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“Shut up! Did he say it back?” Amelia’s eyes widen as she’s waiting for me to speak.
“Yeah, he did.” I bring my legs up onto the couch and sit crisscrossed. “And, normally, I’d doubt it if a man ever told me something like that, but with Lom, I didn’t. With Lom, I knew he was being completely genuine with what he said to me.”
“Of course, he was. Anyone who’s around the two of you can tell how much he adores you, and now he has that adoration for your little girl too. Lom loves you both, Emily, just in different ways.” Amelia smiles brightly, and I know she’s tickled to death that I’m getting the same sort of love that she has with Ruslan.
“To be honest, I never thought I’d ever have a love like this. It’s straight out of the storybooks, and sometimes I worry that I’m going to just blink, and it’ll be gone.”
“It won’t. Umarova men don’t give up easily, and I can tell he’s never going to give up on you. He loves you with everything he is, and even Ruslan has made remarks about things to me.He sees a change in Lom, and it’s a good one, Emily. I think because you know he won’t tell me these sorts of things, that he never thought Lom would ever settle down. I think we always thought he was some notorious playboy when the reality was all he needed was someone to bring out a different side of him. It’s all he needed, and it’s fucking beautiful if you ask me.”
It’s awesome to see that people close to Lom are seeing him for the same man I see him as. I think his playboy past really made Ruslan and Amelia worried that he was going to hurt me, but in a way, I tamed the beast that he is, and I’m not upset by it at all. I’m grateful for it because, without him, I don’t know where I’d be right now. I do know one thing for certain: I wouldn’t have Sierra back without Lom.
“This may sound crass and fucking awful… but I wish your mother was dead. What she did to those other teenage girls and me, not to mention what happened to all the children… It infuriates me so much. I don’t know how a mother could do that to children, you know?”
“Well, she wasn’t a good mother at all, so the fact that she birthed me doesn’t really add to it. You know? She gave my social security number and anything that Carter needed to steal my identity to him, remember? She’s a fucking monster, and I can’t look at her the same way ever again. The funny thing is I thought being in jail would change her a bit, maybe make her more human, but the reality is that she was always a monster. None of us knew it until it was too late.”
I grab my glass of wine and take a heavy sip, and Amelia ends up doing the same thing. “You know, if we were the type of women who went to therapy, our therapists would be so rich. I mean, think about how much trauma they’d have to unpack between the two of us.”
“Rich? No, they’d be loaded. They’d have a condo like this, plus a nice car and whatever else was in their wildest dreams,”Amelia laughs with me, and I’m so appreciative that we have such a good relationship. She’s the sister I never had, and I never knew how much I needed her in my life until now. “On a more serious note, I hope you know that being with an Umarova has its own dangers associated with it.”
“I do, but I have some faith integrated deep into my bones that nothing bad will ever happen to me. I know Lom will do whatever he needs to keep me and Sierra safe, the same way that Ruslan will do that for you and Karim.”
“Yeah, but I felt like I needed to say it to you. This life can be complicated sometimes, and speaking of complicated… how are things with your parents?”
I laugh and don’t say a damn thing. After a few moments of silence, I realize Amelia’s waiting for me to give her some sort of information or reply. “I doubt I’ll ever speak to them again after the things they said. It made me feel horrible, and I deserve better. Sierra deserves better too. Plus, the family I have is the family in this city.”
“I’m so glad you said that because I want to make sure we get together at least a couple times a week. I don’t know if you’re going to be working in Grozny or not, but I figure if you are, we can at least agree to meet up two or three times a week, and we have family dinners every Sunday at Eset and Nazyr’s house.”
I smile at the simplicities of life here because we’re all important to each other, and we make it known. I have no doubt in my mind that I’m going to be happy here, as will my daughter.
I think a change of scenery is what we both needed, and now we have it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lom
I’ve been here for over eight hours with Ruslan as he cuts Artos’ skin open inch by inch. He looks like some filleted piece of meat that would be served at a restaurant right about now, but I don’t feel the least bit sorry for him. He’s made this incredibly more difficult on himself by not giving Ruslan or Eset the answers they seek, and while it’s just Ruslan and me here today, I have a feeling that Artos will fold.
I’ve counted every single cut my brother has made on his body. All five-hundred-and-seventy-four. Think about all those cuts and how after a while, it must feel like your insides are burning. Ruslan continues to drag the jagged blade against Artos’ skin, and I know he didn’t choose a jagged blade out of the kindness of his heart. He chose it because he knew it would hurt Artos more.
I don’t feel bad for this man in the least bit. He dug himself into this grave. He brought this torture on himself. The only man to blame for what he did, is the one he looks at when he’s staring into a mirror.
“I want the answers I seek, Artos! You betrayed us, betrayed all of us, and for what?” Ruslan screams, finally shakes his head, and drops the knife onto the concrete floor as he walks away.
“I wasn’t the only one who betrayed you,” Artos speaks lowly. His voice is gravelly from the lack of water he’s had over his time here. Ruslan gives him enough to keep him alive, but never more than that.
“Yeah, we know,” Ruslan grits.
“Did you make Anzor’s death as slow as mine? Hmm? He was the man who had people plotting against your father beforeyour father even died.” Artos coughs, and blood comes up as he does.
Ruslan turns around to face Artos while both of us are staring at a man who could very well be giving us actual answers or simply lying to make things better for himself. “He only killed your father after he made sure the Umarova allies would side with him. It was orchestrated, every last bit of it. Anzor required my father’s trust and word before the duties were passed down to me. I never had a choice in any of it. Surely you can see that.”
“You always had a choice, just like everyone else did too.” Ruslan’s quick to remind him.
“I never knew how much of a coward you were until now,” I state, looking right at Artos. The right thing to do would’ve been to come to Ruslan, but he never had the balls to do it. He simply kept being loyal to Anzor, and his loyalty to the wrong man will cost him his life.
“What do you know of the old man from the fishing shack?” Ruslan questions Artos.
The old man made sure my brother’s life was hell while he was missing. We found out some information about the old man, but we don’t know too much. However, we did find a photograph of the old man with our biological father, so they must’ve known each other for a time.
