CREATURE

・chapter 38・

As the conversation around her picked up again she looked into the fireplace, at the logs shifting under the weight of the flames. This, the past three days, had been the most normal Christmas she'd had in her whole life. Because for all her mother's investments in her daughter's career and education, there was never much time for birthdays or holidays. Her mother had bred a creature that wanted nothing but applause and titles, and never thought about or knew much about life outside the theatre.

And even though she missed the stage to an almost painful degree, she wished her life in London could wait a while longer. A few more days of laughing, eating, smiling. A few more days of taking a break from being herself.

A squeal from the couch opposite her interrupted her thoughts. Tanya had been scooped up and swung onto her brother's back, who'd clearly decided that it was time he start the hour-long process of putting her to bed.

'Skazhi spokoynoy nochi, zaychik.' he said as his sister wrapped her arms around his neck.

'Goodnight everyone.' Tanya announced, waving to them from up top.

Asya waved back, watching as he carried her up the stairs. Loosening one arm from around her brother's neck and twisting around, Tanya mouthed something she didn't catch over her his shoulder. The little girl drew a lopsided heart with her index finger in the air, and Asya felt herself crack a smile. She left a kiss in the palm of her hand before sending it floating across to the staircase. A tiny little fist clamped around it.

'Spitting image of each other, aren't they?' Miranda said from the worktable.

Asya shifted her attention. 'Definitely.'

She watched as Miranda went silent, an odd stillness creeping over the woman's features. The young ballerina opened her mouth to say something, but her intuition shut it for her. Instead, she looked on as Miranda unhooked her glasses from her ears and dropped them on the worktable, pressing her hands over her eyes.

Asya surprised even herself when she hastily set the cat aside and rushed to the woman's side, placing a hand on her forearm before she gently asked, 'Everything alright?'

Miranda shook her head. 'I'm sorry. Their mother. She was my sister.'

My parents are dead, the words came back to her. No euphemism, no delicate phrasing, not even a trace of grief or sadness, just the simplest admission that they were gone.

'Not a day goes by that I don't think of her, you know.' Miranda exhaled. 'I talk to her. I tell her about Tatyana, about Roman, I ask her if I'm doing the right thing.'

Asya let her gaze rest on the older woman's features, on the faint wrinkles by her eyes that usually hid the sadness that was now washing over her. She was at a loss for words, she barely knew Miranda or the situation at all, but for a second time that evening, something told her to just keep quiet.

'I wanted to adopt them both, you know.' she explained. 'When their mother died, I flew up there and spent weeks getting Tatyana out of the system. I didn't know where to start looking for Roman. I hired a private investigator, and he found records kept by the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Two days later I got a call from the artistic director of the company offering to stand legal guardian for him until he turned eighteen.'

Miranda loosened a heavy sigh. 'I insisted that I meet with him, and that I was going to set the most expensive lawyers I could find on them unless they let me see him. It ended up taking Roman all of ten minutes to introduce himself and announce that he wasn't going anywhere. I realised that no amount of begging was going to make him come back with me, even with the promises that he could continue his training here, that he'd have all the freedom he wanted, and that I'd get him help with the language barrier. That was that.'