“Answer him, Alyona. Is she ours?” Rodion tugs at his hair. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so undone.
“Yes!” She drops to her knees and crumbles into herself. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” Rodion says again, looking at me with such confusion that it transforms his features. Pure sorrow bleeds into his haunted emerald eyes.
She ran and had our baby. Kept her from us. Hid this room. She was going to keep lying.
We have a child. And some woman-beating, small dicked, gangster wannabe has been raising her as his own instead of us.
This is unforgivable.
Chapter Sixteen
Alyona
Steam fills the bathroom around me. I swipe a hand through the condensation misting the mirror and wince.
I look like shit.
Dark circles beneath my eyes, bruising springing black and blue patches all over my skin. Two sets of strangulation handprints around my damn neck. But none of it has a scratch on the internal damage. An overpowering ache is squeezing my organs, and I can barely draw a breath.
I never thought I’d actually be able to tell the twins about Roza one day, no matter how much I yearned to do so, the risk was too high. I’d only been here three weeks when the test came back positive. It felt cruel at first. A wicked way to punish and taunt me, but when she moved for the first time, I knew she was a blessing. A gift from them to hold us tethered no matter what. And there was nothing I wasn’t willing to do to make sure she would be safe. They could never know about her because then Yuri would know. I couldn’t let my old life taint her new one.Yuri is a hateful, evil bastard, and I’d rather die than let him take his revenge on her. The heartbreak of not being with the twins was the price, and even though I often felt like I was drowning in an endless ocean without them, I always managed to swim to the surface because ofher.
Getting dressed into a pantsuit, to cover as many of my injuries as possible, is necessary today, since I’m covered in them. I certainly don’t need people like Adam or their mom to ask questions. I twist my hair into an updo, so I don’t have to take the time to style it.
I do feel bad that Rosetta, Jeremiah and Adam’s mom, has lost her son and doesn’t even know it yet. She’s innocent in all this, and I feel like this will crush her. Unfortunately, I can’t worry about her. Roza is my priority. Always.
Taking another quick look around the bathroom, I suck in a couple of quick breaths, and try to relax.
You’d never know two murders happened here last night.
My madmen arethatgood at what they do.
It’s a little unsettling how skilled the twins are at making crimes disappear. I don’t know what I would have done without them. They haven’t spoken to me since Roza’s room and my confession, apart from agreeing on what would happen next, but that’s okay. They went about putting the plan in motion, and Jeremiah is now ash.
My phone buzzes, bunny hopping along the dresser with the vibration.
Viktor’s alter ego name,Tanner,flashes on the screen.
“Hello?”
“You called last night. And I’m looking at you on my security video at the backdoor of the club looking, well, hot. But blood is my kink, not yours. Tell me you’re okay.”
“I am.” I nearly choke on that lie. Nothing about me is okay but there’s no point telling him that.
“Liar, liar tongue on fire.” He clicks his tongue in admonition.
“The twins came,” I blurt out. “It’s being handled.”
“Is that agoodthing?” he queries, and I don’t blame him after the meltdown I had in his office about them.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Understood. I’m deleting this recording, and in the future, just come to my apartment if I’m not at the club.”
“Thank you. I will.”
The line goes dead, and I rub a hand over my forehead to ease the pounding drumming there. My hand shakes as I bring up Adam’s name and hit call.
