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So, instead I asked, “Did you know my mom?”
Her eyes softened. “I was at their wedding. They were so much in love.” Then she dismissively added, “He was nothing like that with Ilya’s mother. She meant nothing to him. How the boy can think he will ever take over Aslanov’s empire is beyond me.”
I immediately felt the need to defend both Ilya’s mother and him.
“Maybe it was the only way to feed her son,” I remarked. And even if it hadn’t been, it was no one’s business but her own. Tasha blinked, as if I’d said something very foreign. “Where’s his mother?” I asked. For some reason, I didn’t think Ilya would be forthcoming with any information about himself.
She shrugged. “Some say she’s dead, but no one really knows.” Or cares, her voice implied.
The moment Ilya got up and left the room, I excused myself and went after him.
I caught up to him in the middle of the hallway. At this time of the evening, it was lit only with candles, and eerily empty.
“Ilya, wait!”
He halted in his steps, but it took a moment before he turned around.
“What is it?” His look was guarded.
“Um, I just…“ How to go about this? “So, I guess I have a big brother after all,” I blurted. He stiffened. “I’ve always wanted one.”
When he didn’t react, I simply asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
His eyes turned frosty. “I didn’t think you’d care.” Then he gave me his back and strode away.
Well, then. “Does this mean we aren’t having a long-lost sibling family reunion party?” I yelled after him.
He didn’t stop, didn’t answer, just disappeared into the darkness.
I couldn’t just let it go, so I went in search of Aslanov. It took me fifteen minutes before I located him in his study.
He was talking on the phone, and gestured for me to come inside when he spotted me. He cut the call short and looked at me expectantly.
I dove right into the matter. “Is Ilya your son?”
A sneer appeared on his face, but he quickly toned it down. “Da.”
He didn’t sound too happy about it, so I decided that was a can of worms I didn’t want to open.
“He’s truly my brother,” I remarked, more to myself than him. Despite Ilya’s cold behavior, I was quite ecstatic to have another blood relative. I’d meant it when I’d said that I’d always wanted a brother. I had the Bloody Ones, of course, but one more brother could never hurt.
Aslanov grabbed my hands. “Don’t concern yourself with him.Youare my true heir.”
I frowned. That didn’t sound fair at all.
“I promised your mother I would always look after our child,” he said.
His eyes wandered outside to the vast garden, bathed in moonlight. But I didn’t think he actually saw or enjoyed the extensive greenery.
“My biggest regret is that I had to send her away while she was pregnant with you.” His hands clenched into fists, and a frost settled over his bleak eyes. “But I made them pay, each and every one of my enemies who were after my woman.”
I swallowed, unsure of how to respond. From everything I’d been told, Aslanov had been smitten with my mother. My mother hadn’t fled my father, but his enemies. She’d come to the States to disappear, to go undercover, basically. All of this meant that she’d actually chosen to be with a man as ruthless as Aslanov. Was I merely walking my mother’s path, by falling for Kristoff? It was a disconcerting thought.
“About Ilya—”
“Forget about him,” Aslanov said with an irritated wave of his hand. “His mother was a vile woman.” A crude curse word followed, one that made me wince.
Just when I thought he could be an empathetic human being, he said something like this.
