like ours. Our old place was bigger, but Mom is happy to live closer to work. Maxwell and Mila crash on the couch when they visit. Livy loves her new daycare. Megan likes her job.
Mom and Megan thought we had to move. When I told Mom and Megan about what had been going on, they freaked, of course. They thought I’d be a target. I don’t think so. I only know what Cyn told me, and she didn’t tell me much. I don’t know enough even to testify.
Someone is testifying though. In the news, the informant is referred to as Person X. All I know is that Dove’s restaurant is closed and he’s vanished. Whether Person X identifies Cyn as the target, I don’t know. Maybe being his girlfriend was her only crime. Maybe Cyn’s parents can hang on to their daughter as they knew her. Maybe I can too.
Sometimes, when I dream, Cyn is laughing at something. Her hair is loose like it was that night, like a dark sea on her shoulders. She never looks at me in my dream, but I wake up glad that she looked happy.
Livy pats my cheek. “Uncle Daniel, read!” She puts a book into my hands.
I look at the book. “Livy, we’ve read this one about nineteen times.”
She jabs her finger at the cover. “Cinderella is my favorite.”
Livy has stopped asking about Cyn. I told her that Cyn moved away too, and that’s why we wouldn’t see her again. She accepted my story, and why wouldn’t she? Or maybe she knew I was lying and let me have the fantasy. Either way, she believes in me, and I take a lot of strength from that.
I open the book to the first page. “Okay, but I just have to say, the princess should have worn shoes that stayed on her feet.”
“Shhh,” she says. “Don’t tell me what happens.”