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For once, Irina has nothing to say.

Kirill looks between the two of us, and I can almost see him reconstructing the entire drive in his head. “You lied to both of us.”

“Yes.” The word comes out quieter than I intend.

Before anyone can say more, the front door opens and a little girl with blonde curls appears at the top of the steps.

“Anya!”

Anya’s whole face lights up. “Lily!”

She takes a step forward, but Kirill catches her gently by the shoulder. “Wait.”

She stops.

He looks at the house, then at the people coming and going through the door, already assessing everything. He is angry, obviously, but he doesn’t make a scene in front of her.

“Stay beside me until I check inside,” he says.

“Please don’t say anything to Nikolai till we get back,” I plead.

Kirill says nothing at all.

“Oh no way,” Irina says. “I’m not going to be a part of this.” She holds up her phone. “You thought you could get the better of me? Well, think again. He’s already on his way here.”

15

NIKOLAI

Irina’s message comes through while Sergei is sitting beside me in the back of the car, going over a contract problem I stopped caring about thirty seconds before he started explaining it.

I glance at the screen because Irina rarely texts unless she wants something, and for one lazy, irritated second, I assume it is another complaint about Elara, or Anya, or the fact that I have been unreachable for most of the morning.

Then I read it properly.

Call me now. Elara took Anya to Lily Harrington’s birthday party. I swear I didn’t know what she was doing.

For a moment, the words refuse to arrange themselves into anything sensible.

Then they do.

“She’s where?”

Sergei stops talking mid-sentence.

My driver looks at me through the rearview mirror. “Sir?”

I’m already calling Irina, but she doesn’t answer quickly enough for my patience, so I look at the driver and say, “Turn the damn car around.”

The car shifts lanes at once.

Sergei’s tablet slides slightly across his lap, and he catches it with one hand.

“What happened?” he asks.

“Elara took Anya out of the house.”

His expression loses every trace of boredom. “Where?”