My house.
I was already moving. Konstantin behind me.
“Someone lock up behind us,” I said over my shoulder as I crossed the room.
Tikhon and Bogdan were ready. I got into the back of the SUV before the door was fully open.
“Don’t stop,” I said.“Not for anything.”
I tried Iskra’s number while Tikhon pulled out.
Switched off. Disconnected. Gone.
The gate guard who called said she had left the house. Seconds after the explosion. Without herbyki.
I tried Tau.
It rang several times.
I gripped the handle as Tikhon cut around traffic.
“Is anyone hurt?” I said when the line connected.“Is she safe?”
Silence.
Then—
“No one is hurt.” The tension left me before he finished.“And she is gone.”
Gone.
She’s gone.
“Gone where?” I asked.
But I already knew. The guard’s call. The timing. The phone switched off. Thebykileft behind.
“She did this?” I asked flatly.
A pause.
“Yes.”
I nodded.
More to myself than anyone.
I disconnected and stared out of the window.
I had never wanted marriage. Lev had sold my mother once she bore his sons. The Dragunovs were not built for family life—it was there in the record, if you cared to read it.
The car turned onto the tree-lined road. Dark smoke was already visible above the canopy before we reached the driveway.
We parked away from the fire engines and the police cars. I leaned forward between my two men and stared through the windscreen at what remained of my home.
The east wing open to the sky. The kitchen gone. Roughly sixty percent of the structure damaged or destroyed.
The west wing still standing above it all. Intact. Untouched. And the more I stared at it I realised that it was entirely by design.
