“Eat then.” She gets another couple plates and brings them out to Hulk and Daniel as I dig in. The kotlety is delicious and the potatoes are velvety and incredible. I’m instantly transported back to my childhood. I can’t help but feel warm and relaxed.
She sits across from me when she comes back and takes a cigarette from a pack. She puts it in her mouth but doesn’t light it. I raise my eyebrows in surprise as her nose wrinkles.
“Since when did you smoke?”
“I know, I know. I quit when I started to take care of you. Going back to Moscow—“ She shakes her head. “Old habits.”
“What have you been doing back in Russia?”
“Business.” She scowls and puts the cigarette away. But seconds later, it's back in her mouth. “Ugly business. I hear you met your cousin?”
“Artyom. He seems nice.”
She laughs sharply. “Artyom is a psychotic piece of shit. That boy is missing some key ingredients for a normal human being.”
“I kind of figured that one out. How are we related?”
“Your father’s sister married this real piece of work, Pyotr Volkov, a little oil magnate with an ego bigger than his stupid yachts, and together they begat the devil spawn Artyom.”
“I didn’t know my dad had a sister.”
“She’s gone now. Pyotr too.”
I stop eating for a moment. “A lot of bad stuff happens in my family, doesn’t it?”
Yelena softens and leans forward, the cigarette clutched between her fingers. “I did my best to shield you, Nikusha. I’m sorry it came to this.”
“It isn’t your fault.” I look down at my hands, blinking away tears.
“Oh, sweetie, I think it might be. I think if I had been stronger, I would have been able to prepare you for all this better. But you were so sweet, I—“ She takes a deep breath and blows it out. “Ah, screw it, don’t judge me.” She lights the cigarette and takes a drag.
I burst out laughing, unable to help myself. Aunt Yelena scowls at me, but she’s smiling too. “I can’t believe you’re seriously smoking inside right now.”
“What, you think Gabe’s going to give me trouble?” She makes a face and waves her hand. “I can take care of him, I promise you that.” Her smirk fades as she takes another drag.
“Why didn’t you tell me? About my family?”
“I wanted you to be normal. We lived here in America and all of that with Medvedev and your father was so far away, back in Russia, most days it was easy to forget them. It was easy to convince myself that you didn’t need to know, that it was better if you could be… a regular girl.”
“But I wasn’t.” I place my fork down with a soft clatter. “That was never going to happen.”
“I know.” She wilts a touch. “Your father wouldn’t let it.”
“Did you know about the money?”
“Not at first.”
“But eventually?”
“It wasn’t hard to figure it out.”
“It was for me.”
She blows smoke at the ceiling and shrugs. “Like I said, you were a normal girl.”
“All this time, you knew I was rich.”
“No, not you. It was still your father’s money, and believe me, you don’t want to steal from that man, or you didn’t at least. Even his own daughter, he would have happily—“ She drags a thumb across her throat.
