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Hi Reader, I hope your New Year celebrations are in hand. I’ll publish a new schedule soon. KEJ will resume tomorrow, with Meet Cute on Sunday and hopefully a couple of standalones. For now, The Surrogate will run daily, Monday to Friday.
Our conversation in the dining room became fragmented, ebbing and flowing through various updates and opinions. All the while, Kasimir and Rania took mental notes, calculating risk and planning their mitigation.
Once general small talk dominated, Anastasia left the room in a distressed state, explaining that she needed to find Hannah. I understood why she needed to be away from us. We were celebrating. I had rediscovered a father, Katerina found her lover, and Artyom was relieved to be moving on with his life outside the shadows of toxic secrecy, however complicated that was, but Anastasia was bereft, the only one losing out.
I sat talking with my Dad and felt annoyed by a creeping feeling that Katerina couldn’t wait until I was done so she could reacquaint herself with the man she’d hidden from me. She and my father hadn’t seen each other in months, so I understood why they needed to talk. Their bond was my only tingling sadness, but I wouldn’t reveal that.
As I glanced around the table, from happy through pensive to sad faces, I was struck by how increasingly dysfunctional our family had become. I was rocked by relationship changes, particularly that of my father, Katerina, and Artyom. I needed a private conversation with Dad, but that seemed unlikely for a few days or at least until we got solutions moving forward.
He looked at me much as he always had, a loving father doting on his only daughter.
“What’s next, Amy?”