“You will take me there.”

“He may not be home. I do not control Rafik.”

The bus from the mall took forever. She looked for anyone following her. She thought one woman was too stylish to be on the bus, but the lady got out at Newton, so that made sense. Heather had to take another bus from downtown to East Boston, and so by the time she turned the key at Brooks Street, it was dark and almost suppertime. She heard voices as the door gave. She waited. A scuffling and then the door pulled back so quickly she fell forward with her packages careening on the stoop and into the hallway. Someone was picking her up. It was Mourad. He kissed her and pulled her against his chest kind of abruptly.

“Oh, Mourad!” she said. “I am so glad to see you. I was so worried.”

“Are you all right?” he said into her ear.

“I am now.” She tried to pull herself back a little, but Mourad wouldn’t let her. “I’m okay, really,” she said.

“Heather, Rafik is here,” he whispered. Then he let her pull away enough to see into the living room. Rafik was sitting on the sofa, smoking. He was tapping his foot. He wasn’t looking at them. It hit her that he didn’t care one way or another about her. He just wanted to get out of the apartment.

Without turning her head she walked past him into the bedroom and closed the door. Of course he saw her. Not a hello, not a word. She’d done the same, though. Four years they were together. Nine months since she’d seen him. She felt nothing. Not mad, not sad, not anything.

That was good, wasn’t it? Better than freaking out. Tearing up money that night in Reach, throwing it at girls. Mean, she was so mean to Aziz that night. He had almost no English then. Rafik. She had been crazy for him. How could she have loved him?

She sat on the bed. A snapshot of her dad was on the dresser. She had not wanted to be like her sister. Who would want to be like her, people who let life happen to them? Rafik upset her mother, which delighted her father. Rafik treated her, at least in the beginning, like a storybook princess. Rafik, who was handsome.