Deceitful Lies by Brook Wilder
Chapter 44
Paige
It wasn’t easy lying to Andrei, and I’m glad he didn’t press for the truth when I told him that Talia told me about the money. While she did do so, my father had already confirmed in before she took me.
Before I leave the room, my phone chimes. Finally, it’s a text from Kenney, claiming to have lost his phone. A thin lie, but safer to play along with it.
“Where is Emma?” I text him.
“Taken. I’m on it. I’ll call you,” he replies.
“Kenney, you better call me tonight.” I wait for a reply. Nothing. My hand trembles as I hand the phone to Andrei.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I ask.
He shakes his head, placing the phone down on the table. “This only makes him seem guiltier. Let’s head downstairs.”
I’ve kept secrets. We all have, but I’ve pretended to be a good person when I’ve been as bad as the rest. The way Andrei looks at me makes me feel ashamed. If I had told the truth about so many things instead of letting my distrust sway me to lie, maybe this wouldn’t have happened to Emma.
Am I crazy?What Andrei does every day of his life isn’t right.
Do I constantly have to remind myself how I ended up here? Andrei didn’t ride up on a white horse and whisk me away. He shoved me into the back of a black SUV. But I do believe him now. I believe it when he says they wanted to kill me the day he kidnapped me.
Inessa looks up as I enter Dad’s room. Instead of her sassy look, her expression shows genuine concern. Everyone here likes Emma, and there’s comfort in knowing that. They’ll do everything they can to get her back unharmed.
When Andrei enters, Inessa stands up from her chair and silently slips out of the room. Dmitri soon enters and takes his place by the door. He hangs back, away from the bed, his phone out and shining a bright light in his eyes.
“I thought you were talking to my father?” I ask Andrei.
“I am, but Gerald may say something that we need to act on fast,” he replies, nodding in Dmitri’s direction. “The guards are waiting for orders.”
I feel better knowing that Emma will eventually be safe. Kenney refuses to answer his phone or my texts. When I see him again, I’m going to shove his cell phone up his ass.
My father is lying in bed, peacefully asleep and unaware of the chaos unfolding around him. His body is thin and frail, and the skin stretches like parchment over his bones. His face is serene, despite the harshness of the LED lights attached to the bedframe.
I still feel tenderness for him, especially when I see him like this. I want to reach out and touch him, to take the creases of worry from his forehead and smooth them away.
Instead, I stand quietly near the door, my eyes burning with tears. I try to remember what our lives were like before. The love I felt for him and how everything changed when his secret life hurled us into danger.
I’m surrounded by people who want to hurt my sister and me because of my father’s secrets.
Natasha slips into the room and stands beside me. Her hand rests on my shoulder and gently guides me toward an empty chair. It’s a genuine act of tenderness and compassion, not a gesture to keep me in line. I smile slightly in response, acknowledging her kindness for what it is. Not a ploy, but her showing real friendship.
Although everyone is still, the atmosphere vibrates with anticipation. I share in their excitement, a silent understanding that I’m no longer an outsider. For the moment, we have a common goal, and I feel as if I’ve been accepted fully into the Bratva.
I look up at Andrei, taking in his features, his strength, and the courage that holds him in control despite the dangers he sees daily. This is a man who can face anything, and now, I feel lucky to be on his side. Maybe I am Little Ms. Lucky, after all. I pray for Emma, and I pray this feeling of unity will last.
Andrei approaches my father’s bed, and his expression doesn’t betray the anger he must feel. He conceals it behind a mask of patience, but his hands are clenched as he speaks.
“Do you know where you are?” asks Andrei.
My father’s eyes flutter open, and he snorts mockingly. Just like that, Gerald Reyes disappears and Sava Khodemchuk is alive again.
The cold voice that once shocked me returns. “I’m in hell. Not surprised to see you here.”
Andrei smirks, and his fist tightens. “No, you’re safe as long as you answer some questions.”
“What makes you think I want to talk to you?” Dad challenges, his raspy voice menacing.
But Andrei persists. “What do you know about Kenney Grant?”
“My wife’s cop nephew?” Dad’s thin brow lifts. “Why do you want to know about him?”
“He has your daughter, Emma,” Andrei states bluntly, his voice growing more urgent. “He’s holding her for your money.”
“No.” Dad’s eyes narrow, not willing to believe anything Andrei has said. “You’re holding her for my money.”
I get up and step forward, pleading desperately. “Dad, please, Emma is in danger. You have to tell Andrei everything, or we may not get her back.”
He looks at me, and I hold my breath, hoping he might drop the facade of Sava for me. And I hope even harder that he won’t confuse me with Mom and reveal what I’ve done.
He does neither.
“Kenney is a ripe piece of shit. Cynthia told him everything, thinking he could help. He was pissed with me for not having anything left and barely talked to me after that. What he did do is blackmail me into putting him in my will to smooth things over. Says that he would keep an eye on my girls in exchange. So, I did what I had to do to protect my girls. Guess he’s still annoyed that I’m clinging on.”
Wait, Kenny made dad put his name in the will? Is that the papers he’s looking for? Will that point us to the accounts where the money is hidden?
“Do you know who he works for?” asks Andrei.
Gerald shakes his head. “No, but I know he’s not slumming it with the street dealers. He has aspirations like my daughter.”
I move away from the bed and sit back down. My heart pounds so hard it hurts to breathe. Relief cools my heated forehead when he doesn’t mention me again, but I’m dreading what else I’ll hear.
I hate that my father is a crook who didn’t give a damn about anyone.
But he doesn’t even give a damn about himself anymore.
“How did you know Ivan Sidorenko?”
“Igor’s little fucking pitbull.” Dad laughs dryly. “I don’t know how he figured it out. I thought I was careful, skimming pennies on the side. But Ivan noticed and turned my life into shit. He set me up and suggested that I take my family to the Poconos for a vacation. I stumbled into the biggest gathering of Bratvas I had ever seen—I had stolen from each person there.”
Dad is silent for a moment, and I brace myself, wondering what he’ll say next. I grip the chair tightly to keep my hands from shaking. I want to clasp my hands over my ears like a child until he stops talking. But I can’t.
I have to hear the truth.
“So Ivan had me call my wife. Told her to bring my daughters to the Poconos. Once she arrived, he gave me a choice: he told me I can choose to watch which one they’re going to all take a turn with,” he continues, “And that’s when Cynthia offered herself to them in exchange for leaving my daughters be. He accepted the deal. She was never my wife again after that.”
And there it is.
That final admission that destroys me.
All those terrible words I called her in my mind and the way I treated her when I finally saw her again.
She told me she loved me, and I threw it back in her face.
She was the only good person in my life except for Emma.
Mom sacrificed everything to keep us whole and alive.
Andrei sighs and then abruptly turns the conversation in another direction. “The will. Tell me more about that.”
“Just your bog standard will, with regular distribution of the profits from the principle.” Dad scoffs. “Any idiot accountant can set that up.”
“But where is the money hidden? Surely there’s a way to get it all?”
Dad’s face twists in anger. “The money is for my girls. You won’t get it.”
“You stole from my father,” Andrei says. “And you expect to keep it?”
“Your father’s money was the only one I didn’t keep, you fool.” Breathing heavily, Dad clutches the sheet and tries to sit up. “I gave that to your mother.”
The silence in the room becomes another entity, as if it could smother us under its weight. I look at Andrei, and his expression is one of disbelief. I’ve never seen him look so uncertain as his mind races through what my father has said. He’s always known what to do next, but he just stands there now as if he’s been turned into a statue.
“Liar,” Andrei hisses. “You stole that money for yourself. You admitted it!”
“I gave her bank statements from Fall River Credit Union,” replies Dad. “A tiny bank that no one knows exists unless you live near it. Eva has the statements. Only her name is on the account.”
Andrei’s anger lets loose, and he raises his voice for the first time since entering the room. “I don’t believe you,” he growls.
Before we can react, the door hits the wall hard, and Andrei gone.
He marches down the hallway, heading toward the opposite side of the mansion. The grand staircase divides the upstairs hallway in two. My family has been kept on the left-hand side while Eva occupies the rooms on the right. Her suite stretches along the front of the mansion with a view of the front gate. I’ve never been in all her rooms but was under the impression that she didn’t spend a lot of time in here. Lately, Eva has found reasons not to spend too much time in the house.
Andrei doesn’t knock, and the door bangs against the wall. Eva jumps up from the loveseat and watches us file into her private living room. Her long lilac dress swirls around her legs, and in a few more minutes, she would’ve been out the door for the evening.
“Did you find her, Andrushka?” she asks, staring at him with a mixture of hope and surprise.
Eva’s spacious suite is filled with one-of-a-kind art and antiques, ranging from colorful paintings to porcelain sculptures. The common theme is a mother with her children, and I admire an impressionist painting of a woman giving her child a bath. A collection of Russian icons—Madonna with child—hang on their own wall as if it is a shrine of motherhood. Silk drapes, velvet couches, and finely polished wood furniture add good taste that prevents the place from looking like a dusty old museum.
It’s a display of Eva’s devotion to her children. And I look around in awe, wondering if this is where the money was spent.
Eva repeats herself when Andrei doesn’t answer. “Did you find Emma, Andrushka?”
He ignores the question and takes in a deep breath. “You know Gerald Reyes was Sava Khodemchuk.”
Eva’s wide eyes reveal too much. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“It wasn’t a question, Mother,” Andrei says darkly. “You knew who and what he was before he came here. He stole money for you.”
Eva looks away, slowly recovering her calm. “You don’t need to know about that. It doesn’t concern you.”
“His stealing has brought trouble to our door, Mother!” Andrei shouts in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Did you do it out of spite? To get back at Father?”
Eva stares at Andrei as if he has insulted her beyond repair. She sits down, crossing her ankles and straightening her back. She is prepared to face Andrei’s wrath without backing down.
“No, Andrei. I didn’t do it for such a petty reason.”
“Then why?” he asks, his voice softening as he approaches slowly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Eva is quiet, no doubt thinking of a reason that he will accept. “Andrei, I didn’t do it for myself. I did it for Sonya so that she wouldn’t be penniless. You have businesses, but what means of support does she have other than you? You have your father’s money, but she has none of her own.”
Sighing, his shoulders relax, and I wonder if Eva understands what she has done to him by keeping secrets. What she’s done to us. He may never trust another soul after this.
“She will have her father’s money in time, I’m sure of it.” he replies solemnly. “And now, mine.”
It is a forbidden subject who Sonya’s father is. No one in the house dares to guess. And it’s never discussed—not even in whispers. Eva stares sternly at Andrei as if he’s betrayed and shamed her for what happened long ago. The conversation ends as each stares at the other as if they’re enemies.
“You will stay here,” Andrei demands.
“No, Andrei,” replies Eva, lifting her chin. “I’m going out.”
Andrei points at Eva and bellows, jabbing his finger with each angry word. “You will stay in here until I’ve figured out what you have done. That is my decision.”
“You tell me you’re no different from your father.” Eva shakes her head as a tear rolls down her cheek. “But all I hear are his words falling from your lips.”
Andrei says nothing as he turns and walks out of Eva’s room. I hurry to follow, but the look of betrayal on Eva’s face is burned into my mind.
Andrei waits outside of the closed door while a solemn Natasha obediently fetches the key. I feel sick, knowing that Eva will be locked in her room like I once was.
“Andrei, please don’t do it,” I whisper, not wanting to be overheard.
He folds his arms across his chest. “You can’t have a soft heart at a time like this.”
***
Later that night, I return to the second floor and glance over at Natasha as she sits outside Eva’s door. She strictly ignores my gaze, and I wonder what she’s thinking. I can’t tell by her indifferent expression if Natasha is judgmental or supportive. I want to ask her what she thinks but quickly decide against it.
Just like that, I’m an outsider again.
I enter Emma’s room and stare at the mess and miss her even more. I pick up her denim jacket and press it against my face as I burst into tears. A wave of grief overwhelms my soul and makes my knees go weak. I slump down on her bed, not caring about the clutter. It’s a comfort, if anything, to lie near her things. It’s like Emma never left.
I don’t realize I’ve fallen asleep until the door opens, and Andrei enters. His expression is a clash of emotions, his eyes angry but full of hurt. For a few moments, we stare at each other in silence, refusing to speak but feeling everything awful happening around us. Does he also feel a loss of control?
Andrei clears his throat and answers my unasked question. “I sent Natasha to bed. She offered to continue to watch Eva, but I said no.”
I nod, laying my head back down. I care about these people, and he understands what I’ve been going through with my father. We can’t do this alone, and maybe Eva’s betrayal has brought us closer together. Maybe he’ll decide to trust me.
Andrei climbs onto the messy bed and lies down beside me. He hugs me tightly, and I don’t want him to let go. I want to remain in this cocoon alone with him, safe, wanted, and needed. But this feeling won’t last once the outside world intrudes again. When he finally pulls away, he gives me a tender kiss. I cling to him, and the kiss deepens. I want him to stay with me. I don’t want to lose him too.
Gently, he pushes me away and gets up. “I have to leave, so we can go look for her.”
I sit up, swallowing hard and forbidding any tears. “Come home to me, Andrei. Promise you’ll come back to me.”
I can’t remember if I’ve ever said that to him before.
