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There’s a pause. “We should talk.”
“Too little, too late.” I scoff.
“I’m serious, Andrei.” Talia takes a breath, and the edge is gone from her voice.
“I don’t have time for this …”
She speaks quickly. “Please, you’re going to want to talk to me. Not just for your sake, but for your sister’s sake.”
A gusty autumn wind whips around the mile-high beams and girders, and I scan them quickly for an unwelcome surprise. “You’re running out of ideas to catch me.”
“I want to call a truce,” she replies firmly. “Please.”
The pause is longer this time before I ask. “What have you done, Talia?”
I expect a short laugh, followed by denial, but all I hear is silence. Enough for me to wonder if the call has dropped. “Talia?”
“No tricks, Andrei,” she replies. “I want to meet. We have to talk. About everything.” And then the call ends.
***
When I return home and enter my office, there’s a magazine on my desk that is open to a page. The heavy, glossy catalog is from Christie’s for an upcoming auction of the largest private jewelry collection owned. The catalog is folded open to a necklace of sapphires and pearls worth several million. A note is inserted as a bookmark, written on a piece of stationeryfrom the desk of Paige Barinov.The note reads …
This would be nice.
She’s fast learning, and Zhanna is teaching her well.
Do I feel guilty for checking up on Paige? Trust is a luxury I can’t afford to give away, not even to her. But this is worth the price to see her happy. Grinning, I pick up my phone and dial Christie’s.
Chapter 26
Paige
At my request, Natasha spends weeks quizzing me with flashcards, so I can practice the pronunciation of names and learn ranks. She smiles proudly as I place emphasis on the right syllables and throws in a few casual phrases.
“Even a tourist knows how to saykak delo,” Natasha quips. “For you to not know is not only an embarrassment, Paige Geraldovna. It is a sin.”
Zhanna is more than thrilled to advise me on caterers, florists, and seating charts. She warns me to keep certain families at a distance. The rooms on the first floor are emptied out, and the furniture is stored upstairs while tables, chairs, and dinnerware are rented for the party.
It looks as if we’re opening a high-end restaurant.
Emma twirls around the house as she tries on gown after gown. Each one is more beautiful than the last, and it makes her happy to invite her school friends here, repaying them for all their invitations. At the same time, I can hardly bear to watch her happiness, knowing fully what Andrei has planned.
I hope she won’t figure it out beforehand.
Despite my apprehension, the mansion seems alive again, and I cross my heart that our good luck won’t end too soon.
***
On the day of the party, Dmitri steps out onto the terrace and stands beside me while the workers lift the white tent over the square where the maze once stood. We don’t speak as a light breeze blows in our faces. He looks good in his tailored blue tux, and his hair is combed down, covering his scar. Despite what he thinks of me, I begrudgingly feel a closeness to him after everything we’ve been through.
“I hear you have become good friends with Zhanna Nikolaeva?” he asks rhetorically. “That is wise.”
“I actually like her.”
He nods. “I am glad. Perhaps that is where we went wrong. We should’ve found a mentor for you when you first came here.”
“Why?” I ask. “Everyone believed it was a fake marriage.”
