The streets of Orenburg were dark as Ella sat with her phone in her hand, back in her own room for some privacy, trying to figure out how to tell her aunts she wasn’t dead. She had to be careful that they didn’t find out where she was and that the call wasn’t traceable. If her father ever found out that she was alive, he’d pressure them to tell him everything they knew about where she was, and she didn’t want either one of the women she loved so much to go through that.

She decided to call Aunt Suzette first. It would be easier to explain to her because...