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He staggers backward, almost losing his balance as his foot slips in a puddle. I try to help, but Andrei rights himself, pushing me back.
“You went to him.” Andrei shakes his head, shouting. “You climbed intohisbed! Did Vasily know? Was that why he tried to beat you to death all those years ago?”
“He suspected.” Eva starts to cry as she shakes her head. “But he didn’t know that it was Igor.”
“It was you …” Andrei’s lower lip trembles with hurt and betrayal as he slowly works out the truth. “You helped set up the wedding to kill Father. You were the one feeding Igor information about me. That’s how he was able to stay one step ahead of me this entire time.”
“Please, Andrushka.” Eva is crying now. “I never meant for you to be hurt. I would never hurt you,synochka.”
Igor looks at me for the first time, and the wetness on my skin cannot compare to the chill I feel looking into his hard eyes.
I hug my arms around my body and step back into the shadows.
Chapter 50
Andrei
“Don’t look at her!” I shout, lifting my gun again. “Don’t you dare look at my wife.”
The rain streams down my hair into my eyes as I watch Igor with my mother. Thoughts of betrayal crowd my head. Everything I thought about Eva was untrue. She’s tricked me for her lover’s sake my entire life.
The lies cut me so deep I struggle to breathe as I hold out my gun in front of me.
“Andrei Vasilyevich, let’s go in the house and get the women out of the rain,” Igor offers, his hands raised. “We have business to discuss.”
“Not with you,” I warn him. “I have nothing to discuss with you.”
“Andrei Vasilyevich, please,” replies Igor. “Gleb Novikov had no intention of marrying Varya.Heplanned the attack at the wedding, and I merely took advantage of the circumstances to eliminate the burden you and your mother had been forced to endure all those years.”
“And then me afterward,” I scoff. “Don’t pretend as if we’re on the same side. Are you using my mother to get close enough to slit my throat?”
“Andrushka!” Eva stamps her foot, splashing water on the ground. “Igor is not our enemy. He’s only defending himself against you.”
I laugh at the audacity of this lie. A dark thought seizes me, and I can’t think straight.
“Is that whatheclaims?” I ask. “He shot up my nightclub and then ambushed me on the highway. You have to decide, Mother. You can’t have us both.”
“Andrei Vasilyevich, if I had wanted to kill you, you would’ve been dead,” Igor insists. “I was just giving you a beating about the ears to remind you that you’re not the big man yet.”
“Mother.” My eyes narrow on my target. “Step away from him. I’m not asking anymore.”
Eva only holds on tighter, and her dress is drenched as she continues pleading with me. They act as if I’m in the wrong for not giving in. As if all I’ve done to build up the Bratva was Igor’s way of indulging me.
I shake my head.
“You should have left my father,” I shout as the wind picks up. “You could’ve ran this whole time!”
“No, Andrushka,” she replies. “If I ran, then he would’ve taken you from me forever. You were once a part of me, Andrushka. I nursed you at my breast, I felt you kicking in my womb. The thought that Vasily would take you and turn you into a mirror image of himself was too much for me to bear.”
Raindrops splash against my face, hiding the tears threatening to well out of my eyes. My Mother loves me, I know this. She suffered so that she might not lose me.
But Igor?
“Is this what you were playing at?” I look at Igor. “My mother has my legacy to claim. So why not get the son out of the way.”
He doesn’t answer.
I turn my anger back to my mother. “What about Sonya?” I demand. “Have you told her yet? Have you introduced her to her father?”
