Page 57 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

Jules goes to the corner of his room and presses his face where the two walls meet, his palms flat, hiding. His back begins to shake in a rhythm Lachlan knows too well. He made him cry. He broke his heart.

He broke Julian’s beautiful heart.

Just like he was told.

The silence between them is screaming.

Lachlan wants to die, rip himself apart, drown.

It’ll have to wait.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says, and then he leaves.

It’s been a long time since he heard something go crash in that room.

CHAPTER SEVEN

December is cold in the Estate for reasons other than the weather.

Rain becomes snow, and the snow settles, building into a landscape that’s both beautiful and bitter. Vasily loves the snow, tells Lachlan about playing in it for hours on end with Roman in their home in Rozhenska.

It brings colour to his cheeks, shine to his eyes.

‘It is my favourite smell,’ he sighs, making angels in it.

Mimi spends time building creatures from the snow with her gloved hands, dedicated to making them look how she wants.

‘Daddy, you made Jewel sad,’ she tells him one day when he’s helping her build yet another snowman. This one needs to have blue eyes.

‘I know, baby. I’m sorry.’

‘Tell him sorry.’

‘I can’t.’

Mimi uses her small knife to carve eyeholes in the snowman.

‘Did Farfar say so?’

‘No. It’s my choice.’

‘Make better choices, then.’

‘Sometimes we can’t change things after they’re done.’

Mimi frowns, her dark blue eyes sinking into heavy shades of sulk.

‘You’re still mad about bad lady.’

‘Yeah, I am,’ he admits, shaking snow off his bare hands. He likes the biting burn of it, but leave it too long and his hands are useless. ‘I’m mad. I love you, and that’ll never change, but what you did wasn’t good.’

Rather than cry, Mimi digs in and frowns harder, scowling at him.

‘Bad lady was gonna hurt Danny. I sawed it.’

‘Saw it, and no, you didn’t. I’d never let anyone hurt Danny.’

‘You hurt him,’ she says in quiet accusation.