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“Emily sort of told me she has a crush on your brother, and she asked me if he was coming to visit soon. Now, I don’t know a lot about him, but all I can think about is how much he reminds me of a player. I just don’t want her getting hurt.”
Ruslan sucks in a deep breath and looks at me. I can tell he’s debating on telling me what I want to hear versus what’s the truth. “Lom’s always had one woman with him one day and another the next. From what I could tell back in Grozny, the two of them got a bit close. The entire time we were there, Lom was flirting with Emily. I haven’t ever seen him do that before, so I’m not sure what to say. Besides, you can’t control what happens. You have to let them figure it out for themselves.”
As much as I want to be able to keep Emily from getting hurt, Ruslan’s right. All I can do is let them figure it out for themselves.
Chapter Eighteen
Ruslan
I stayed the night with Amelia in the hotel suite, even though I could barely sleep. I think I was too amped up by everything that happened yesterday. I kept tossing and turning, wanting to head back to the old factory to confront Anzor. I didn’t have to go there, but I kept thinking about how much I wanted to make him pay for what he’s done. There isn’t any time limit on making him suffer, but the desire to do so spreads across my body like an uncontrollable itch.
It’s a little past one in the afternoon, and I spent some time here with Amelia before heading over to the factory. I told Danill and Nal to stay back with Amelia because I didn’t need anyone tagging along with me. No one knows where Anzor is, and he’s in a remote area. There’s no threat being posed to me here, and honestly, I want my privacy with him. What happens today should only be witnessed by people within my family.
I remember how Anzor tried desperately to get Nazyr to go against Lom and me. He was trying to say we’d view him as a threat, but Nazyr isn’t any threat to me. After it sunk in about his father’s hand in my disappearance, Nazyr texted me and said he’d do whatever he needed to make things right. Deep down, I think Nazyr thought I’d be upset with him, but he wasn’t the one who made the decision. Neither Eset nor Nazyr will be condemned for their father’s mistakes. Other people might automatically kill them both for being his children because, in some twisted world, they could pose some sort of threat. I, however, will not be the one to kill my sister or brother.
I pull down the long driveway that leads to the factory and drive straight. Sure enough, Lom’s blacked-out SUV is still there. I park beside his and get out of my vehicle, then head straight inside. The construction lights are still where they were yesterday, and my siblings sit around in chairs. Even Eset’s here.
Anzor’s feet now touch the ground, whereas they didn’t yesterday. I furrow my brows and look at my siblings, unsure why he’s given the luxury of using his feet to stand. “Who did this?”
No one says anything at first, and then Eset clears her throat and rises from her chair. “I did. He’s been shot in both knees now, and I know it’s excruciating to be putting any weight on them. I figured you’d be pleased with it, but instead, you seem upset.”
I’m rendered speechless as I lick my lips. My sweet, innocent baby sister did this? Then again, yesterday, she proved she wasn’t as innocent as she was when she was a child. I didn’t realize Eset had the balls to shoot a gun, let alone her father.
My phone begins to ring, so I pull it out of my pocket. As soon as I see the caller ID, I have to laugh to myself. I bring the phone up to my ear and answer. “Mother, I didn’t think I’d be hearing from you again.”
“I know you have Anzor. You must let him go, Ruslan.”
She has some nerve telling me what I need to do. “I don’t have to do a damn thing, actually.”
“He is my husband, and I demand you let him go!”
“You aren’t my boss. I don’t have to listen to a damn thing you say, mother. Anzor did unspeakable acts to me, and I’m done with this.” As soon as I say Anzor’s done unspeakable acts, Eset looks over to me. She hasn’t said a word, yet I get the impression he’s done far worse than I ever thought. There’s something I don’t know, but I will find out soon.
“Ruslan, if you do not let him go, I will never forgive you for this. I will not be your mother if you proceed with this madness!” Oh, so she wants to play that game. She wants to try to convince me that losing her isn’t worth what I’m about to do to her husband. What a fucking joke. He deserves far more than I’m going to give him. If I could keep him here for the rest of his life and make him suffer, I would, but I have other things that require my attention.
“One day, you will thank me for setting you free from this madness. You might not think I noticed, but I saw the bruises that adorned your skin. I saw the way you’d tremble from him if he had too much to drink or if he raised his voice. You think the way he’s treating you is okay, but it isn’t. You’re abused, mother. You think it’s what you deserve, but it isn’t. When you realize I’ve done you a favor, go ahead and reach out. In the meantime, goodbye.” I hang up the phone without waiting to hear another word from her, slide the phone back into my pocket, and approach my stepfather.
He looks worse for wear. Dried blood coats his legs, and the bullet hole entrance wounds don’t look too great. “She was trying to get me to let you go. It’s laughable, really. You abused her for years, and she still feels like she owes you something. I wonder how you managed to get a woman like my mother and then how you made her fear for her life so much that she thinks she can’t live without you.” I shake my head. A mixture of disappointment in my mother and disgust with my stepfather washes over me.
“He brainwashed her. As a young girl, I didn’t see it for what it was, but now I do. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I always looked up to you as a little girl. I thought you were the best father in the entire world, and then I started seeing more things. I never spoke about them because I knew it wasn’t my place, but over the last few weeks, I found out so much. Do you want me to tell Lom and Ruslan what you did, Father?” Eset grows angrier by the second, and I don’t understand why she’s getting so furious.
“You think you know everything, don’t you?” Anzor cackles and spits on Eset. “You’re a dumb bitch, just like your mother. All you’ll ever be good for is spreading your legs and giving children. There’s nothing up there in that head of yours anyway.”
Nazyr rises from his seat and heads straight for his father. He rears his fist back and slams it into his knee. Anzor thrashes against the impact and screams. Nazyr keeps punching his knees over and over again, and no one does a damn thing to stop him. None of us are fond of Anzor, not anymore, at least.
“I’ll tell you what I discovered if the two of you wish,” Eset speaks back up, looking at Lom and me.
I give her a nod, signaling her to go on.
“I don’t know how to tell you both this, so I’m sorry for not knowing how to handle myself. When my father went missing, I thought something could’ve been wrong, so I tracked down old contacts of his to see what I could find out. It turns out he was perfectly fine, hiding away as he did many years ago. One of his old contacts got drunk and told me about the best murder of my father’s life. I became curious, so of course, I had the man go on. After a few more drinks, I got the entire story out of him, how he killed your father, and then managed to convince our mother it was safer for her to remarry than it was for her to stay single. He told her she’d have a target on her back, that a single mother would be taken advantage of and wouldn’t make it far.”
All these years have passed, and no one was ever able to tell us who killed our father. The police couldn’t even track down the person who did it.
“How do you know Anzor did it? He could’ve been hoping for some sort of bragging rights,” Lom speaks up, and he could be right. There are a few details the two of us know about the case, about what was taken from our father’s body after he was killed.
“The old man told me my father took an old coin from yours. He described it in great detail, and even the engraving on the back of it. He said every man in the Umarova family had carried it from your great-great-grandfather to your father. The man had said my father kept it hidden and even told me of the old place he used to hide it. It was in our family home, so of course, I went to look, and sure enough…” Eset digs into her pocket and pulls out a coin. I walk over to her, and she places it in my palm. I analyze the coin, and it’s exactly what she said it is—it even has the initials. I know for a fact this was swiped from my father’s body, as does Lom.
I can hardly believe this has happened. We finally have proof. Deep down, I suspected Anzor had some sort of hand in it, and it turns out he did.
