“Give it back—that was from Dad!” she pleaded, tears filling her eyes. Boris gave a mean little laugh and tossed the bear into the far corner of the room. It hit the wall and dropped onto the dusty floor.
“Enough with your useless father,” Boris muttered. He bent down until his face was inches from hers. His small eyes had a hard, ugly shine to them.
Annie squeezed her eyes shut, breathing in the sour smell of alcohol. Her heart hammered in her chest. More than anything, she wanted her dad to walk through the door right then.
But Mike was hundreds of miles away, serving in a combat zone. He was holding his ground in one of the worst places on the line. Out there, dirt, metal, smoke, and blood had all become part of the same landscape.
Every day Annie prayed for her father’s safety. Her mother always told her that children’s prayers mattered. But that faith was about to be tested in the hardest way possible.
Boris grabbed the girl by the shoulder. His thick fingers dug painfully into her skin. Annie tried to pull away, but she was no match for him.
“Listen to me, you little brat,” he hissed. Just then, the old landline in the hallway rang. The sharp sound made Boris loosen his grip for a second.
He cursed under his breath and trudged out to answer it. Annie rushed to the teddy bear and hugged it tight.
She cried quietly, wiping tears across her face, straining to hear the broken pieces of conversation from the hall. Boris’s voice changed. It turned flatter, quieter—almost respectful.
“Yes, I’m listening,” he said into the phone. Then came a long pause. Annie held her breath. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she felt that call was about to change everything.
“Understood,” Boris said at last. He dropped the receiver back into place with a hard plastic clack. Then came his footsteps again—heavy, but this time oddly upbeat.
He came back into the room looking like a different man. A broad, ugly smile spread across his unshaven face. His eyes gleamed in the dim light from the street.
Annie pressed herself harder against the wall, sensing trouble. She had never seen Boris look so pleased. It was the expression of a man who thought life had finally handed him something he wanted.
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn gym shorts and looked down at her with open satisfaction. The air in the room felt thick.
“Well,” he said slowly, “looks like you finally got news from overseas.”
Annie froze. Every part of her body went cold. She understood, in the way children sometimes do, that the call had been official. Boris took one step closer, ready to land the cruelest blow yet…
