Roset sat at the kitchen table, the phone in her hand, still staring at the notification.
Eliot.
The name felt like an echo of a time and a place she had long buried beneath silence, grief, and survival.
She tapped the message.
Hey… Roset? I don't know if this still works. I don't even know if you're still alive. But I had to try. If you get this… please. Message me. I'm in [Morocco]. Been here since… everything. I thought you were gone. Please, if there's a chance…
Her breath caught.
He was alive.
She pressed her hand to her mouth as the tears came suddenly, thick and unstoppable. Her shoulders shook, but she didn't sob. It was a quiet release. A breaking open she hadn't expected.
She wiped her eyes quickly and dialled the number attached to the message before her courage could falter.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Then—
"...Hello?"
The voice was rough. Tired. Uncertain.
"Eliot?" Her voice cracked.
A silence, sharp and stunned.
"Roset?" The sound of her name made her flinch. "Is that... is that really you?"
"Yes," she whispered. "It's me."
"Oh my god." His voice broke. "Oh my god. I thought—Roset, I thought you were dead. I looked online. It was just… gone. Everything."
"I thought you were too." She swallowed. "I looked. I waited. But there was nothing. No record. I didn't know."
"I was in Morocco," he said quickly. "With Kat. We were on a Holiday, just a break. After everything back home, we needed to get away. When the news hit… we couldn't go back. There was nothing to go back to."
Roset closed her eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"We lost the kids, Roset." His voice cracked. "You know that. But then she left, Kat left too. I don't blame her, but… I've been alone a long time."
She didn't speak for a moment. The pain between them hung heavy in the line, like fog over deep water.
"I'm not alone," she said softly.
"I didn't think you would be. You always found a way to survive."
There was a quiet pride in his voice that made her ache.
"I'm married," she said. "His name is Hino. We have a daughter. Her name is Lea."
Eliot gave a broken laugh. Half disbelief, half joy. "You're a mum?"
"I am."
"That's… that's amazing. Roset, I can't believe this." He sniffed loudly, and she imagined him wiping his face just as she had minutes earlier. "Where are you?"
"In Japan. I was already here when… when the bombs hit. I stayed. I didn't know what else to do."
The front door slid open.
Wren turned her head.
Hino stepped inside, his jacket damp from the evening dew, a paper bag in one hand. He stopped when he saw her, and his eyes moved from her to the phone.
She gave him a small, trembling smile.
"It's my brother," she said gently. "He's alive."
Hino didn't speak. Just nodded once, slowly, his eyes warm, knowing.
"I want him to come here," she said into the phone. "If he can. If you want to."
Eliot's voice wavered. "Yes. God, yes. I'd do anything. I just need a place to land."
"You have it," Roset said. "You have us now."