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“Yes. Her mother was English, and when we were both teenagers, she persuaded her family to move to England.” He sighed, his eyes glazed as he recalled the details. “She was never happy in our village. It was only a matter of time. Anyway, we stayed in touch throughout the years, and we grew up. Your grandmother fell in love with an English boy, and I finally accepted the inevitable, that she’d only ever seen me as a friend.
“Your mother was born, and your grandmother asked if I would be her godfather. Of course, I accepted. It was an honorary title, more than anything, as we were in different countries. She would send me letters, with updates, and through her letters I began to fall in love with the idea of England myself.”
Clearing his throat, he rubbed a hand over his face, lost in his memories. “My sister married into the Strelichevo family, Mikhail was born, and with that, things changed. You have to understand, they are a very powerful family. Not only in Belarus, but here, too. They have connections across Europe, and beyond. I knew I had to get out, before I became too entrenched in their criminal lifestyle.”
“That didn’t work out for you very well, did it?” I murmured.
He shook his head. “With the fall of the Soviet Union, I decided to take my chance and left the country. I went to Mikhail’s father and made my case, and thankfully he was supportive of my decision. Unusual, perhaps, but he loved my sister very much, and she had a hand in persuading him. He falsified documents for me, allowing me to travel unchallenged. Upon my arrival in England, your grandparents found me a place to stay. I owed everything to them.”
I felt Caiden’s grip on mine tighten, and I stroked my thumb over his hand, a silent support. Not having known anything about my grandparents and having been estranged from my mother, I felt detached from the whole story he was telling us. Cade, though? Allan had been someone he lived with. Someone he trusted.
“I worked odd jobs here and there, constantly striving to improve my English, losing my accent. I ended up in the service industry and eventually fell into Mr. Cavendish’s employment.”
“How could you betray us?” Caiden’s hoarse voice, full of pain, sliced straight through me, and I leaned into him, trying to provide whatever comfort I could.
Allan turned his eyes to meet Caiden’s. “I never meant for it to go so far. By the time I realised what was happening, it was too late. I was…blinded to Christine’s true nature. Blinded by my loyalty to her mother. I was in too deep, and there was no way out.”
“You could have told my dad! He would have helped you.”
He shook his head. “No. Don’t you see? By the time I knew the depth of Christine’s nature, too much had happened. Your father was in love with her, your mother had passed away, and your family was hanging on by a thread. All I could do was to prepare myself as much as I could, putting my own contingency plan in place, meeting with the Ivanov—”
His sentence was abruptly terminated by the door to the side room flying open with a crash.
Weston appeared in the doorway. Brandishing a phone in the air, his panicked gaze met Caiden’s.
“Christine’s calling.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
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I froze in shock. Christine? What the fuck? How?
“Allan’s phone.” His eyes, wide and guilty, met mine. “I’m sorry. In all the excitement, I forgot to turn it off.”
Fuck. This wasn’t good. Nothing we could do about it now, though. I stalked over to him, taking the phone from his outstretched hand. “It’s okay. What’s done is done. Wh—” The phone started ringing in my hand again, Christine’s name flashing up on the screen.
I had to make a snap decision. Heading back over to Allan, I held out the phone. “I’m putting Christine on speaker. Answer it. Don’t try anything stupid.”
He nodded once, his eyes full of fear. I hit the button to connect the call and turned on the speaker.
“Allan?”
At the sound of Christine’s voice, my jaw tightened, and I felt my girlfriend’s hand from behind me reaching out to mine, holding on with a death grip. I curled my fingers around hers, as I held Allan’s stare.
He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them. “Christine.” His voice was steadier than I’d anticipated.
“Where are you?” Her words were harshly spoken.
I shook my head minutely at Allan.
“I’m—I’m okay.”
“I didn’t ask how you were, I asked where you were.” There was a slight undercurrent of concern to her words, which I knew my girl was picking up on. She acted like Christine meant nothing to her, but I could see how she wanted Christine to have something redeemable about her. That was the thing about Winter. Despite everything, she always wanted to see the best in people.
What she refused to see was that some people were beyond redemption.
Allan blew out a shaky breath. “I—”
