Becoming Natalya
an excerpt

“Natalya, your voice tells me one thing and your chin another. Tell me, which one speaks the truth?’
Her chin dropped to her neck, “As you wish, Father. Only please be careful. I cannot lose…”
She couldn’t finish her thought, but her father knew what she wanted to say. She couldn’t stand to lose him like she lost her mother. He silently asked God to protect his child.
Then he cupped her chin and said, “Don’t let this Cendowski chin lead you in too much trouble.”
Natalya reached up and patted his grey-bearded chin, “And you do the same with the original.”
The Colonel didn’t wait for his sister to arrive, his business was too important and he didn’t like her any more than Natalya did. He considered her a foolish woman who lived off their family lands like a locust. He never allowed her near his manor, always meeting them in the house the family owned in town.