Page 58 of Hate You Most

“Because you are still healing.” She moved across the apartment, settled into the armchair across from the couch.

Viktoriya shook her head slowly. “Do they know we are married?”

Dakota was quiet for a long moment before answering. “Yeah, they know.”

Viktoriya watched her closely. “They don't act like it.”

Dakota's jaw tightened. “They’re just—being cautious. They don't want to say the wrong thing.”

“About what?” Viktoriya asked.

Dakota finally looked at her then, her expression neutral. “About you. About what you remember. About what you don’t.”

“Does the world know we’re married?” Viktoriya’s voice was quieter this time.

Dakota inhaled slowly, like she’d been expecting the question and hoped it wouldn’t come. “No,” she said. “Not officially.”

Viktoriya looked at her wife. “So we are—what is the word—stuck in the closet? closeted?”

“It means we kept it private,” Dakota replied. “For a lot of different reasons.”

“Whose reasons?” Viktoriya asked.

Dakota’s gaze softened, but she didn’t look away. “Yours. Mostly.”

Viktoriya let that sit between them. The word mostly echoed louder than it should have. She knew exactly what that meant. The world, her home country, none of it had gotten any better or any easier. The world hadn't become as tolerant as she'd hoped. The past wasn't all that different from the present and fear still emerged from what people refused to understand.

“Okay,” she said.

Dakota reached out for her. “You weren’t ready for the world. And I didn’t want to push you.”

Viktoriya wanted to say something back, to tell Dakota that it was alright—but everything was far from it.

“I need to sleep now,” she decided on instead. This was too much for her to handle.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

October 31st, 2022.

— Dakota Sanchez apartment. Detroit, Michigan.

Halloween had never been important to Viktoriya. It wasn't something that was done much in Russia, it was merely an American celebration, and she didn't quite understand what was so special about it. Viktoriya wouldn't have remembered the day if Dakota hadn't reminded her. Her brain was still in a fog, it seemed impossible to navigate.

There were no decorations in the apartment—no carved pumpkins and no string lights. No plastic spiders tucked into fake spiderwebs. It was the same carefully neutral space that had become Viktoriya's entire world.

Dakota passed her a steaming cup of coffee and settled back on the couch. “I thought maybe we could do something normal today.”

She wrapped her hands around the warm cup. “Like what?”

Dakota shrugged. “Takeout. A movie, maybe. Some overpriced candy from the store down the block.” A pause. “Only if you’re up for it.”

Viktoriya nodded. “Yeah, I am.” She surprised herself with how much she'd meant it. Some normalcy sounded good to her. Something she could participate in without the risk of an incoming headache. Halloween used to be important to Dakota, she remembered her saying that she craved those nights that didn’t revolve around training or media appearances. Viktoriya didn't really understand that—skating was her whole life, why would she ever want a break from that?

Dakota watched her carefully. “If you change your mind⁠—”

“I won’t,” Viktoriya said gently. “I want to try.”

Dakota smiled at that. “Okay.”