Page 230

“That was convenient,” she replies.

My skin crawls.

“He was near the pool,” she continues. “He had already drawn suspicion by then. So, to divert his attention, I made a copy of the bracelet gave it to him, told him he could give it to his girlfriend and the fool brought it. I knew Sergei would find the footage sooner or later and send it straight to Nikolai. And the man who was so possessive about the girl who wasn’t even his own blood would be too blinded by fury to see through my trick. And it happened exactly like that.”

I’m disgusted by the way she puts things out so plainly, like a psychopath.

“You let him take the blame,” Nikolai says.

“He was a bodyguard. He could survive being questioned.”

“You were willing to let me believe he tried to hurt Anya.”

Galina’s gaze hardens. “I was willing to let you remove another weak link. But then that bastard almost ruined my plans again⁠—”

Viktor lets out a disbelieving breath. Irina looks sick.

“And when Anya fell down the stairs,” Nikolai says, “Kirill told me he had seen you near that corridor.”

Galina’s eyes flicker.

“He challenged your story,” Nikolai continues. “He said you were not where you claimed to be. And you made sure you were heard over him.”

“I thought you would kill him, and you would have had she not stopped you,” Galina says, pointing her chin to me.

I look away disgusted.

“You believed me anyway,” Galina says.

Nikolai looks at her for a long moment. “Yes. I did.”

“And you took advantage of it,” I say, shaking my head. That’s when something else clicks. “And the bracelet wasn’t the only thing you stole from Irina. You also took her perfume. That’s what Anya smelled the morning you pushed her down the stairs.”

Irina lets out a gasp. “You bitch⁠—”

“You wanted to think it was her aunt,” I say. Just the thought of it makes me fill up with rage all over again.

Galina looks at me again.

For the first time, I see no trace of the woman who brought Anya hot milk when she was sick, who braided her hair before school, who had watched me learn the rhythms of this house. I don’t know whether that woman was ever real or whether I only saw what she let me see.

“You took my phone,” I say.

She stays silent.

“You waited until I was distracted at the hospital. You took it, called Evan, and put it back upstairs later so I would think I had misplaced it.”

“I needed him to know where to find you.”

“You planned this.”

“I planned to end it.”

My hand stays against my stomach.

Evan spits blood into the grass. “She told me to kill both of them.”

Galina gives him a contemptuous look. “You were supposed to do one thing.”