Page 199 of Everdoll

I averted my gaze, embarrassed. “How long is this house arrest?”

“A month, I suppose.”

“Can anyone else visit?”

“I doubt they’ll allow it, but I can talk to them if you wish. Provided it’s just one person.”

“Just one person,” I confirmed.

I didn’t understand how I had accepted this as my new normal so easily, but everything felt as it should be. The void inside me for all these years, the root cause of my depression—it was because I had been trapped in a reality my soul rejected, forced to exist within it. Now, returning to where it truly belonged, my soul didn’t find it strange at all; it only wondered how to nourish itself after surviving so many years of starvation. How to make up for all those years of longing.

Well, a month would be enough, I believed.

“If you can fend for yourself, we’ll be on our way,” Eleanor said, putting her empty glass on the table.

“When have I ever failed to fend for myself?”

“Well… yesterday, I suppose.”

I grunted. “I’ll be fine.”

I was no longer that sick, helpless child who suffered in silence under his mother’s operations. Nor was I the boy who would go mad if Mina claimed he was inadequate. I would show her that I was more than enough, I would prove it.

Every day and night.

I took a deep breath as my every thought continually gravitated toward making up for lost time with Mina. Once Eleanor and Dr. Aneta finally left the house, I stood up and dragged one of the armchairs closer to the sofa where she lay sleeping. If I could, I would have pulled her into my lap, but I didn’t want to wake her up.

I just wanted to watch her sleep. In the flesh.

For two long years, I had watched her only through lens feeds, catching glimpses of her sleep from limited camera angles. But now, I was free. First, I watched her from the right. Then I squatted on the floor to view her from the front, before moving the chair to her left to take in her other side profile. I even stood up to look down at her from above.

From every angle, she was the most beautiful sight in the world.

I repeated the sequence a few times. Mars’ blue sun was setting now, casting a hue deeper than usual. It dazzled my eyes. Stepping toward the window, I gazed out at the devastation.

Much of it wasn’t my doing, but rather the result of Krivan’s selfish desires. Still, my heart ached when I thought of the people who had suffered at the hands of absolute power.

I had always considered my family’s obsession with serving the collective to be pointless. If a person had no bearing on my life, their fate was none of my concern. Yet this arrogant perspective had shattered after witnessing how a single individual’s actions could ripple through countless lives.

A single person mattered. For the collective, change began with the individual. I had learned that the hard way.

“Raymond…?”

My heart faltered as the faint voice cut through my thoughts. Tearing my gaze away from the landscape, I pulled my hands from my pockets and stepped toward Mina.

“Are you in pain somewhere?” I asked. With a sluggish air, she shook her head. Then she looked around, awareness washing over her. Her eyes roamed the living room. I watched sleep fade from her face, moment by moment.

She was so cute.

“Why are we here?”

“I’m under house arrest.”

“You are? What about me?”

“You’re just here for emotional support.”

When confusion spread across her face, I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.