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“Before you get angry,” I rushed forward to take hold of her arms. I was begging her to understand what I was saying. “This was the evening that I first met Leo. Andrea told me that he was responsible for his sister’s death, and I found her. I found her in one of the student newspapers, and I do think that the two of them were together.”
The words were coming out so quickly that I felt as though I could not articulate them correctly.
There was a long silence between us, and I worried that Natasha was going to tell me to screw myself.
“If Leo did do something to this girl, you know that I can’t marry him. Even if the Blanchis are our enemies, there’s a code, and I do not want to be attached to a man who would murder his girlfriend.”
Natasha’s face was expressionless as she spoke. “You and I both know that you weren’t thinking about that when Andrea came to you. You were wondering how you could get rid of him, so that you could find a way to become Pakhan.”
I bit my lip because I could not refute what Natasha was saying. My cousin would know that I was lying.
“I’m not working with Andrea,” I told her. “But I need to know what kind of person I’m involved with here. Leo is hiding something. Perhaps, something big, and there’s more to it than just what Andrea told me.”
“Like?”
“I wasn’t the only person who Andrea went to.”
I saw the surprise on Natasha’s face, and I knew that she was interested even if she was pissed at me, and I knew that she was going to help me. My cousin and I were very different. Our personalities were like night and day, but there was something that we both liked, which was that we both could not ignore a mystery.
And this felt like a huge mystery.
“Who else?” she asked.
I took a deep breath. Now, I wondered if I should lie. It was one thing for Natasha not to betray me. But would she protect Isaac, and did it even matter? After all, there is already speculation going around that he was in bed with the Blanchi family, and if anyone could prove it, it would be the end of him.
“Isaac. Leo’s brother.”
I would have laughed if the situation had not felt so charged. As it were, I bit my lip and waited to see what she was going to say next.
“Fuck.”
This time I was surprised. Natasha never cursed.
“What do you think Isaac knows?” she asked, leaning forward.
I shook my head. My heart was beating quickly again, but this time it was in excitement. I knew that Natasha was going to help me. She might be angry with me, but she would be by my side. It made me even more grateful to her than I ever felt before.
“I don’t know,” I told her. “No one will tell me anything.”
“But you think that all of this is connected” She grabbed the postcard and lifted it up waving it around a bit. “How do you know that Leo doesn’t just have a girlfriend that he doesn’t want you to know about. After all, if he did have a side piece, your father wouldn’t want you to know that.”
“I thought about that,” I said. “But I don’t think that this is a girlfriend.” I tried not to blush as I thought about the way that Leo fucked me the night before. We were getting to know one another, but a large part of that was part of that included sex, which was fine by me. “I think that there is more going on, and I’m wondering if it would explain why my father would even pick Leo to be his successor.”
“It is weird,” Natasha contended. “And you aren’t the only one who is wondering why Leo was chosen.” She cocked her head to the side slightly as she continued to think about what I was saying. “Or rather, why the Petrov’s are being propped up from a mid-level position in the organization to suddenly being the family of the new Pakhan.”
I couldn’t stop the smile that took over my face. “See,” I said. “Even you know that there is something weird happening here.”
Natasha wrinkled her nose, but she did not disagree with me. “I don’t like that you would work with Andrea Blanchi,” she said. “The Blanchis have caused a lot of pain.”
I bit my lip to stop from reminding her that our family had caused just as much. Personally, the feud between the families felt tired. I would never understand why we would sacrifice so much for territory. Sure, whoever controlled the ports controlled the money, but was money really worth the price that both sides had to pay?
I didn’t think it was.
Not that it mattered, no one would ever listen to me, and not just because I was a woman. The feud cost a lot, and I worried that we would never be able to see past the present to stop any future bloodshed.
“What are you planning to do?” Natasha asked.
“Madeline was into the flute. Apparently, she won some competitions. A girl like that would probably be here for music or some shit.” Personally, I did not understand how music was a major, but who was I to judge?
“Okay…”
I grabbed my bookbag from the bottom of the limo and hefted it onto my shoulder. “I have a meeting with one of her music professors,” I said, with a small smile on my face.
“And you think that this person is just going to talk to you?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “No,” I said. “But they are very excited to talk about my interest in Harvard’s music program.” I smirked at my cousin who looked at me, with surprise visible on her face. “Despite what everyone thinks, I am a lot smarter than I look.”
With that, I opened the limo and stepped out onto campus. It was time for me to get answers.
