“Hatred makes people do unspeakable things,” I murmured, taking the book from her hands. “I’m so sorry, Catnip.”
She could have sold these textbooks. Or kept them to refer to, if she chose to start a career using her degree. And regardless of their value, or their usefulness, they werehers. Her things had been defiled. Her space, her privacy …
“The box …” she muttered, pulling out of my arms and dropping to her knees, tugging aside the bedspread and sticking her head underneath. I crouched down beside her.
“What are you looking for?” I asked, peering into the darkness. There didn’t seem to be anything under there, except for a few dust bunnies.
“Pizda!” she hissed, frantically sweeping her arms under the bed. “Whereisit?”
“What does it look like?” I asked, getting to my feet and scanning the mess. “I can?—”
“No!” Ri blurted, panicked. She budged me towards the door. “I’ll find it. I just … please, just let me look on my own!”
Heart heavy, I stepped back, scanning her too-pale face, but no closer to understanding why she was suddenly so worried. “Okay.”
“Thank you … I’m sorry,” she mumbled, turning and starting to rummage through the piles of clothes on the floor. “Just … wait out in the lounge room.”
I didn’t want to leave her alone, but I had to respect her need forspace. I retreated to the lounge where I found Lucian muttering into his phone. When he saw me, he said, “I’ll call you later.”
Fixing me with a hard stare, he asked, “Might your wife be withholding important information?”
I took a seat on the couch, suppressing a sigh. I could tell him about Bogdan Lupucojoc. Let him do an investigation on the name. But the thought of how Ri had looked when Rumi had said the name stopped me. She’d had enough of her rights violated this evening without me taking another one from her.
If she wanted to tell me about this uncle of hers, she would. If she didn’t want me to know about him … well, I wanted it to be her decision, not mine.
“Can you get a crew here to clean up her room?” I asked instead. “Once she gives us the all-clear to allow others in there, that is.”
Lucian sighed. “Yes. I was just on the phone with my second in charge. And we’ll get a roster to keep an eye on the apartment twenty-four-seven, even when Irina isn’t here.”
“If only we could go to the police about it,” I mumbled. “Rumi is a respected lawyer—if she broke in … or paid someone to do it, and we could prove it, that would ruin her career. It’s the very least of what she deserves.”
What we both left unspoken was how it was more likely that Ri would be deported if we reported this crime, instead of Rumi facing any real consequence. She was too well connected in Sydney.
Well, she might have the connections, but I had the money. I would make this right for Ri, one way or another.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Into Every Cell of Me
IRINA
Okay. I was ready to go and confront Henry.
I’d scurried off to my room as soon as we’d set foot back on theGirl on Fire, claiming I was desperate for a shower. It wasn’t a lie—the urge to scrub all the ick from my skin after seeing my room trashed had been overwhelming. But it wasn’t the whole truth, either. I’d needed space to work out how I was going to explain everything—almosteverything—to Henry.
I took two steps towards the door before fear froze me. Nope. Apparently, I wasn’t ready.La naiba, why was this so hard?
Why? Maybe because once he knows the truth about your family, he’s probably going to regret ever getting involved with you.
Well, I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t come clean with him, he was going to Google ‘Bogdan Lupucojoc’, and he’d know anyway. At least this way I could explain how much I hated everything my uncle stood for.
“Just grow a pair and do it, Irina!”
Abernathy, previously asleep on my pillow, lifted his head and let out a plaintive, ‘prrowr?’ I scooped him up into my arms. Having someone on team Ri for this conversation seemed necessary. Abernathy immediately snuggled into me.
“You are the least catty cat I’ve ever met,” I cooed into his fur. I snagged the framed photo off the bed and forced myself out of the room before I could talk myself out of it once more.
I froze as I approached the lounge when I noticed the back of his dark, curly head. Stupidly, I’d assumed he would have gone to bed. Well, there went my extra few seconds to compose myself as I walked to his bedroom door.
