THE COST OF NOT ASKING

Lorenzo asked Bruno to leave them alone.

Sarah stayed near the door.

"I'll explain," he said.

"Start with the list."

There would be a small gathering at the main house. Several longstanding members of the family would attend, including Vincent. The information reaching them would suggest that Lorenzo, his wife, and his son would all be on the property that night.

In reality, Sarah, Leo, and Toby would be moved beforehand to another protected residence.

"You won't be here," Lorenzo explained. "None of you will be anywhere near the meeting."

It took Sarah several seconds to identify what hurt. He was talking about the vehicle, the timing, the men accompanying the move. Everything had been arranged.

Including her.

"How long have you been planning this?"

"Since yesterday."

"Before or after breakfast in the garden?"

Lorenzo went still.

"Sarah."

"I was sitting there thinking you had chosen to spend time with me. You'd already decided that next week I'd be moved out in secret while people thought I was helping you play happy families."

"You would never be deliberately put in danger."

"What did I tell you in that room? I wanted to know when the danger involved us. I didn't ask to approve the color of the car. I asked you to tell me."

He wet his lips, impatient with himself or with her. She could not tell which.

"I was going to talk to you before the move."

"After every detail had already been decided."

"I needed to make certain no one anticipated the change."

"Am I the person you needed to hide it from?"

He did not answer quickly enough.

Heat climbed Sarah's face. The previous night's kiss returned with cruel precision: his hand at her neck, the laugh against her mouth, the confidence with which she had reached for him.

"Was I a pleasant distraction between meetings?"

"Don't say that."

His voice hardened. Sarah stepped back before she could stop herself.

Lorenzo saw it. The anger left his expression, replaced by something worse.

"I'm not telling you to be quiet. I just can't stand the thought of you believing what happened between us was a strategy."

"I don't want to believe it. But when you hide something like this right after kissing me, I don't know which part of me you're seeing. The woman or the problem."

He approached slowly.

"I see you."

She wanted to believe him. She wanted it so badly that she had to look away.

"I'm going to the other house with Toby. Now. Not on the date in your plan. You can keep whatever guards are necessary, but I need to get out of this room and remember I can think when I'm not near you."

Lorenzo stopped a few feet away.

"You're safe here."

"I don't feel okay here. That matters, too."

The words remained between them.

Finally, he called Bruno and instructed him to prepare the smaller residence for the Miller siblings. He did not argue with her in front of his employee.

Sarah acknowledged the efficiency with a nod. It felt cold and bureaucratic. She hated that they had reached that point so quickly.

In her room, Toby found her trying to fold a shirt with one hand.

He took it without asking and put it in the suitcase.

"Are we leaving?"

"For another house. Just for now. We'll still have protection."

He waited.

She explained the argument without turning Lorenzo into a monster or making excuses for him. Toby listened from the bed.

"Do you want to go back to our apartment?" he asked when she finished.

Sarah looked at her medication bag, the support for her leg, and the phone that could still receive another threatening message.

"I want that night not to have happened. But I can't have that. So I'm choosing the things I can choose right now."

Her brother nodded.

"I'm staying with you. Just tell me when I need to pack another bag."

Sarah leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his. It was an old gesture from when he was smaller and she had needed to pretend that a quick hug was enough.

Talking to Leo was harder.

He came in after the suitcase was closed. He saw the drawing still taped to the door, then the pile of books.

"Are you all better?"

"I still need some help."

He looked at the ring on her hand.

"Then why are you going?"

Sarah asked him to sit beside her. Lorenzo stood by the door, pale in a way she did not want to interpret.

"Your dad and I are working something out," she said. "I'll be in another house close by. You can talk to me."

"Was I too loud at night?"

Her chest hurt.

"No, sweetheart. You didn't do anything wrong. I promised to tell you before I left. I'm telling you because you deserve to know."

Leo pressed the robot against his stomach.

"You can take him. Then you'll come back to give him to me."

Sarah drew a breath before touching the toy.

"He needs to stay with you. But I can call tomorrow and see if you finished the spaceship."

The boy looked at Lorenzo.

"Can you tell her you're sorry?"

Lorenzo knelt in front of them.

"I can. And I will, even if she still needs to stay in the other house."

Sarah felt tears gathering. She did not want Leo to learn that finding the right button to press in his father would keep her there.

She hugged the boy against her uninjured side and let him stay as long as he needed.

At the door, Rosa packed food into Toby's bag. The nurse would follow in another car. Bruno checked the route.

Lorenzo helped Sarah settle into the back seat. He held the door without trying to hurry her.

"What I feel for you is real," he said.

She nodded, looking at her hands.

"I need it to change something when you decide what to do."

He did not try to kiss her. He closed the door gently.

The smaller residence stood on a tree-lined street, behind an unremarkable gate, with a garden Sarah could see all at once. There was no drawing on her bedroom door.

She took off the ring before bed and put it in the box.

At nine, her phone vibrated.

Lorenzo asked whether she had taken her medication and whether she needed anything. Sarah typed that she was fine, erased it, and wrote that she was tired.

He answered that he would let her rest.

The following morning, Toby found an envelope with the driver's schedule and the medical team's number. Everything was still in place. Nobody had asked for anything in return.

Sarah sat by the window and answered Leo's video call.

He held the spaceship up to the camera. Lorenzo did not appear, but she heard his voice helping the boy find a missing piece.

Sarah smiled at the screen.

After the call ended, she looked at her bare hand until the nurse came to help with her exercises.