Page 24 of Fractured Ties

What just happened?

Did Kolya not apologize, or something?

Was it because he spoke softly?

Was it both things?

“He is dead,” Kolya added. “Your father, I mean.”

Maya glanced down at her hands and nodded. “Thought so.”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“Luck always runs out, and karma is heavy-handed when it strikes.”

Was she supposed to be sad?

Hurting?

Crying, even?

Maya couldn’t dredge up more than a pang of resentment in her chest for a man who had spent her whole life calling her names, beating her down physically and emotionally, and even going as far as to make her sleep with dogs because he didn’t think she was worthy.

At least the dogs were always kind.

They only wanted love, too.

“Where do you live, or stay?” Kolya asked her.

Embarrassment filled Maya instantly. Heat colored her cheeks with a light pink, and she refused to look up so the rest of them could see it. “Why?”

“Because I asked.” Kolya cleared his throat, adding, “And I asked nicely.”

He had.

Still … her pride made her keep quiet.

Apparently, that was not going to be acceptable to Kolya. “Well?”

“I don’t have a home,” Maya admitted. “My father wouldn’t allow me to move out on my own, and so I stayed with him, or he made me stay here.”

She did look up then, to see Kolya’s gaze had all but narrowed into slits. “And where did you stay when you were here?”

That, Maya refused to answer.

Someone else had the answer, anyway. Cutting her with shame even deeper than before.

“I would say with the dogs, considering she had been hiding in the kennels with a blanket and a pillow,” Kaz said.

Asshole.

Maya didn’t need her horrible life put on display for more people. It was bad enough as it was without adding more pity to her fucking days. That thick, heavy silence was back again.

Kolya broke it first.

“She will go with me,” Kolya said.

Maya’s head snapped up. “What?”