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Until about a month before her death. “Listen to this,” I say, my voice cracked with tears again. “Papa, I’m going to leave him. I’m sorry. I know this will be bad. But I have to leave him. I can’t stand staying any longer. If I don’t go, I am going to die. Maybe Rustik will kill me, maybe he won’t, but I am going to die if I don’t leave. I’m going to run away soon. I’m warning you now, so maybe you can do something to protect Alisa. I am doing it though. I am leaving him.” It takes me a moment to compose myself enough to continue. “God, Liam, she was going to leave him, but look at what Papa wrote back. Liliya, do not be a silly child. I am begging you please from the bottom of my heart, do not leave that man, stay with him and provide as only a good wife should. Daughter of mine, I love you deeply but you must not leave him.”
It went on like that for a few days. Back and forth, Liliya threatening to leave, Papa begging her not to, until it hit a breaking point, and the emails abruptly stopped.
I sit back in silence, staring at the last message.
Papa, I have something you’ll want to see. Maybe it’ll help you after I’m gone. Come take a look. Love, your daughter.
Liam kneels down beside me. His hand on my knee. He reads my father’s response out loud. “Liliya, do not be stupid do not do anything rash I am coming to speak with you shortly and we will work this out only wait for me to come fix these problems with you and your husband trust in your Papa I know what’s best.” He stares at the screen. “Your father knew your sister was going to divorce Rustik or at least that she was going to run.”
Everything clicks together. Like a pattern that only makes sense from a great distance, suddenly I can see its shape.
Papa couldn’t let Liliya leave Rustik. If she did, Rustik would call in his debts and ruin my father. There was no other way out, no other options, no escape. Liliya couldn’t handle anymore, and she was going to damn Papa to hell.
Then she died. Mysteriously from a drug overdose. When it’s clear she never did drugs in her life.
“Rustik kept saying he didn’t kill Liliya,” I whisper, feeling empty and dry. A withered husk of myself. “What if he wasn’t lying?”
“Who else had motive to kill your sister?” Liam asks, but he already knows the answer. I can see it in the way he stares at me. I can hear it in his voice. I feel it in the way his fingers dig into my thigh.
“This isn’t possible.” But I’m in denial trying to fight against the obvious truth.
“I found something else in the files.” Liam stands suddenly. I latch on to his discovery, hoping whatever he’s going to show me will exonerate my father. “They’re papers showing transfers from a bunch of different accounts associated with the marijuana farms Rustik works with. The money’s all getting dumped into a shell company, and I bet if we follow this trail, we’ll find it all comes back to Rustik himself.”
“Stealing from the farmers?”
“Skimming off the top.” He shakes the papers. “I bet this is what Liliya found. Look at her last email. She had something that might help. She gave your father these documents.”
“She hoped he could use them against Rustik.”
“Instead, he buried it.” Liam looks hard. His eyes flash with rage. “The fucking coward.”
“No.” I lean forward, slamming the laptop lid shut. My hands tremble. “Papa wouldn’t.”
“We’ll find the truth.”
I look up slowly. “Together.”
He nods, his expression hard. “Together. And when it’s done, you will go to Boston.”
I stand. My knees shake. I feel as though I might collapse. Liam takes my hand, holding it tightly.
If I follow this to the end, if I devote myself to finding the truth about what happened to my sister, then I have to be prepared to weather anything.
Even if the truth breaks me.
Chapter 35
Liam
Keely returns to Boston empty-handed. “Sorry I couldn’t be more help, but you’ve got one hell of a wife,” she says before she goes.
“I appreciate your help.”
The house feels quiet once she’s gone. Alisa promises not to leave the premises and doesn’t try to test her boundaries. Instead, she’s depressed, staying in our room for long stretches at a time. I try to lure her out with good meals, but she’s not interested in anything. Watching her spiral like this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
But there’s one way to fix this. At least there’s a path, and I have to take the steps myself, because I’m afraid Alisa can’t do it herself.
