Chapter 101
1542words
The snow is coming down in sheets. With the wipers going at top speed, I'm allowed a few seconds of vision before I'm blind again. My jaw is clenched for the entire agonizingly long drive. White-knuckling the steering wheel, I take a right turn into a dark section of road. If my GPS is right, Yannick's location is closer to the hospital than Asher's cabin. There's a chance I'll beat him there if he's spent enough time organizing his men before moving to strike.
Please don't let me be too late.
My wipers are working less now—the snow is slowing down. Turning into a development with lots of unfinished houses, I start to ride my brake. I'm close ... Where is it ... The pavement is slippery from the storm. I take each turn with the utmost caution. I'm moving at barely a mile per hour, my headlights glistening wetly on the ground, when I see the house.
It's as quiet as the rest of them. Not a single light is on. There's one working streetlamp, and it casts a pale-yellow glow on the snow-coated sidewalks, flickering like it's ready to die. To my right sit a number of large pieces of construction equipment, their surfaces heavy with chunks of ice.
Parking Adriana's car, I remain where I am, trying to decide what to do next. There's no sign of Asher, but that doesn't mean anything, because I don't see Yannick either. Is this the right place?
The tap on my window makes me scream.
Yannick smiles at me through the glass, waving his black-gloved hand.
'Welcome home," he says, muffled by the window.
I reach for the keys, wondering, not for the first time, if this was the right move. I'm here. There's no point in running now. Before I cut the engine, I crack the window. 'Where's my mom?"
He gestures at the house behind him. 'Inside. Come and join us."
My hand clenches the keys. Tension thrums in my whole forearm. What choice do you have? Bracing myself, I turn the car off.
He gives me enough room so I can step out and shut the door. We're in near total darkness, the streetlamp glinting on Yannick's right side, making his jaw sharper, his eyes darker. 'It's been a while, my dear daughter."
Filling my chest with dignified air, I stick out my chin. 'Stepan is my father, not you."
'Hardly," he snorts. 'And why would you even want that?"
'Because I'm proud of him. Proud of who he raised me to be. I'll always be his daughter," I say fiercely.
Reeling back, Yannick eyes me like I said the funniest joke ever. He barely controls a full-throated laugh. 'Stepan did nothing but watch me fuck his wife. He was weak."
Heat spreads up my neck until my whole face burns red. 'He wasn't. He was using you as much as you thought you were using him."
'Is that right?" he says crossly.
'My father was smart enough to resist the urge to enter a fight he'd lose."
He can't contain the laughter anymore. The sound echoes through the development, bouncing off the snow until the awful noise becomes endless. 'Oh, stupid girl, he was anything but smart. Otherwise, he'd have noticed he was being poisoned."
My heart gives a quick double thump. 'What are you talking about?"
'Stepan not realizing what was happening is one thing, but it's amazing no one else did." He shrugs dismissively. We could be discussing the damn weather. 'But that's the beauty of a good poisoning."
'I don't understand what you're saying," I whisper, my voice rising at the end.
'Did you really think his cancer was natural?" He laughs, shaking his head in a slow swing. 'That man's illness was deliberate. All it took was a tiny piece of Cesium-137 taken from a medical imaging device and soldered to the bottom of his favorite mug. So small that you would never even know it was there. And it was only a matter of time. Months, years, it didn't matter. He was always going to die."
His favorite mug? I remember the white and gray mug he would always drink out of. And when I told him about my pregnancy with Simon … I remember holding the mug in my hands, cradling it over my belly as I told Dad excitedly about what my future held.
A new chill snakes its way into my heart and something heavy shifts inside of me—it's like the baby is moving, but this feeling is slimy and prickly and ghastly.
No …
NO!
YOU BASTARD! YOU MURDERER!
My mouth tingles, and I feel like I'm on the verge of vomiting. 'You're evil," I hush.
All this time, I thought my miscarriage was a tragic accident.
But it wasn't.
Somehow Yannick managed to find a way to twist my father's love for me into something vile. Something horrible.
He really is the devil.
Spreading his arms with a fond smile, Yannick waits for me to throw myself into his embrace. 'I'm just a father who wants what all fathers want: their family to be reunited. Now come here."
I step backward until I make contact with Adriana's car. 'How could you think murdering someone I love—someone my mother loves—would make us want to spend a minute near you?"
His arms dip an inch. 'The man you thought was your father was pathetic. By removing him, I've freed you." He approaches me. I try to retreat further, but I can't. His eyes are slits, his smile full of sugar and razors. 'You can embrace your roots … your heritage … the power of our bloodline. You are Camila Yannickevna and not Camila Marakov, and you should be grateful for that."
'I'll never be who you want me to be," I spit at his feet. 'I fucking hate you."
Slowly, he lowers his arms to his sides. The smile remains, but the sweetness is gone. There's nothing left but the razors. 'Perhaps you'd change your tune if I had Asher's welp cut from your belly? Or would you prefer to see me kill it in front of you?"
An unbearable urge to run away takes hold of my legs. I'm moving before I think it through, shoving around Yannick, bolting toward the construction equipment. I don't have a destination, just a drive to escape.
I won't let him kill another one of my children.
Sucking in ragged breaths that appear in the air like shifting ghosts, I hold my belly in both arms, running into the snowbank. I make it a few feet before something stops me. It's not Yannick grabbing me in the night. And it's not me slipping on the unstable ground, though that does happen. I'm on my knees in the snow, ready to rush forward again, when my mother shouts my name.
'Camila!"
Contorting so fast that my neck tweaks, I spot her standing beside Yannick. She's dressed for the weather, her small frame bundled up in an unfamiliar midnight blue jacket that tickles her ankles. It looks brand new. Yannick must have bought it for her.
With wide eyes, she stares at me across the road. Her fingers rise to her lips, nearly touching her nose, which has turned pink from the chilly wind. 'Camila?" she asks again.
'Mamochka!" Running toward her, I grab her tight, not wanting to let her go as tears start falling from my eyes. 'Oh my God, you're okay!"
She hugs me in return, the warmth of it sapping my energy. I forget why I was running. I can't think of anything but how she's here with me. We're together again.
Yannick rips me away from her by my hair. I scream, struggling to get free, to reach my mother as he yanks harder. 'You can enjoy your reunion later," he snarls.
'Let go of me! Let me go! Mom!"
'Stop resisting!" he snaps, tugging my hair until my scalp burns. 'This isn't a game! You arranged this meeting, now be a good host and wait for Asher to arrive."
I quit pulling; the pain is too much. He takes me over to the house, leading me like I'm a dog on a leash. Through the window I glimpse a flash of light, a small shadow. There's someone inside, hovering beside a lamp. Roman.
Yannick finally lets go of me.
My mother joins us in front of the house. She moves to stand near me, but a single glare from Yannick sends her scuttling to his other side.
'What are you going to do?" I demand.
Vapor exits his tightly pressed lips. He looks at Adriana's car, then further, into the distance. 'I'm going to show you the consequence of your own soft heart."
It feels like the world is shaking, but it's only me. The tremors travel from my feet to my guts, ultimately settling in the center of my chest. My soft heart. I've heard that before. It was a warning uttered by the man I thought I was coming here to help. Asher stood over Madison mere minutes after she tried to kill him. She got close. Too close.
All because of me.
It's happening again.
