I scoff. “Then who did?”
His attention locks on me, and I’m instantly terrified. Then he says the one word that shatters everything.
“Me.”
My body shudders. “That’s not possible. You weren’t there. It was just Camille and me.”
A broken laugh drags out of him. “Camille told you that, and you believed her.”
All the blood leaves my face. “What the hell are you saying?”
“I was the one who held her under.” His body shakes with a groan before he forces himself to go on. “She wouldn’t shut up. Kept talking and talking, so I shoved her face into the water. Your sister helped when she fought me. We both held her there until she stopped moving.”
My stomach drops so fast it's as though the room tilts.
All this time, she not only knew what happened, but actually helped kill our mother and blamed me for it?
My body threatens to give out, but Kirill’s arm locks around me before I can fall.
“No.” I shake my head. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you even have been there? You didn’t even know Camille.”
He licks blood from his lip and grins, or at least tries to. “We were fucking behind your back for years.”
I pinch the bridge of my noise, everything spinning.
“Your sister came up with it,” he says. “Making you think you killed your mother. She wanted you blaming yourself for the rest of your life. That’s how much she hates you.”
“No.” Tears burn in my eyes. “You’re lying.”
Kirill says something under his breath in Russian that sounds a lot like a curse.
“How else do you think I ambushed you?”
“Oh my God…”
I wrench away and stumble to the nearest garbage can, dry heaving into it while Kirill gathers my hair back from my face.
“You don’t have to hear any more. I will take care of the rest.”
“No.” I wipe my mouth with the handkerchief he presses into my hand and force myself upright. “I want to know. I have to know. If she had anything to do with what happened to our kids, I want to hear every damn word.”
He studies me, then nods once. Together, we turn back to Eli.
“What else did Camille do?”
He looks almost pleased with himself now, probably happy he gets to ruin another part of my life.
“Are you saying she helped you steal our boys?” Kirill grits out.
Eli nods. “It was her idea. She’s diabolical.”
“Oh my God.” My hand flies to my mouth. “Why? What was she getting out of this?”
“Because she wanted me,” he explains, another weak chuckle grating out. “She wanted you gone so the two of us could run off together without you dragging her down.”
Icy dread creeps through me, freezing everything in its path.
“Your sister always wanted more than she had.” Each word is frailer than the last. “When she sent me a picture of you withKirill at the diner and I told her who he was, she said we could steal from him so we’d have enough money to start over. She wanted to use you. Thought you were desperate enough to do whatever it took if it meant Milo would be safe.” He pulls in a shallow breath. “She thought I’d marry her. Isn’t that pathetic?”
