“The number you have dialled has been disconnected …”

“What the fuck?” Max breathed as he hung up and tried again.

And again.

And again.

“The number you have—”

And again.

And again.

“The number—”

Max slammed his phone down on his desk and whispered, “Where are you, Josephine?”

At three p.m., his phone rang in his office. Max had just finished speaking to a new client when an unfamiliar number flashed on his screen. Reaching over, he picked up his phone and swiped his thumb across the screen.

Anxiety and nerves consumed him.

He knew it was an international number, and that only heightened his fears.

Josie hadn’t picked up any of his calls all day.

God, please let her be safe.

“Hello?” he greeted cautiously.

“Max?” Josie’s voice had the tension in his chest loosening.

“Josephine, God, I’ve been trying to call you for hours. Your phone’s disconnected.”

He heard her sniffle. “Yeah, I had it disconnected, so he wouldn’t call me.”

Max froze.

Dread rolled through him.

He.

Her father.

“What did he do?” he asked through clench teeth.

Her heartbreaking sob answered his question.

“It was awful, Max,” she cried.

His heart broke for her. He knew she had let down so many walls to let her father into her life. Forgiven him because she wanted peace.

“I’m right here,” he reassured her as he pressed his elbows onto the surface of his desk. He reached up and soothed his aching temple as he tightened his grip on his phone.

For a long while, he listened to her cry as she started and stopped each attempt to tell him what happened. He felt helpless. She was all the way in Germany, and he was in Australia. Max felt horrible and stupid for not going with her. Her father had played him for a fool. He had promised to take care of her, but it looked like he had let everyone down.

“Lazlo told me the truth,” she finally said.

“Lazlo? Who is Lazlo?”

She let out a heavy sigh. “He’s a senior constable in the German Federal Police. He’s part of my security team.”

“Wait? I’m confused. Why do you have a security team?”

“I was, too. Johanna’s dad is running for chancellor. And it sounds like he’s going to win the election. Jeff didn’t want me to be a part of his family. He wanted to parade me off and support whatever political platform Johanna’s father has. I’m nothing but a toy. I asked him if her email was even genuine, and he didn’t say anything, Max. Nothing! He used me. He used my desire for a family against me.”

“Fuck,” he breathed. “Josephine, I’m so sorry.”

“I was such a fucking idiot for believing he could change. He used Heidi and Angelika against me. He knew how much I wanted to get to know them. God, Max, I was such a fool. I shouldn’t have left you. I’m so sorry.”

“Hey,” he whispered. “No. Do not apologise to me right now, okay? You have nothing to be sorry about. You’re hurting. Come home, Josephine.”

She sniffled. “God, I wish I could hurt him the way he hurts me. Maybe it might make me feel better. I need to get out of Berlin. I need to come home. I need you, Max.”

He clenched his eyes shut, hating himself for letting her go and exposing her to such disappointment and pain. “I’ll be at the airport. Do you want me to book your flight?”

“N-no,” she managed to get out. “I can do it. I’m sorry. You’re probably at work. You didn’t need this.”

“Josephine, I’m your boyfriend. I’m meant to be the one you talk to. Let me know your flight details, and I’ll pick you up from the airport. Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll let you—” A knock on her end interrupted her. “Hang on a second, Max. It might be Lazlo. I’ll call you back.”

“All right.”

Josie quickly hung up on him, preventing her from hearing him say that he loved her. Max set his phone down and gazed down at it.

He trusted Jeff Faulkner to keep her safe.

Josie trusted Max to make her happy.

And she wasn’t.

He was at fault for letting her go.

The pain she was in was his doing, too.

When he spoke to Josie and knew she was on a plane back to Melbourne, he’d call Jeff and tell him that he didn’t care that he was a diplomat. He wasn’t allowed near her ever again.

 

 

A second knock on her door had Josie slipping Lazlo’s phone in her dark blue jeans back pocket and pulling on the handle. This morning, Josie woke up in West Berlin in one of the most beautiful hotel rooms she’d ever stepped foot in. It was modern and clean, and if she wasn’t so emotionally tired, she’d explore it.

Now, she was face to face with the last woman she had ever expected to see outside her hotel room. Josie was insulted that she’d even think about showing up.

Evil stepmothers weren’t conjured out of nowhere.

They were real.

And Josie’s very own evil stepmother stared at her with pleading brown eyes.

She was disappointed it wasn’t Lazlo. He went out this morning to buy her a new sim card. In the meantime, Lazlo let her use his phone to call Max and tell him just what a mistake she had made coming to Germany. An awful, regrettable mistake.

“Wow,” Johanna breathed as she brushed her blonde locks behind her ears. She was beautiful with a slim nose and a peach-shaped face. She was dressed in business attire. A black pencil skirt and a blazer with a pink silk top tucked in. She was taller than Josie in the heels she wore. “You’re even more beautiful in person.”

Josie’s fingers twitched. She wanted to slap that wonder off her face. She was insulted that her first verbal words to her weren’t even “I’m sorry.” But Josie restrained herself from assaulting the next German Chancellor’s daughter. She had diplomatic immunity, but she was sure it could be taken away from her or some loophole would have her in jail for treason or some ridiculous crime she hadn’t committed.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a bitter tone.

“Your father told me what happened at the airport last night.” Her English was excellent. Josie heard the faint hint of an accent, but Johanna’s English was probably better than hers.

“Of course, he did.” Josie begged her rage to settle in her chest so that she wouldn’t make a scene. As soon as Johanna left, she would book the next ticket out of Berlin and back to Melbourne. “I want nothing to do with you, Johanna. I want nothing to do with your father and his goddamn political career. You played me. You played me for a fucking fool. I wanted to get to know you, and now I don’t. You and my father used my mother’s death against me. I was grieving her and … I was foolish to think you and my dad could give me a family that loved me. You used your daughters against me. All their lives, I have wanted to be the sister they might have needed. Do they even know about me? Do they even want to know me? It was all a lie so I could come here … and what? What fucking benefit do you get from me being here, Johanna? What fucking benefit?” she screamed as the façade she hid behind broke.

Her brown eyes glazed over in regret. “I’m so sorry, Josephine—”

“NO!” Josie shouted. “You don’t get to call me that! You and my father will never call me that. Don’t you dare tarnish the name my mother gave me. You lied to get me to come here. Your email gave me hope. I gave you parts of my life when you were gonna use mine for your benefit. Why, Johanna? Why do I have to be here? Why do I have to be in the media?”

“It was …” Her father’s wife closed her eyes tightly and then opened them. “To strengthen my father’s public image. That as a blended family we were strong. Your father didn’t want you to be a part of it. Please believe me, Josie. He didn’t. He wanted to protect you from the media and my father’s campaign. Jeff said you had your own life, and you were happy. I thought if you came, if I sent that email, you’d come on your own. I didn’t think it would divide you and your father.”

“Screw you!” Josie hissed, grabbing the hotel door. “And screw your father, too!”

“Josie, wait!” Johanna had stepped forward and pressed her palm to the door. “I deserve that. I took advantage of you while you were grieving. I asked your father to bring you here. I betrayed him, too. I gave him false pretences. I want you to be a part of our family.”

Josie flinched. It was as if Johanna had slapped her across the face and she had suffered whiplash. “Being a part of your family is the last thing I want.”

“I know. But please don’t punish the girls for my mistake.”

“What?”

“Heidi and Angelika are downstairs. They’d like to meet you—even if it’s for a minute. Please, it’s all they’ve ever wanted,” Johanna begged.

The glint in her eyes was determination.

The same determination her mother had when she had begged Josie’s father to agree to come to a ballet recital one year. That glint was desire not to let her daughters down. Johanna might be a terrible person, but Josie could see she was a devoted mother. And right now, she would give Heidi and Angelika what she had been denied for so many years.

She would give them satisfaction that their hopes were achieved.

It wasn’t for her father.

Or to make Johanna a better mother.

It was for Josie’s.

For Emily.

And for Max.

And for herself.

Because those promises she made, she would fulfil them for the right people.

“Get away from my hotel room, Johanna.”

Her father’s wife’s shoulders fell. She was disappointed. And that made Josie happy. And selfish, too. She found pleasure in another person’s disappointment. Disappointment she had known all her life.

Josie sighed. “I’ll be downstairs in ten minutes. I don’t want you in the same room, Johanna. Lazlo can join us. But you will never, ever earn my respect or forgiveness. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Thank you, Josie.”

“This isn’t so that Heidi and Angelika can look at you with amazement and pride that you’re their mother. This is for me and my mother. This for Max. Not you. And not for my father. Understand me?”

Johanna’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “I understand.”

And with that, Josie swung the door closed, allowing herself to crumple to the floor and let out the rage-filled sob she had stifled.

Almost fifteen minutes later, Lazlo greeted her as she stepped off the elevator.

“Miss Heidi and Miss Angelika are in the restaurant,” Lazlo informed her.

“Thank you,” Josie said as she followed him. She made sure her face was clean of tears and she had changed into an appropriate outfit to meet her sisters before she headed downstairs. The beige summer dress she chose was more appealing than just jeans and a shirt.

When Lazlo halted outside the entryway of the restaurant, he gave her a soft smile. “You look beautiful, Ms Faulkner.”

Her cheeks warmed. “Thank you.”

Another man had complimented her, and she had liked it.

But it didn’t make her heart soar and plead for mercy like Max’s compliments did.

Lazlo cleared his throat as if he realised that what he just said was out of line. “The restaurant has been cleared of hotel guests. It will only be Miss Heidi, Miss Angelika, and their security team.”

Her heart pounded in her chest.

She would finally be meeting her sisters.

“They’re very sweet, Ms Faulkner,” Lazlo said as if he sensed her hesitation.

She nodded. Then she stepped towards the two blondes sitting in the middle of the restaurant with their backs to her. They were arguing in German. One of the girls was fixing the bow in the other’s hair. Josie took another step, and they both turned to face her.

Their brown eyes widened.

And smiles stretched across their faces.

God, they were so pretty and delicate and hadn’t been ruined by the awfulness of the world. And Josie hoped they never experienced what she had. She pressed her lips into a smile as she walked to their table and sat in the seat opposite them. Josie scanned the restaurant, and when she didn’t see Johanna, she let out a relieved sighed.

“Guten Morgen,” the eldest looking girl on Josie’s right said.

Josie quickly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t speak any German.”

“Oh,” she said. Then she sat properly in her seat. “I’m sorry. I said good morning.”

“Good morning. You must be Heidi.” Josie received an eager nod from Heidi. Then she swung her gaze to the younger sister. “And you must be Angelika.”

“I am,” Angelika said with a smile.

“I’m Josie,” she introduced herself. “And I’m so happy to be able to meet you both.”

Don’t cry.

Don’t cry.

“Me, too,” Heidi said. “We’ve been learning English so that we can talk to you.”

Josie laughed. “I wish I had learnt German so that I could speak to you in your language.”

Angelika leant forward and frowned at her. “You have blue eyes like Vater.”

Josie knew that Angelika had said father in German.

“But you have your mother’s eyes,” she offered.

“I wish I had blue eyes,” Angelika said with a pout.

“Josie,” Heidi said, getting her attention. “Can we ask you a question?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“We’re sisters, right?” Heidi asked.

“We are.”

“I wish we had grown up together like me and Angelika did.”

Sadness crept into her heart. “Me, too.” She swallowed that sadness back and decided to change the subject. “I heard you both do ballet.”

Angelika nodded. “We do. Heidi is the better ballerina. She wants to be a prooofessional when she grows up. I do it for fun.”

Josie glanced over to Heidi. “You do?”

“Vater used to say you wanted to be a professional dancer when you were younger.”

“I did.”

“Then why’d you stop?”

She wasn’t going to tell her the real reason. It would tarnish the way they looked at their father. Josie held a lot of resentment towards Jeff, but from the looks of things, he had treated his younger daughters right. So Josie would tell them half the truth. That was her way of letting her father go, by letting him keep the relationship he already had and built with his daughters safe.

“My last dance was the best last dance I could have ever had. I didn’t know it, but it would be the most important. I just didn’t love it the way I used to. Plus, I had weak ankles.”

Her sisters shared giggles.

Lazlo’s phone vibrating in her dress pocket had her giving the girls an apologetic smile. She pulled it out to see Max calling her.

“Uhh, I’m sorry, I have to take this,” she said, getting up out of her seat.

Heidi and Angelika might be her half-sisters, but they were still strangers to Josie. She knew in time she’d come to love and care for them, but they didn’t preoccupy her heart like Max did.

“Please, sit. Take your phone call here,” Heidi insisted.

Smiling her appreciation, Josie answered Max’s call and pressed the phone to her ear as she sat back down. “Hey,” she said as she suddenly remembered. “Oh, God, I forgot to call you back. I’m so sorry. Lazlo gave me a new sim, but I haven’t put it in my phone just yet.”

“It’s all right. I figured you’d still have his phone with you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I left the office and drove home. Who was at your door? It wasn’t your dad, was it?”

“No. I’m with Angelika and Heidi right now,” she answered, hoping he could hear the ‘I’ll explain more later’ tone to her voice.

“Oh,” Max breathed. “Call me later?”

“I will. I love you,” she said wholeheartedly and watched Heidi and Angelika stare at her with wide, shimmering eyes.

“I love you, too, Josephine.”

“Drive safely,” she reminded.

Max let out a short chuckle. “I’ll talk to you when you’re finished getting to know your sisters.”

“Okay, bye,” she said then hung up the phone and set it on the table.

“You have a boyfriend?” Angelika asked. Out of the two of them, she thought Heidi would be the one to be curious about boys since she was thirteen.

Josie felt the smile she made. She did. She had the most beautiful and kind boyfriend there was. “I do.”

“What’s his name?” Heidi asked, now intrigued.

“His name is Max.”

“Can we meet him?” they both asked in unison.

“Oh,” Josie breathed. “He’s back in Australia.”

Their faces dropped. “I thought you might have brought him,” Heidi said as she reached down and picked up something from the table. Then she set the envelope down closer to Josie.

“What is this?” she asked as she picked up the envelope. Not waiting for a reply, she opened it and pulled out a ticket.

Her heart dropped.

“It’s my first solo,” Heidi explained. “Only if you’re still in Berlin. I’d like you to be there, Josie.”

She was speechless as she took in the Nutcracker ballet performance ticket.

Josie was torn.

She remembered buying a ticket for her father, and the disappointment she felt when he hadn’t shown and she was greeted to an empty chair during her performance. She would hate for Heidi to experience that. And it would pain her if she were the reason she had to experience it.

“When is your performance?”

“Next month.”

A month.

A whole month in Berlin.