I wondered if the family dog would still recognize my scent. It felt like eternity, how long I’d been gone.

Once my family was quite nice, almost important. My mother came from a bloodline of slender-necked ballerinas, the first American born to her Russian family.

Roman Lovelace was an only child, living with just his aunt. His father had passed in Roman’s infancy, and his mother had died when he was ten…