THIRD PERSON

"How is she?" was the first question Vito asked Dr. Bradford.

He closed the door behind him and looked exhausted. "I think it would be good if someone stayed with her before she does something irrational." Without saying a word, Valentino stood up and left. Dr. Bradford watched him briefly, then turned back to Vito. "She is ashamed of her behavior, and she wanted me to tell you that she is very sorry for what she did."

Domenico crossed his arms. "What do you mean by irrational? Is she suicidal?"

"No, at least not at this moment, as I see it. What I mean is that she could possibly give in to her instinct to flee. In situations where she is exposed to this kind of stress, she often tends to fall into this pattern."

"Why?" asked Matteo.

"Because it has kept her alive so far, and her subconscious has stored it as the only coping strategy that works. Mr. Marini, Josephine has agreed that I can talk to all of you about many things. But since I don't know you all that well, I'll leave it to you to decide whether it makes sense to have this conversation in front of everyone or not."

Vito didn't need to think long. "That's fine. Riccardo, Matteo, if you feel uncomfortable about it, you can leave at any time." The two of them leaned back demonstratively.

Dr. Bradford nodded. "Good. She said that you now know about her past. I mean, it's not surprising, but I had hoped that wasn't the case."

"We all did. Is there anything we can do for her?"

"Give her time and safety. She has never had the opportunity to deal with this trauma, and for the last six and a half years, she has, logically, been primarily concerned with surviving. Therefore, she has suppressed most of her emotions, but as you saw earlier, it doesn't last forever. This is also what I meant by the thought pattern. Surviving is basically the only coping strategy she has. She has none for the anger, which is why it has degenerated so much. She will need time to learn to process all these other emotions differently than before, and she can only do that if she feels safe enough not to fall back into the flight mentality." He smiled apologetically when he saw Domenico's grim expression. "That's probably not the answer you want to hear, but I don't want to raise false expectations. It will take time, and it won't be easy."

"But she had already made progress!" Matteo looked at the psychologist in disbelief. "Or was it not real?"

"Yes, of course. She would probably say no, but I completely agree with you. It has become very clear how important you are to her, and her greatest fear, even greater than her fear of her foster father, is that you might reject her because of that. And to protect herself from that, she might do things to push you away."

Matteo thought about it. "So a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy? I push people away so that they push me away, which then confirms my actions?" he summarized, and Dr. Bradford looked at him carefully.

"Exactly. As I said, it could be, but it doesn't have to be."

____________

When Valentino entered the room, he found Josephine sitting on the windowsill. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and was staring outside. His attempts to talk to her were in vain. Instead, he slowly began to tidy up the room, hoping that she would talk to him at some point. She did not. He had to leave the room twice to take everything that needed to be disposed of, but every time he came back, she was sitting exactly where he had left her.

"You know you can talk to me, right?" Valentino looked dejectedly at the little human bundle. "Anytime." Nothing prompted any kind of response, and he sighed. "You're not alone anymore. You have us." Josephine didn't move.

She waited until she was sure that Valentino had fallen asleep on her bed and then got up carefully. On tiptoe and with her shoes in her hand, she crept out of her room. The hallway was dark in front of her, but she couldn't hear anything except her own heartbeat. It must have been just after midnight, she guessed. So it would be a while before the others woke up. Good. To be on the safe side, she had swapped her watch with Valentino's just before he came out of the shower. She had left it in her room along with her switched-off cell phone. As soon as one of them noticed her absence, they would track both of them first. Josephine went quietly down the stairs to the living room. The glass door was the only door that could not be secured extra, and she was sure that Vito would lock all the others for her protection. Protection from herself.

But that didn't change anything; she would have to go the back way either way to avoid the cameras at the gate. Unfortunately, she had to leave her backpack behind. The risk of someone catching her while packing was too high, and somehow she thought it was fitting. She would leave as she had come, with nothing. Although that might not be entirely true. She now knew what it was like to be loved, and she would cling to that feeling for as long as she could before it disappeared too.

The night was the coldest this year, but Josephine felt neither the cold nor the cuts on her hand. In fact, she felt nothing at all. Without turning around again, she ran through the snow to the fence, grateful for the full moon that provided her light. It would probably start snowing again, but even if the others saw her footprints in the snow in the morning, she would be long gone.

It took Josephine several attempts to reach the top rung of the fence with the bandages, but then she caught the cold metal and pulled herself over it. Louder than she had hoped, she landed on the other side in ankle-deep snow, but she was far enough away from the house not to be heard. Just as she was about to move on, she heard a quiet bark. Without her noticing, Ares had run over to her and was standing opposite her, separated by the fence. When she looked at him, he howled as if asking her why she was leaving. Then Hades appeared at his side, with snow hanging in his fur. She struggled with herself, but in the end, she couldn't bring herself to just leave. And somehow she thought it was good to say goodbye at least to something if she couldn't say goodbye to someone else.

Quickly, Josephine stretched her arm through the fence, and as soon as they saw her, both dogs came closer. She gently scratched each of them one last time. The two were freezing cold. She could even feel Ares shivering under her hand. Had the heating in the hut broken down? It was much too cold. They would surely freeze to death outside in this cold.

Without thinking, she climbed back over the fence, where the two dogs greeted her excitedly with wagging tails. "Piede!" she ordered quietly. She would just let them into the house and then leave again, Josephine decided as she trudged back through the snow. She had plenty of time for that. When the three of them reached the glass door again, she saw Zeus standing a little way off.

"Vieni Zeus!" she breathed, almost afraid that someone could hear her, but the black dog understood her. He followed her into the house first without making any sound and remained standing in the living room while she knelt in front of the fireplace to light a fire for the three of them. Ares sat down to her left, and Hades also lay down next to her. Josephine absentmindedly watched the small flames grow and stroked Hades. It didn't bother her that his fur was wet from the melting snow. Nothing bothered her anymore. The only thing she felt was a quietness she hadn't felt since her parents died.

When Domenico woke up an hour later, the first thing he did was check Josephine's monitoring. She seemed to be sleeping because her heartbeat was slow by her standards. He considered writing to Valentino that he would replace him, but his brother had turned off his watch, and Domenico wasn't sure if he had switched his cell phone to silent. He slowly walked down the hall to her room before carefully opening the door. Luckily, they had oiled the hinges of the door two weeks ago after Josephine had admitted that the noise woke her up immediately.

It took him a moment to get an overview of the situation. The person in the bed was Valentino; he could tell by the quiet snoring. Alarmed, he quickly ran to the mattress on the floor and ripped off the blanket. But he had already known that she wasn't there. It was as cold as it was, and she hadn't been there for a long time. He cursed silently.

She had tricked him! He would have been impressed if he had had the time. Instead, he quickly checked the adjoining bathroom and her closet, but only found her cell phone and a watch. What had she been wearing yesterday? How much of a head start could she have? Domenico took a deep breath. If he didn't find her in the house, he would wake up his brothers. Especially that useless sleeper in bed. He had thought that Valentino would be best suited to look after her, and his brother should have known better than to just fall asleep! Still, he had known that he should have stayed with her, but she had always been the most relaxed with Valentino, and his brother knew of the potential chance for her escaping! The doctor said it: her instinct to flee had been the only thing that had kept her alive over the last few years.

Domenico quickly checked the exits, but they were all still locked. So the only thing left was the glass door in the living room. He almost missed her lying on the floor; his gaze was so fixated on the open gap in the door. But there she was, sleeping between two dogs who were also sleeping noisily. He relaxed again, relieved. There was still a faint glow in the fireplace, and he took a blanket to gently lay it over the little girl before closing the door completely. He chose to ignore the fresh footprints in the snow. She was still here. Maybe she wasn't well, but she was still here.

When he sat up, he saw Zeus staring at him vigilantly. "Tenetela d'occhio." [Keep an eye on her.] he whispered. Zeus moved his ears. "Bravo ragazzo." [Good boy.]