He wasn’t on the list of guests. I know because I checked it,obsessively, hoping for what, I don’t know.
But he’s actually here.
My heart squeezes, the air in my lungs constricting, and my ears ring, completely tuning out the conversation surrounding me.
Every morsel of my attention is directed at him.
He’s in a black suit, stretched taut over muscle, no tie, the top buttons of his white shirt undone. His hair is slicked back, his expression flat—bored, almost—as he wheels a girl in a stunning pink dress in front of him.
The resemblance is uncanny, though she’s softer,blue-eyed, copper waves framing her face. She glances back at him with a smile, says something, and he laughs.
A loud thud echoes in my chest.
Fuck.
I’ve seen Yulian laugh before, butneverlike that, with his mismatched eyes glittering and his whole body leaning forward.
That must be Alina, his baby sister that he mentioned before.
He said she was a ballerina, so did she become disabled during these last four years or…?
He lifts his head, and my hand balls into a fist in my pocket when our eyes meet. Even though it’s across a room packed full of people, it’s almost as if we’re the only ones here.
His laughter dissipates, and something inside me shivers and dies.
What the actual fuck?
He used to always have this automatic grin whenever he saw me, but now…he’sscowling?
Yulian turns his sister around, cutting off eye contact as he wheels her to the side opposite from me.
Is the motherfuckeravoidingme?
The rage festering inside me ignites, bleeding red into my vision.
Fuckthis.
If Yulian believes he can come and go as he wishes, then he’s in for a rude fucking awakening.
Whatever this thing between us is will go according to my rules, and he has no say in it.
20
YULIAN
“The tempo is too fast.” Alya’s disapproving voice trickles through the chaos, jarring me out of my head.
Seriously, I don’t do well when I think too much, kind of drive myself up a wall, actually.
So I focus on my sister’s scowl as she directs her gaze at the orchestra. She looks stunning tonight, even though this is thelastplace she wanted to be.
And it’s my fault.
My father wanted me to come with him, and I refused, so he decided to use Alya as a prop, to flaunt her for the world to see how “benevolent” he is in supporting medical research and all that nonsense. He knows shit about the advancements in the field, by the way.
I’ve been following them closely over the years, trying to find an adequate solution to give my sister her legs back, and we’ve tried a few, but they failed. So I’ve become selective in considering any doctor’s recommendations. Alya has accepted her disability, and I’ve become extremely careful about not getting her hopes up.
In short, my sister is the only reason I’m even at this event.
