He moved the girl away from the window and looked down, trying to gauge what position to fall in. This was going to hurt like a bitch. Luckily the mattress had fallen close to the house, so he didn’t need to jump forward, just fall. He held the girl in front of him and took a backwards leap of faith.
As he felt the air rush past him as he plummeted, he heard screams and then his back made contact with the ground below. For the first few seconds, he could only focus on the pain. Convinced he had fallen short of the mattress, he imagined his spine shattered into a million pieces. It’s only when he laid his arms down that he realized he had made it, but every bone in his body still hurt none the less.
The girl jumped out of his arms and as he rested his head to the left, he saw her run into Miguel’s arms. They both cried as much as each other and Miguel caught Michael’s eyes briefly before stroking his daughter’s tangled long hair and then holding her head gently between the palms of his hands, inspecting her face as if checking that she was real. He looked back at Michael and gave him a nod. Such a small gesture, but Michael could see the gratitude radiating from him. It was the kind of nod one soldier might give another before walking towards the front-line. No words would be good enough.
Josie grabbed his uninjured hand, possibly the only part of his body that didn’t feel like it was being stabbed by daggers. She hovered over him, blocking out the blinding sun. Behind her he could see smoke, and flames, and embers reaching up to the sky.
Now he could rest. He had done what he needed to do. He couldn’t believe that somehow, everything had worked out, although not perfectly. Perfection didn’t exist, but it was the best he could have hoped for. He had done something. Not just stood, watching from the shadows. Somehow, now, lying on the floor in agony was the most content he had ever been. Josie babbled about how everything would be okay. Didn’t she realize everything was already okay? His hand touched her wrist, and he looked in her eyes. “You have to forgive her. If you don’t this will all be for nothing.” The sound of sirens pierced through the frayed edges of his awareness. Everything muted slightly, including the pain, which he was grateful for. He wondered if he was hallucinating as Aleksander came running from the side of the house with two people following him—a man and a woman in uniform with medical supplies.
“I’m sorry I left. I had to come back.” He knelt down beside Josie and their faces blurred into one.
Chapter Thirty Eight
Everything had been awkward. They barely spoke a word the entire time: not on the way to the airport, not on the flight, not as they disembarked, not when they went through customs. She couldn’t bring herself to speak, as she feared what she might say. They waited at the luggage carousel and Josie watched the bags roll past her. Usually, she was strangely lucky, and her bag would always pop from behind the plastic flaps quickly, but Tanya’s bag refused to show. Josie had no belongings to check in, as Samuel had burned them all, yet Tanya had a massive suitcase to collect. It made her furious that she had nothing left, yet Tanya did. She resented having to wait for Tanya’s baggage and just wanted to go home and lie in bed, staring at the wall.
Tanya excused herself to go to the toilet, and now Josie was alone, the tears came out of nowhere. She tried to wipe them away quickly to avoid bringing attention to herself. The last thing she wanted was for someone to ask her what was wrong, as that would set her off even more. Through her wet, blurry eyes she saw her sister’s bag come around. It’s bright colorful pattern taunting her. The weight of it made her whole body heave as she dragged it off of the carousel and lugged it towards the seat. Left holding the bag. Typical. She would have laughed if she wasn’t so angry.
Tanya emerged from the bathroom and kept her eyes to the ground as she shuffled along. Josie wished she would hurry up, and sighed. There was nothing her sister could do that wouldn’t piss her off.
“Let’s go,” Josie demanded and took the lead as she headed for the exit. She was safe now. Her family was somehow complete again, yet more broken than ever. The safety should have been a relief, yet she felt hollow. It was busy in the arrivals lounge, as people dashed around and others held up boards with people’s names on. It had all the frenetic energy of the trading floor on Wall Street.
There they were. Her parent’s faces emerged through the crowd. The wide grins on their faces made her want to cry again. They had no idea. In their minds, their beloved daughter miraculously escaped the jaws of death and was to magically reappear in their lives. Innocent, ignorant, completely unaware that their own daughter had staged her own kidnapping to rinse them for all they were worth. It just occurred to Tanya that they had requested such a specific amount, an amount so high that, unless you knew the family you might not expect them to have that sort of money to hand, yet not so high to make it impossible for them to pay. The calculated, manipulative nature of what she had done made Josie want to tell everyone. They deserved to know.
“Babies. My babies.” Her mom cried straight away and came towards them with open arms, embracing them both at the same time,
