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Okay. Here we go. My palm slides over my tummy—his attention jumps to what I’m doing. This is for us. All three of us.
“There’s something you need to know,” I start. “Something important.”
He rises from the chair but doesn’t approach me. “I’m listening.”
The urge to run into his arms is as strong as the urge to run away. Absently, I reach up to my throat, where my rose brooch was mere minutes ago.
“Mom told me the truth about my father.”
“Oh?” he asks without a change in his expression.
Uncertainty wraps around my heart like a viper, and I become dreadfully aware of the fear of how he might react to the next words that I’m about to say.
Tell him … I urge myself. Just tell him.
My mouth grows dry, and suddenly it’s like I’m no longer able to speak.
“Well?” he asks again, his voice even. His gaze drills into me, and I feel more vulnerable than I’ve ever felt around him.
“She told me that …” I watch his face closely for any reaction. I need to know if he was aware of this. “My father isn’t Stepan. It’s Yevgeniy.”
Arsen’s expression doesn’t change.
I look harder, desperate to find proof on his face that this is a surprise to him. All I can see is a slight adjustment of his posture, his frown tightening a hair, forehead lines growing. It’s not what I want. It’s not enough.
My heart drops to the bottom of my stomach, and a terrifying new thought takes shape in my mind.
He knew. He fucking knew.
“She really said that?” he asks.
Unable to bite the accusation back now that it’s in my head, I stamp my foot on the ground, pointing at him with a grimace in the hope of rooting myself.
“Did you know?” I ask, fighting futilely to hold back the tremble in my voice.
Arsen folds his arms with a soft sigh. It’s only then that I see how exhausted he looks.
“No.”
“Bullshit!”
He shies backward at the poison in my voice. “Are you calling me a liar?”
I start to laugh, but there’s no humor behind it.
“Yes,” I tell him. “Because this is the only way any of this makes sense. You’ve been stalking Yevgeniy—stalking me—for who knows how long. Someone like you, with access to all your resources, would never be in the dark.”
“Galina …”
“Don’t.” Throwing my arms up, I turn on my heel. “Don’t try and tell me that you didn’t know, because I won’t believe you.” I blink away the tears of humiliation that are threatening to break free. “There’s no way you couldn’t know already. Was this why you wanted me here?”
“Galina, that’s not true.”
“Stop lying to me,” I whisper. “You knew. You had to know.”
I don’t wait around to see if he’ll say anything else. He doesn’t stop me from leaving his office, and I make it all the way to the end of the hall without him chasing after me. I glance back once, and Arsen is nowhere to be seen.
He won’t bother trying to lie to me about this anymore. He can’t; he knows he’s been caught. Clenching my fists, I pump my arms like I’m about to start jogging. The only reason I don’t is because I don’t have a place to run. I’m moving just to move.
