Page 152 of Midnight Curfew

Iron had his fucking shirt off. Great.

She breaks into a smile. “Then Dallas came home, and their little brother, Trace. I liked him. He smiles a lot.” She laughs and pauses as if she remembers something funny. “And let me see, their sister, Olivia, and some children. Paisleigh and Mars—short for Marshall—and Dexter Jaeger. He’s like five years old.”

I press stop, grabbing my towel again and wiping off. “They were nice to you?”

She nods, still bobbing from one foot to the other. “I like them. There was so much talking and arguing like you and I do where it’s not really mean.”

“Teasing,” I point out.

She beams up at me. “Yeah, I liked it.”

Her clothes sit right, her shirt tucked in. No dirt or stains that I can see, and her hair is freshly styled in two Dutch braids, her glowing skin rosy.

She fidgets, but she doesn’t leave, just standing there and looking everywhere but at me.

I uncap my water bottle. “Why are you rocking?”

I take a drink, and finally she lowers her eyes. “Did Dallas call you last night?”

“We spoke.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she breathes out quickly. “I just want to forget it.”

I start to speak, but I stop. Anna-Katherine surfaced because she thought being Sophia was something bad. Or maybe she thought being Sophia attracted bad things.

The doctors said she adopted a persona she thinks will keep her safe, but I know it’s more dangerous for Sophia to believe that. If it weren’t for her mania after the Wolfe Room, my father wouldn’t have cared that she’d regressed to a little girl. Hell, some monsters would even love it.

For now, I don’t want to push her to face things. She may regress further.

Slipping the water bottle into the cup holder, I step off the treadmill. “Anna-Katherine, you were brave.” I look down at her as she stares at the ground. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do by running.”

Lifting her eyes, she meets mine.

“You won’t be alone with him again,” I state. “If anyone makes you feel unsafe, you tell me, and I’ll believe you.”

She nods once. “ ’Kay.”

She’s pleasant but curt, telling me she doesn’t want to think about it anymore. She just wants to forget everything, and that’s fine with me. For now. I’ll worry about Milo.

She twirls in the center of the room.

“You better hurry,” I say. “You’re going to be late for work.”

But just then, she stops, her eyes lighting up again. “Oh, I forgot. Mrs. Jaeger is downstairs.”

I grimace. “What?”

Mrs. Jaeger.

Krisjen?

She skips back over to me. “Dallas said it was okay if I skipped school today.” Her teeth flash white, lighting up her face again. “She’s going shopping with Clay and Olivia, and they invited me.”

And they thought asking her to go with them before they even talked to me would make me not want to refuse her? Not only is she not fucking going, but Krisjen needs to be reminded of the manners she was raised with.

I jerk my chin at my stepsister. “Wash your face and brush your teeth.”

She jumps. “I have to change my clothes, too.”