Chapter 150

YENA

I don’t think I could have slept if I tried.

It was the night before the big trip, and my mind was abuzz with excitement, anxiety, dreams, memories, just… everything. So I busied myself with work, trying to focus on something productive during the dark, quiet hours of the late night and early morning.

I looked into how to get myself a business license in both countries, bookmarking the application pages. Filling them out would be time-consuming, a perfect activity for all the tedious downtime I had ahead of me on the plane.

Then I started some new spreadsheets to track my financials. The handful of sales I’d made online so far – phew! I couldn’t believe the numbers I was looking at as I typed them into the columns, copying transaction info from my cash app. I enjoyed crunching the numbers more than I expected to, finding it oddly satisfying to obsess over calculating margins and creating budgets for new projects.

I was overdue for compensating Lucy for everything she did for me. And the money I had coming in already was plenty to support paying her for her work. I did more math to come up with a sum that I could pay her straight away.

Trying to give Lucy an envelope full of cash didn’t seem like a good idea. She would have refused it. But when she offered to ship the dresses on her own to free me up on my last day, Lucy gave me an opportunity. When we packed all the dresses into her car, I casually asked her to set up an account on the cash app so that I could use it to reimburse her for the shipping costs.

And that set me up perfectly to sneakily deposit a paycheck into her account, once I was done with all my number crunching and figured out the amount. It was around four a.m. when I hit the submit button to send the payment. I expected Lucy would be asleep, and I’d hear from her later.

But a text came chiming in less than thirty seconds later.

Yena, what is this?? Why are you sending me money?

I laid back in bed and smiled.

Because you earned it. I know you’d never ask for a paycheck, but you deserve a share of our profits. Thanks for being my partner in this business.

I managed an hour or so of shut-eye before Evan knocked on my door around sunrise.

“Good morning,” he said, holding out a steaming cup of coffee.

“Aw. Thank you. That’s sweet.”

“Ready for a salty breakfast?” he asked with a goofy smile.

I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain his joke, and started slurping down my much-needed coffee.

“Cause Mom will be crying in all the food.”

I coughed, nearly choking. “Evan! That’s not funny.”

“Yeah, it is. You laughed.” He shrugged, looking satisfied, and slipped away dowstairs.

Peter and Evan were seated at the table when I made it down a few minutes later, working steadily on huge plates of eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and pancakes with syrup.

“Before you say anything, Yena, you must listen to your mother.” Tina pulled off a pair of big pink oven mitts and turned to look at me. “There will be no refusal to eat today. This is the last time that I can feed my children before a long journey and an even longer time away from home. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I sat obediently and met Evan’s eyes while Tina made my plate.

“Gave me the same speech,” he said, stuffing another strip of bacon into his already-full mouth and pointing at his still-heaping plate.

I actually was super hungry, having been up working all night without pausing for breaks. So I put away as much of Tina’s delicious home cooking as I could and managed an admirable job of it.

“I don’t think I have ever, in my life, been this full before.” I pushed away a syrupy plate and threw a napkin on top of it before Tina could appear with another pancake. “I’ll need to run a marathon now to work off all those carbs.”

“Well, you’re in luck.” Evan pointed at me with a forkful of eggs. “We’re about to go sit inside a metal box for ten hours.”

“Alright now,” Peter interrupted, looking at his watch. “Speaking of that. As much as I hate to say it, you kids should prepare to leave. The car will be here any minute now to take you to the airport.”

Tina started scrubbing dishes, teeming with nervous energy. Evan and I went upstairs and finished readying ourselves separately.

Then I made it downstairs ahead of Evan, making myself Tina’s first victim. She wrapped me up in a bear hug and began to cry, saying something unintelligible into my hair. I pulled away and asked her to repeat herself.

“Oh,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ll miss you, Yena. That’s all. It’s been so wonderful having my daughter back home.”

“I know. It was good to be back. Thanks for everything. I’ll miss you too.”

Tina glanced up the stairs at Evan approaching. “Your father wants to speak to you,” she whispered to me. Then she turned her attention on Evan. I was surprised she didn’t insist on a lengthier goodbye but did not question my good fortune and scurried away.

I intercepted Peter on the porch, where he’d just finished carrying our luggage down the steps.

“Yena,” he said, taking my hands and clasping them in both of his. “I am so very proud that you are following your dream. But we are going to miss you very much.”

“Thank you. I’ll miss you, too.”

“You’ll be just fine without us, sweetheart. And I just want to be sure you to know, Yena, that you are our daughter just the same as Evan is our son. We will always be your parents, whether or not we have the same blood in our veins. Never forget that.”

I pulled my hands away, needing them for wiping my eyes dry. “I know. And I feel the same way, of course.”

“And I do need to ask just one thing of you before you leave,” he added.

“Anything. What is it?”

“Promise me you will take care of Evan. Your mother talks often of his duty to protect you. But Evan needs you just as much, if not more. You have had an incredible experience of the world this year, Yena. But your brother still has a lot of growing up to do. In many ways, you are stronger than he is.”

I nodded, understanding perfectly. “Of course I will take care of Evan. He’s one of the most important people in the world to me.”

Peter gave me a half sad, closed-mouth smile. I hugged him tightly. “Goodbye, Yena,” he said over my shoulder.

“Bye, Peter.” I released him and slipped into the car, daring not to glance back in their direction. I’d hoped saying goodbye would be easier this time, but it was starting to feel like the day I left with Nolan all over again.

Evan got into the car, gracelessly letting a heavy door slam shut behind him. “Whew. This is it.” I could see his jaw clenching, something he did when he was anxious. It looked painful.

“You okay?” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good, Yena. You know this’ll be my first time on a plane, though. Just feels surreal. Flying over the ocean, landing in a whole other world…” Evan’s complexion was pale, with a slightly greenish tint to it.

“Hey, it’s going to be great,” I assured him. “The jet will be super comfortable. And it’s so safe. They say flying in an airplane is safer than driving a car, actually.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Who says that?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I read it somewhere, I guess.”

“Ah. Okay. Very comforting.”

I punched him in the arm playfully. “Evan, everything’s going to be fine. Really.”

“Alright. I’ll trust you. Everything will be fine.”