29

When I get home, Tata rushes over to me, his cheeks boiling red.

“Where were you?” he demands.

“At Krysta’s. I told you I was going over there.” I try to push past him, desperate to go be by myself in my room.

But Tata grabs my elbow. “Is that where you’ve been bringing our Amber?”

I freeze. “What?”

“I set up surveillance cameras around the house after the attack,” he says. “Including one in the basement. I saw you taking it.”

Cameras? Oh no. He must have gotten them the same night as the alarm system.

He holds up a jug of Amber. It’s more than half-empty. How could I have taken so much without realizing it?

“Tata, I can explain,” I rush to say, but he doesn’t seem to want to hear it.

“All these years I told myself we were in this country for you, so you’d be healthy and safe. But is this what we’ve really done? Turned you into the kind of girl who steals from us and lies?”

“No!” I cry, but of course it’s true. I am that kind of girl now. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

Tata shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear excuses. I want the truth. What were you doing with the Amber?”

“At first it was because Krysta—”

“Krysta. It’s always Krysta!” he cries. “I don’t understand. Why would you give up who you are to become just another monster like her?”

But that’s not fair. None of this is.

“You’re the one who brought me here!” I yell, even though I never yell, especially not at my parents. “Just because you don’t want to learn the language here or eat any of the food, that doesn’t mean the rest of us can stay the exact same people forever. Maybe you’re the monster!”

The room throbs with silence. Then Tata turns and charges downstairs into the basement.

“What are you doing?” I call, running after him.

He storms past the washing machine and grabs the full jug of Amber from under the shelf.

He flips on the outside light and marches up the basement steps to the garden, a jug of Amber under each arm.

“Tata!” I call after him. “Stop!”

He’s not listening to me. Tata immediately opens both of the bottles and starts pouring. The Amber sloshes out and covers the ground. It gushes out and out and out. I stand in shock and watch it seep into the earth.

“I’m tired of this sorcery controlling our lives!” Tata is saying. “I want it all gone!”

After a minute, it is. Every last drop. The strange thing is, as I watch the Amber soak into the soil and disappear, I’m horrified, but I’m also glad.