“So do I,” Mercy said quietly. But she hadn’t volunteered to help other victims like Irina and Karl did.

“Stop it,” Irina chided. “I can see your thoughts on your face, Mercy. We each have our path to healing. We each must decide what we are able to do for ourselves and for others. What is it that the airline attendants say? Put the mask on yourself first? If you want to help others in the future, I will be there to guide you, if you wish. But you will not berate yourself for the way you’ve sought healing. Am I clear?”

Mercy managed a smile. “Yes, ma’am. Someday I’d like to hear how you escaped your situation.”

Irina’s smile was genuine and serene. “Someday I will tell you. Now, let us leave this bathroom. It is not a sanitary place to have a family meeting.”

Rafe’s laugh was shaky. “I love you, Mom.”

Irina took his cheeks in her hands and pulled him down, placing a kiss on his forehead. “And I love you, Raphael.” She did the same to Sasha. “And I love you as well, Anastasia.”

“Boo,” Mercy said, forcing a lightness into her voice that she didn’t feel. Not yet anyway. “Your real name is nice, Sasha.”

“Yours is expensive,” Sasha fired back, then hugged her mother again. “Do the others know?”

“No. I suppose I must tell them now, but it can wait, yes?” She lifted her brows at her children. “Yes?” she repeated.

“Yes, Mama,” they said in unison.

“Your secret is safe with us,” Rafe said, then cleared his throat roughly, still visibly shaken. “Can you be around food, Mercy? Because I never got to eat dinner and I’m starving.”

“I can,” Mercy said. She hoped. Keeping food down when she was this stressed was never an easy task. “I never got to finish the mac and cheese that you made me, Irina.”

“Farrah said it was your comfort food. We thought you deserved some comfort this night. Come.” Irina took Mercy’s empty mug and led them out of the bathroom.

Mercy and Rafe were the last to file out, Rafe looking so shattered it made Mercy’s heart hurt. She took his hand and threaded their fingers together. “Will you be okay?”

Rafe stared at his mother’s retreating back. “Yes. Eventually. I . . . we didn’t know.”

“She shared it for me, to help me,” Mercy murmured, overwhelmed by Irina’s generosity. “You have an amazing mother, Raphael Sokolov.”

“I know.”

EIGHT

GRANITE BAY, CALIFORNIA

SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 12:00 A.M.

Rafe had questions. So many questions. For his mother, for his dad, for Gideon, and for Mercy herself. The only thing he knew for certain was that he needed to get Mercy somewhere quieter. The two of them sat at the Sokolov family table while his mother, his father, Sasha, and Farrah made plans with Daisy over the speakerphone. His father’s attorney was working to get the video removed from the website that published the foul article on Mercy, thank goodness. Fortunately, money talked, and his father had contacts in powerful places.