Her voice was steady, but very thin. Nadia nodded. "Okay. " She picked up her fork. "Then it'll be okay. " "Dad always says trying is the part that counts. " Ethan looked at Isabel. Isabel looked at Ethan.
Eight years old. His daughter had an 8-year-old's certainty and a wisdom that made him feel both humbled and grateful and terrified at how much she stood to lose if the next 5 days did not go the way they needed to. On day eight, Isabelle's attorney called with new information. She took the call in her room and came out 17 minutes later with the folder under her arm and a look on her face that made Ethan set down everything he was doing. "What happened? " She sat down at the table.
Set the folder in front of her. Pressed both palms flat on it. "The officer assigned to our case has a reputation," she said. "My attorney has worked with her before. " "What kind of reputation? " "She's thorough. " Isabelle's jaw was tight. "She doesn't do the standard script.
She goes off book. She asks questions they're not supposed to ask technically, but in practice, the system lets her. She wants to see the real thing, not the rehearsed thing. " He sat across from her. "That's good for us. " "Is it? " "Isabelle, we have the real thing. We have something real," she said carefully.
"We also have a marriage that began as a legal transaction. If she asks directly, if she asks when we fell in love, when it changed, what made it real. " She stopped. "I don't know how to answer that without telling a version of the story that sounds like exactly what it was. " "Then tell that version," he said. She looked at him. "You keep saying that. " "Because I keep meaning it. " "And if it doesn't work? " The question sat between them.
He leaned forward. Held her gaze the way he'd learned to steady and direct, not as pressure, but as presence. "If it doesn't work," he said, "it won't be because we lied. It'll be because the system couldn't hold what's true. And that's the system's failure, not ours.
She stared at him for a long moment. Then she said, "You're remarkably calm for someone whose entire plan is to walk into a federal interview and tell the government that his arranged marriage became real. " "I'm terrified. " He said simply. "I'm just calm about being terrified. " Something broke open in her face. Not tears, exactly. Just release.
The particular expression of a person who has been holding enormous tension and suddenly feels 1 oz of it lift. She laughed. Short and sharp and real. "Okay. " She said. "Okay.
We tell the truth. We tell the truth. " She opened the folder, looked at the first page, closed it again. "Ethan? " "Yeah. " She looked at him and the careful, collected woman who had organized her fear into color-coded tabs and chronological dates looked at him with something completely unguarded. "If this goes wrong. " She started. "It's not going to. " "If it does. " She said firmly.
"I need you to know that the last 2 years" She stopped. Started again. "Whatever it started as" "What it became, that's the realest thing that's happened to me since David died. And I don't want to go into that room in 5 days without having said that out loud. " He was quiet for a moment. "2 years, 4 months, and 9 days. " He said.