Nicolai's Daughters Read Online Free PDF Page B

You have family,” he’d said when he told her about the other daughter.
    â€œWhat about me?” she said out loud to the blackness beyond the window.
    She fell asleep on the floor. When she woke, it was the middle of the night. She felt him standing in front of her, shaking his head. “Why are you sleeping on the floor? Don’t you have a bed?”
    â€œI’m not little anymore,” she hurled back. “I can do anything I want.” The anger in her voice surprised her.
    She stumbled to her bedroom. The mirror set lay on her dresser. She’d brought it home after he died. She held the mirror up and heard him say it clearly: “Do this for me.”
    She pushed the images away. She stared into the mirror at the creases in her face. Her French braid hung loose; frizzy wisps stuck out in all directions. She licked her fingers and stroked her hair to make it lie flat, but the wayward bits refused to weave back into place. She pulled out the elastic and threw it on the dresser.
    He wasn’t going to let her be until she got rid of that box. She slammed her hand against the dresser so hard her arm went numb. It ached as she typed and revised drafts of her request to the firm. She would send it by email. Once she’d clicked ‘Send’ she crawled into bed. For the first time in months, she slept until the sun was high in the sky and clawed at her eyelids, untroubled by any dreams.
    â€œWe need you here, Alexia. You’re one of our finest.” Dan stood beside his desk and held onto the piece of paper he’d ripped out of the printer. His tie was cinched tight, his jacket buttoned. The consummate professional, she thought.
    â€œI need to sort some things out.” Alexia stood just inside the door to his office. She held his gaze.
    Dan, her firm’s senior partner, sat down behind his desk, and motioned for her to take a seat. He fingered the edges of her note. “I can’t lose you.”
    â€œLook, Dan, I know this isn’t done, especially by junior partners. But I need to get away for a while. A week, two at the most.”
    â€œIs this the best time for you to be taking off?”
    Why did he want to be difficult? I’ve never taken so much as a vacation day, she thought. This is important. Doesn’t he get that? And besides, she only wanted enough time to deliver the package to Christina, and convince her to pass it on. He could do without her for that long. The place wasn’t going to fall apart.
    He picked up the email. She watched him read it again. When he finally spoke, Dan offered more money, flexible hours, and when that didn’t work, he said he’d miss her. She sat on her hands, teetered on the hurt one and dug her fingernails into the underside of her thighs. She repeated, “I have to do this,” as much to convince herself as to convince him.
    â€œYou’ve got more guts than brains,” he said. “I like that.” He tugged a short swath of his hair through his fingers; a nervous habit of his she’d gotten used to over the five years they’d worked together. Funny how he could be so formal and businesslike and have this one thing that made him seem so vulnerable.
    In the end, he approved her leave on the condition she be available by phone or email.
    â€œI’ll be back before you notice.”
    â€œI hope so.” He grinned, then his mouth returned to its single line. He faced his computer. “Keep in touch. Right?” he said over his shoulder.
    The pilot’s voice mumbled that they were landing in Athens in twenty minutes and suggested people sitting on the right-hand side of the plane enjoy the view of Vouliagmeni. Alexia looked down on the small boats scattered across the turquoise water and the dots of people on the colourless sand. A perfect postcard scene except for the film of brownish-grey smog. The current temperature: 35 degrees Celsius. She rubbed her hands against the