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“You honestly have no clue, do you? You really are simple.”
My mind drifts to what my father said to me at the hospital and the name he mentioned. The name in his phone.Sava Khodemchuk.
Am I the only one who didn’t know about this? Was this why Andrei wanted me? To get to my father so that he might interrogate him about the money? But why is he still keeping me around? To keep me silent? To keep my father compliant?
Perhaps I still have something Andrei is after. When we married, he made it clear that I was part of a plan. A plan I still know very little detail about.
Talia watches me, waiting for my reaction. I close my eyes instead.
“Playing dumb won’t save you. Eventually, the truth will come out. And you won’t like it, Mrs. Barinov.”
The hands of my masseuse halt on my back for a fraction of a second, but I don’t react. I keep still and pretend not to notice. She continues silently, and maybe she is eavesdropping. Or not.
“I understand now,” Talia props herself up, “why you haven’t put up a fight. Why you haven’t begged to leave. You’re his captive, not his wife.” Talia laughs and goes on. “Maybe I underestimated you a bit. You’re still naïve and weak. But you are right to want to leave him. I should give you credit for wanting to escape him on your own two feet and not in a box.”
I don’t like hearing the truth, especially from her, but staying with Andrei would lead to tragedy, no matter how much I deny loving him. I let myself fall in love, and that’s the real danger.
Talia adjusts her position as her masseuse resettles on her back. “You stole my place by Andrei’s side, and now look at him, stuck in this disaster because of his choice in women.”
My masseuse excuses herself. “I’ll be back with hot towels.”
I didn’t comment on the towels stacked near the cabinet, but Talia doesn’t seem to care either way. She’s looking at me with newfound curiosity.
Me?
I’m wondering who else knows what’s on my dad’s phone.
Chapter 7
Andrei
The frustration is building up in me, threatening to surface in a storm of rage. Not knowing where Paige is or even if she’s safe. I don’t dare think of the other possibility. It will set me off, and I must keep calm to think straight. Impulsive action will lead to something I may not want to face.
I stop on the second floor and decide to walk down the hallway. The guard in front of Emma’s room nods at me. But I continue to Gerald’s room and enter. The guard seated inside stands when I enter.
“Anything?”
The guard shakes his head. “No, all he does is sleep, and the nurse says he is comfortable. It’s all we can expect.”
I nod, pleased with his attentiveness, and walk toward Gerald’s bedside. The old man has color in his cheeks, but the rest of him looks ghastly pale. His eyelids are parted as his mouth opens, sucking in precious air. He claims he wants to die but hangs onto life dearly. His eyes flutter open and then focus on me … his son-in-law.
I frown at him, not concealing that I despise him and what he has done, not only to my father but to his own family. He may have shown Paige love, but his actions were selfish. They lived in poverty. And because of his crimes, he’s left his daughters motherless.
My fingers close into tight fists, and I imagine his frail neck crunching under them.
The guard interrupts my dark thoughts. “Andrei Vasilyevich, Dmitri is in the office. He is looking for you.”
Dmitri only seeks me out when it is urgent. I quickly walk to the door and scowl at Gerald before closing it. He may want death but has enough strength to glare back at me.
***
“We found Paige,” Dmitri announces as I walk into my office. “She’s with Talia at a resort in Stroudsburg in the Poconos.”
I cock an eyebrow. “At a resort?”
He nods. “Natasha has a cousin that works there. It was a lucky break. She overheard your name and called Natasha right away.”
“We have to get her before Talia disappears again.”
