Maybe a man as hard and cunning as him couldn’t love a woman. Or perhaps the things he did to me and for me were the results of what could be considered his “love language”.
Or maybe the sex is just that good and I’d wanna worship him and his cock no matter what.
I rolled my eyes and got out of the shower. On instinct, I checked my phone for if he’d called or texted. The burner phone was back in the old maid’s room, because I sure as hell didn’t want that device by me again. I wanted no proximity to the only way my uncle could get ahold of me.
No text. No missed call. No voicemail.
It was shaping up to be another long, late night for Andre, but I’d never hold it against him. Unlike Uncle Roberto, everything Andre did wasforhis family. For his father, specifically, but it wasn’t anything for a selfish purpose.
After I dressed, my phone pinged with a text and I got my hopes up that it would be Andre. It wasn’t. Anya was asking for help with homework. Since I’d taken a similar course to what she was currently signed up for in her nursing program, as well as Daria, I had become a surrogate study partner or tutor.
I told her I’d be over to help her, and I left Andre’s building. Going through the underground tunnel connection between the buildings had seemed so weird at first. Since I’d used it so often now, it just made sense. Within minutes, I was in Mikhail’s home. Claire had her feet up with a sleeping Owen on her chest. Mikhail lifted his finger to his lips for me to be quiet. He was in the kitchen, preparing dinner.
The irony almost made me laugh.
My uncle was a boss and he couldn’t be bothered to doanythingfor himself.
And here was the fearsome Orlov leader, making a pasta dish for his tired wife.
I came closer and whispered that Anya had asked for me.
“She’s in the ballroom,” he replied quietly.
I went to find the teenager in the big room where she often played the piano.
“I just don’t understand it!” she wailed when she saw me.
“Organic chem again?” I asked.
She groaned as an affirmative reply. “I don’t even know why this is mandatory.”
I laughed. “I said the same thing.” Sitting with her at the table off to the side, I began to tell her how I’d mastered this part of the coursework. It was simple, actually—mechanical memorization. I quizzed her a bit on the material she had to master for her upcoming exam, and then we moved onto something she wanted me to check in a paper for another class, this one about medical philosophy. After I read what she had, I gave her tips on what to improve or change.
“You must have been an A student,” Claire said, coming into the room behind us. She looked radiant, proving a power nap could restore someone’s soul.
“I was,” I admitted with a smidgen of pride, hoping they didn’t think I was bragging.
“How come you haven’t gone back to finish your degree?” Claire said. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
Oh, you know, the usual. My cousin’s dying. I’m a slave for my uncle to keep up his house. And then there’s this bullshit about coming here and being a spy…
“I want to,” I said, since that was the truth, avoiding a real answer.
“You’re only a couple of classes away from finishing your degree, right?” she asked as she took the chair next to me, seeming to want to talk.
“Oh, shit.” Anya frantically shot to her feet and looked at her phone. “I lost track of time. I told Sergei I’d help him with Maisie’s bathtime.” She backed up, leaving her messy school papers out. “Thanks, Sof!”
She took off, and I absentmindedly tidied her papers. Claire’s presence prompted me to say something to avoid the silence with Anya gone. “I will go back to finish my program.” I lowered my gaze. “Someday. After…”
She set her hand on top of mine and gave me a sympathetic squeeze. With what I’d shared about Esmeralda already, Claire was respectfully aware of how I’d come to terms with the inevitability of losing my cousin soon.
About that, though…
I couldn’t shake off the questions that had plagued me since my uncle called. He was probably lying about that drug, making stuff up to torment me and let me get my hopes up, but Claire was a doctor. She might know.
“Hey. Have you heard about any new treatments that might help a patient like my cousin?”
She frowned. “A treatment? Well, there are constantly evolving techniques and countless research grants in the pharmaceutical field. For a leukemia patient like your cousin, though…” She frowned, seeming uneasy.
