Blanche amazed me. With remarkable agility, she was able to move around the house without bumping into walls or furniture, although sometimes she clearly was stretching out her hands stealthily, in order to investigate her location.

The interior of the house was very warm. Everything here was wooden and so rustic. This is the kind of house my Grandma Bonnie would love to live in if she had the opportunity. She would too have a collection of colorful, checkered cloths in the kitchen, a comfortable rocking chair in the living room, and a huge, original, creamy-navy-blue Persian carpet, striking in the quality of workmanship and detail of the pattern.

The hall floors creaked with every step we took. To the right, long straight stairs ran up. There were a lot of random pictures mostly of still-life hanging here. Also lots of flowers. They hung from the ceiling and stood in various places in vases or pots. As a rule, all decorations seemed rather random and tasteless, but Grandmother clearly didn't care at all.

The scent that wafted in the air made my stomach growling and my mouth-watering. I could clearly smell the saffron. Whatever it was, it smelled delicious.

Shane had already made himself comfortable in the kitchen and was just leaning over a huge frying pan, but really, really huge, similar to what I remember was being used in the kitchen of the kindergarten, which I went to, to cook dinner for all the kids.

"Don't you dare," Grandma hissed, and for a moment I thought that maybe she was just pretending and she could see everything? But I quickly concluded that a person didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to foresee that Shane eats whatever food available.

He obediently moved away from the pot but had nibbled on a shrimp before. Tony sat back down again, this time in a sturdy wooden chair, one of many set around an equally solid wooden table covered with a white embossed tablecloth.

"Benny!" Grandmother croaked and took glasses from the carved cupboard above the sink. You could see that she knew the kitchen inside out. "Where's Benny?"

My father pulled one of the chairs for me, and I took it right away, glad that in this unknown place, someone tried to facilitate my acclimatization and looked after me like if I was a small child.

"I'm here," the old man replied, appearing in the room and immediately headed to the black pan. He grabbed a large wooden spoon and expertly mixed the yellowish rice with vegetables and seafood. "I showed the bedrooms to our other guests."

"Which guests?" She grunted but waved her hand quickly and dismissively. "Ah, those two. Hand out the plates. Will they eat too?" Grandma grabbed a large oblong water jug, transparent, with flowers painted on the glass, and placed it on the table.

"I invited them," Benny said, and he leaned over to a Victorian-styled cupboard. The plates rattled as he placed them in front of us, then reached into the drawer for forks.

Suddenly, I jumped up because something moved right before my nose. Tony laughed because I got scared of a cat that had just jumped on the table. Slender and grey, the moggy gave me a scowl.

"Get off," dad snapped at him, pushing him down with his hand. The cat protested dissatisfiedly but quickly disappeared.

"I don't think he likes you," Shane joked to me.

"Who? Cat? Whom? Hailie?" Blanche chuckled, and I felt a shiver at the sound of my name in the old woman's mouth. The woman placed a basket of bread covered with a paper napkin with green leaves on the table. "He's a bastard, he doesn't like anyone."

After that, the cat's and mine's paths crossed quite often, and in fact, it was the most grumpy animal I had ever seen. I didn't say it out loud, but it reminded me a bit of Tony.

Dinner passed homely and with some kind of stirring of a family atmosphere. Probably it was influenced by the fact that apart from me and the twins, our father and grandmother were also with us, so there were people of different ages, as it was at family dinners in ordinary families. After all, three generations now sat at our table.

Sonny and Tatiana, who were clearly embarrassed, also joined us. Dad insisted that they sit down with us, they were definitely hungry after the trip and too tired to go to a nearby town, and it would be stupid if they stay and ate in another room. Tatiana sat in the corner, saying little and only smiling heartily at anyone she accidentally met the gaze of, while definitely avoiding looking at Blanche. Sonny, on the other hand, was sitting next to her, being silent all the time, but he wasn't as tense as my teacher.

I expected my father to want to engage them into a conversation a little to learn about them and maybe make them feel more at ease in our company, but he was busy with his children. He asked me and the twins about all sorts of things. He also apologized to me that the trip was arranged in such a way that I spent my birthday traveling.

Regarding my birthday, he later gave me a beautiful gold watch. Very feminine and delicate, with a narrow bracelet and a large white dial, in the center of which, where the hands crossed, was a tiny and subtle diamond. He put it on my skinny wrist, adjusting it properly beforehand.

"This watch is such an insignificant little thing," my father said as he observed me looking at it with enchantment. "The boys so that they usually didn't receive gifts for their birthday. I don't like it when such celebrations revolve around material things," he explained. "Things that they wanted or needed, I could buy them on any other day of the year, without any occasion. On birthdays, it was always about the whole family being able to slow down for a while, at least for one evening, to sit down together, puff out candles, eat a cake, enjoy each other's company. I preferred the boys to remember their birthday as a day when each family member was there for them and supported them. I wanted them to see the beauty in such simple little things."

"Dylan said they all got cars for their sixteen birthday," I replied skeptically, looking away from the beautiful dial of my watch.

"Well, that'd right in this case, because it wasn't until the age of sixteen that they could get a driver's license, so naturally they wanted cars right when it was possible... By the way, how do you like your Porshe?"

"It's very pretty," I said politely, to which Cam laughed and hugged me to his side.

The brothers, contrary to my father's beliefs, spoiled me on my birthday with gifts, but apparently, it was because I rarely ask them for anything. I didn't agree here, because I had the impression that I constantly wanted something from them. In my opinion, I was crossing the line especially with buying clothes and accessories, because I was slowly getting addicted to online shopping, and often, even out of boredom, I went to websites and put what I liked in the basket without even looking at the price. As if I was playing some dress-up game and everything I picked was for free. In the end, most of the time, I took my laptop to Will's to check everything and pay for it and he'd never said anything or set any limits. A couple of times, he wouldn't let me buy a few things, but that was for a completely different reason.

That day I sat with my father and brothers for quite a long time and then went to sleep when I could no longer control my drooping eyelids. Tomorrow was supposed to be Friday, but my father suggested that maybe I'd have my first class with Tatiana on Saturday so that I could rest tomorrow. Back then, I thought I'd be completely indifferent to it, so I nodded and the next day, both my teacher and I, enjoyed the Friday off. Sonny didn't have to work that day either, as I was supposed to be under my father's care anyway. I don't know why he came here at all. Well, he probably didn't complain, because it was a trip. That day, for example, Benny lent him one of his cars and he and Tatiana went exploring the island.

The breakfasts under Blanche and Benny's roof were rather poor and consisted mainly of fruit, cookies, cocoa, coffee, and tea, or toasts with jam or olive oil and Iberian ham. Vince would die here, I swear. The most important, apparently, meal of the day was also eaten here quite late, but the whole house was waking up to life with exceptional delay. According to what my grandma said, she got up at eleven that day. My granny Bonnie used to wake up around six in the morning, which I thought was another grandmother's typical trait. Getting up early. Blanche, however, was the exception to almost every rule.

Then I went with my father, alone, for a walk on the beach. The day wasn't cold, but it was quite windy right next to the ocean, so I threw a sweater over my bare shoulders, put sneakers on my bare feet, and went with Cam to the shore. It turned out that in the huge garden of the grandmother's house there were overgrown and extremely steep steps carved into the rock with an old, rusty railing on one side. My father was the first to step onto them so that if I fell, I'd bump into him and not roll down. Despite the unsafe crossing, the views absolutely made up for everything. I rarely looked up at them, because I rather looked at my feet and made sure not to slip, but when once I raised my head, I froze with delight. The landscape was lazy, the kind you might stare at before a nap after a full dinner. Single clouds drifted sleepily across the blue sky, and the sand seemed to dance to the melody of a slow breeze that was coming in from the ocean and blowing small, calm waves along the way. Seagulls could be heard, the salty smell hit my nostrils, and the pleasant silence was more than relaxing.

"It's nice here, huh?" My father asked, smiling gently at me. As soon as he was at the foot of that horrible, narrow, and even slippery staircase, he turned to reach out to me and help me down. I accepted it willingly and only then was I able to speak, because before I'd been focusing too much not to kill myself.

"Beautiful," I agreed, taking a deep breath, one that filled my lungs with fresh seaside air. We both took off our shoes and walked across the beach to the water to dip our feet in. I smiled broadly as I felt its harmless chill. "Shall we take a walk along the shore?"

"As you wish, princess."

That whole nickname, that princess... I liked it.

We talked for a while about everything and nothing. We showed our fingers at paragliders hanging far in the sky, above a completely different beach. We predicted whether the sun would hide behind this upcoming little cloud or whether it would pass by. We commented on how nice and quiet it is here. Until we finally moved on to completely different topics. My father asked me innocently how I was at home. I told him how much I disliked the idea of ​​homeschooling and from his reactions I saw that Vincent must've kept him up to date with everything because he wasn't surprised at all by my complaining. But I continued anyway.

"I want a little freedom. I want to... go for a walk. Alone, no boys or bodyguards. I want to go out into the rain without a jacket, so that no one scolds me that I'll get sick. I want to sneak out of the house for a while without Vincent or the others knowing. I want to write a message to my friend about how annoying my eldest brother is without fear he'll read it. I want to, I don't know... Go to a party and dance, meet people, clap to the rhythm of the music and sing aloud radio hits... or something," I kept looking at my feet, which were watered every now and then by the pleasantly cool ocean waves.

Father was silent for a moment and the sound of the wind took over our hearing. I listened to him, inhaling the smell of salt as well. How beautiful this place was.

"Hailie," Cam began, and he shifted his trainers from one hand to the other as if this action was meaningful and important. "I know what you're feeling. And I can surprise you here, but the boys know too. Especially Vince and Will. They're older than the rest so they understood more after their mom died. And they felt it most when I ordered to keep all my kids locked up. I went to Florida myself, I told you and left the boys with their nannies and bodyguards, who followed them step by step and didn't let them stick their noses out of our property. It took two years before I allowed them to return to normal life. Vince and Will were rebelling, just like you, and I didn't listen to them because their safety was more important to me. They hated me, and I didn't give a shit about it. I wasn't going to let them gain control over me.

I looked at him in amazement.

"Bu... but... But it's not the same," I protested, "it's not the same. How old were they?"

"Vince twelve, Will eight..."

I nodded at once, raising my finger in the air as if trying to emphasize the professionalism of my speech.

"Exactly. Twelve and eight. It's a different thing to ground an eight-year-old and a sixteen-year-old, right?

"It's different things when someone kills the mother of my children and when someone actually tries to kill one of them,'' my father replied, and his voice, though gentle and kind, had a hint of hardness and determination that made me believe that Cam has already made a decision and won't change it, but only patiently allows me to pursue the topic.

I sighed softly for a moment, just watching the enchantingly transparent water. Some two figures loomed in the distance. Someone also strolled along the shore of the ocean at an even slower pace than we did.

"Freedom, Hailie," my father began suddenly, interrupting both his own and my silent thoughts, "is overrated." I looked up from my feet and raised an eyebrow at him. Because isn't freedom one of the fundamental human rights? But Cam continued"People like to blab about it left and right and won't even shut up for a moment to think and realize that almost no one, or even no one, is free in this world.

"Not true. People who can decide for themselves are free."

"What decisions are you talking about exactly?" My father asked with a small smile on his face. He clearly enjoyed our little discussion.

I looked down at my feet again. I've just passed a beautiful, white shell and if I hadn't focused so much on formulating a meaningful answer, I would definitely have reached for it.

"Well, for example... Choosing a profession, choosing a school, choosing, for example, clothes.

"Clothes?" Cam laughed, knowing I hadn't mentioned it for no reason. "Okay, Hailie, don't get me wrong. I understand what you are talking about. I will now try to present this problem to you from a slightly more abstract point of view, okay? Please try to open your mind. I don't want to change your views, I just think that this is an interesting conversation and I'd like to hear your opinion on what I say.

I nodded my head carefully.

"Okay," Cam combed his hair back, then held his hand out in front of him, gesturing with it as he spoke. "Let's say Vince forbids you to wear a short dress. According to your definition of freedom, he shouldn't be able to tell you what you're not allowed to wear, right?"

"Right."

"Okay. So now let's assume Vince doesn't care what you're wearing after all. And you really want to walk the streets naked. You want it because, I don't know because it's healthy because you're freaked out about being natural because there's a fashion for a primitive man or some other shit. Can you go out without clothes?"

I frowned at his strange comparisons.

"Well, no."

"Why?"

"Because. But that's the law."

Cam shrugged.

"People made the law. And the man who said you can't walk the streets naked has just curtailed your freedom."

"But this is different, it just exceeds the limits of good taste. It's like porn," I protested.

"For one person it's porn, for someone else it's nature. And everyone has their own limits of good taste. There are people who are outraged that they aren't allowed to wear swastika shirts. No matter how fucked up this is, their freedom is also restricted in this case. Fortunately."

I shook my head because of his twisted way of thinking confused me.

"But as humans, we agreed to obey the law. And Vince isn't law. The fact that I cannot wear a mini skirt is his whim."

"Vince is your legal guardian. And the law says that a legal guardian or parent can raise their child or person under their care according to their own beliefs and rules. Some vegetarians don't feed their children meat. Are they doing well? This is a moot point. Some people choose to baptize their children as soon as they are born, rather than let them be free: grow up and then decide which religion to follow. Some people choose to have their children learn French and others prefer Italian. Some allow their children to stay at parties until morning, and others demand them to come back before it even begins," my father explained to me. We just passed those wanderers whom we had previously seen from afar. It was a young couple smiling from ear to ear, talking in a language I didn't know.

"There are also those who won't let their children leave the house at all," I interjected grimly.

"Yes, there are," he agreed, "and some of them have good reasons for that." Cam cleared his throat. "The point is that freedom is a relative concept. Adult people aren't free at all either. They are limited, for example, by their jobs. They have to work to get paid, and they have to earn to eat and pay the bills. The life and society we live in is a prison for all of us."

I exhaled slowly, crushed by the weight of my father's views, who only gave me a brief smile and continued:

"I mean, everyone is limited in some way. You may think that you're more than others. But you'll change your mind in the future," the father said with certainty, "Imagine that you have a friend, let's call her Lola. Lola graduates with you and both of you go to college. Lola is smart enough to get accepted into, let's say, Harvard. But not smart enough to get a scholarship. Lola doesn't have the money to pay for such an expensive school, let alone support herself during studying there. That's why Lola ends up at some poor uni and from the very beginning her allegedly free choice goes to hell because reality verifies it," he said, and now I couldn't take my eyes off him, absorbing his words. "Meanwhile, you, my Hailie, will be able to study whatever you want, wherever you want, even if the tuition fees were to increase tenfold by then. You'll be able to live in a luxurious dormitory or a small villa or loft and eat lunch in restaurants every day, while Lola will feed on instant soups or other shit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

I was silent.

"I could bandy such examples around. I know not all of them can convince you and some people achieve a lot even without a proper start, which is admirable and I respect that, but the conclusion is the same anyway. Freedom is an illusion." Suddenly my father stopped and grabbed my arm gently as he turned back. "Let's get back, all right, Hailie? We've been walking for a long time and there is still a long way to go home."

I nodded as I was thinking about the points he had raised.

"Really," I began and bit my lip, wondering how to put words to what I wanted to say, "do you think I'll be able to study where I want?"

Cam laughed at my skeptical expression.