Chapter 63 NADIA

Chapter 63 NADIA
My personal phone rang at 11:47 at night.

Not the burner. My personal number, the one I'd never given him. It wasn't even connected to anything I'd built under the cover, it was just mine. He had it anyway. Which meant he'd either found it through the network recently, or he'd had it the whole time. Neither option made me feel great.

I looked at the screen for four rings. Then I picked up.

He said my name once, exactly the same way he'd said it my whole life. His voice was neither warm nor cold, just flat. 

"You testified against the council,” he began.

"I testified against Ferguson. And against you,” I corrected him.

He paused for a short while. "You understand what you've put in motion."

"Yes," I replied. "Completely.”

He was quiet for a moment. I heard the sounds of the city behind him; traffic, wind, and people’s voices. He could have been anywhere. That was the thing about Marcus. He was always somewhere you couldn't quite pin down.

"I'm not going to threaten you. I want you to understand that. You are still my daughter,” he said.

I took that in for exactly one second. Then I said, "You suppressed what I was for twenty six years. You killed my mother. You sent me into a pack full of people to destroy them, and you didn't tell me what I was while you did it." I paused. "And I'm still your daughter. That's what you're going with?"

"I did what was necessary,” was his simple reply.

"You always think so," I said.

It surprised me how steady my voice was. I'd imagined this conversation a hundred times in the last few weeks and in most of those versions I was angrier, colder, or more shaken. But right now I just felt clear, like I was finally standing on solid ground.

He went on. "You've been told a version of things by people who benefit from you believing it."

"I've read my mother's medical records," I said. "I've seen the communication. I've lived in my own body long enough to know what was being taken from me." I kept my voice even. "There's no version of this where I come back, Marcus. That's not why I'm telling you any of this."

"Then why are you?" he questioned.

"Because the council is going to issue restrictions in the next seventy two hours," I said. "After that, every move you make in this jurisdiction is logged and enforceable. You have people who are already watching." I paused. "You should leave."

“I built something here. I don't leave something I built."

"I know," I said.

And I did know. That was the thing about my father. He had never walked away from anything in his life. Every operation he'd run, every city he'd moved through, every target he'd locked onto… he always stayed until the job was done. He didn't understand leaving.

"That's why I'm telling you the same thing. I'm not leaving something I built either,” I added.

"And what exactly have you built, Nadia?" he asked me.

I looked out the window. Everywhere was dark and bright at the same time the way it always was at night. Somewhere out there was the arena, the training room, Dex making some dumb comment to nobody in particular, Sera texting me things at weird hours, and Zane on the other side of a wall going about his evening like the solid, decent person he was.

"A life. A proper one at that," I said.

He didn't say anything to that.

“Leave, Marcus. There's nothing here for you anymore."

Then I hung up.

I put the phone down on the table and looked at my hands. They were completely steady. Not even a single tremor. I stared at them for a second, genuinely a little surprised, because I'd expected them to shake.

But they didn't.

I sat there for a moment in the silence of the room. Outside, a car passed. The building settled. I breathed in and out.

Then I picked up the phone and called Zane. He picked up on the second ring.

"He called my personal number,” I said without any preamble.

When he spoke, his voice sounded normal but I could hear something underneath it that made me feel like he was trying really hard to keep it controlled. "What did he say?"

I ran through it quickly, repeating the whole conversation in order. He listened without interrupting.

When I finished, I said, "I'm okay."

Zane said, "I know." Then he paused for a second. "I'm coming over anyway."

"Okay.”

I sat down on the couch. My phone was still in my hand. 

Marcus had my personal number. Marcus was still in this city. Marcus had just told me directly that he wasn't going anywhere.

And somewhere in the building, I heard the elevator running.