"...What did you say?"
"That boy died on the operating table." Olga's eyes filled with sorrow. "And his sister—the one locked in your basement—Kirill, you won. You completely destroyed the only girl who ever loved you."
"She's not coming back, Kirill." Olga turned to leave. "I set her free. It's the one right thing I can do for her."
"No." I finally found my voice. "No, she's my wife. She can't just leave. I'll find her. I'll—"
"You'll what?" Olga stopped in the doorway without turning around. "Apologize? Explain? Tell her you didn't mean it?"
She turned her head, eyes full of grief.
"It's too late, Kirill."
Then she left, leaving me alone in that empty room.
I looked at the card in my hand, at that line—"Kirill Orlov is a bastard"—and suddenly felt something bitter rise in my throat.
Too late.
Those words echoed in my head like a curse.
Chapter Twenty-One
Harper
This town looked even more broken down than I remembered.
Ten years ago, when Mom and Dad dumped me and Aiden here, at least there'd been a corner store. The owner used to slip us expired bread on the sly. Now even that place was gone—just a faded sign swinging in the wind, the town's last gasp.
But I was out of options. Aiden had said once that if he died, he wanted to come back to this town. Because this was where we'd grown up together.
Back when we still had a father. A mother. A childhood that was broke as hell but mostly carefree.
"You were always like this," I muttered, wiping my face roughly with my sleeve, forcing a bitter smile at the fresh headstone. "Always the sick one, but you thought farther ahead than I ever did."
Wind moaned through the graveyard, stirring up dead leaves. I watched them spiral through the air and settle on Aiden's grave.
Then I finally broke.
I'd been holding it together since Olga pulled me out of that basement. Told myself I couldn't fall apart. I had things to do. Had to get tothe hospital. Handle the paperwork. The cremation. Bring Aiden home.
Couldn't cry.
What good would crying do? Would tears bring him back? Would they let me rewind to that night, be there with him at the end?
No.
But now, having finally laid him to rest, having finally done my last duty as his sister—I couldn't hold on anymore.
"You promised," I choked out, pressing my forehead against the cold stone. "You said when you got better, we'd travel together. You wanted to see the ocean, eat real Italian food, ride a Ferris wheel..."
I couldn't finish.
Because none of those promises would ever come true now.
Aiden was dead. And nothing meant anything anymore.
"It's all my fault..." I curled into myself.
