“Scream again and I will remove your tongue.”
I have not an ounce of sympathy. She doesn’t deserve it.
“How could you do that to your own nephew?” I ask, my body quivering with so much anger, I can’t contain it. “I could’ve maybe forgiven you for making me believe I killed Mom, but this? This is unforgivable.”
“I don’t know what?—”
“If you continue to lie…” I yank the front of her shirt as my face nears her. “I will lose it.”
“You’ve lost your goddamn mind.” She sneers.
“You bitch.” I slap her hard across the face. “Don’t bother pretending anymore. Eli told us everything. About your plan to steal from Kirill, about taking the boys…everything.”
For a second, she just stares at me, looking dumbstruck.
Then her face changes. And shelaughs.
“You deserved it,” she spits through clenched teeth. “You always thought you were better than me. Always playing the good daughter while I had to live in that rat-infested shithole, stuck with that pathetic excuse for a family I was unlucky enough to be born into, knowing I deserved more.”
I shake my head. “All Mom ever did was care about you. You’re so sick, it’s actually sad.”
“Go fuck yourself, Eden.” Her foot continues bleeding heavily as she glances down at it, breathing harder now.
“I can’t do that.” I shrug. “You hurt my family.”
My fingers move toward Kirill. Not for his hand. For his gun.
Our eyes meet, and something silent passes between us before he places the weapon in my palm. When my sister sees it, her eyes grow.
“What the hell are you going to do with that?” She snorts. “Kill me? Please. You’re not capable of that. You’re?—”
The shot echoes through the room before she can finish.
The bullet tears into her thigh, and the shock on her face twists into another scream before Kirill shoves the pillow against her mouth again.
“Move it,” I tell him. “I want to see her face.”
He drops it with a small smirk.
“You’ve done enough to me and Milo.” I raise the gun until it points at her chest. “You once told me I was a killer.” My finger tightens on the trigger. “I guess you were right.”
The gun fires, and I jolt back.
She stares wide-eyed, disbelief flickering across her face. Then blood spills through her fingers as she clutches her chest, her body shaking while she tries desperately to push the life back inside herself. But it keeps slipping away.
And as I watch my sister die, I don’t feel anything at all. Not anger or relief. Not even sadness.
That comes later. Much later. When we’re already back in the car and the enormity of what I’ve done finally crashes over me.
Because the truth hits all at once. I’m a murderer. And this time…
I remember everything.
KIRILL
When we get home, I guide her into the bathroom, and she doesn’t argue.
She’s barely said a word since we left her sister’s house after my men arrived to clean up and dispose of that woman. I’m sure a betrayal like that will take time to deal with, but I will be here. I will always be here.
