‘For as long as it suits us, yes.’
‘But Defne,’ Oxana says. ‘My God. I’m pretty sure that the gun she shot her father with belonged to Atlas, his bodyguard. She and Emir must have talked him into betraying Tahir.’
‘You saw nothing on theMedusato suggest that she was capable of murdering her father?’ Johnny asks.
‘No. Absolutely not. I thought she probably didn’t even know how he made his money.’ She turns to Eve. ‘But then I’m not very good at that sort of thing.’
‘What sort of thing?’
‘Reading people. You’re brilliant at that but I just… can’t. I mean, it was obvious that she was ambitious, and super-resentful of him, but?—’
‘Because he treated her like a child?’ Eve asks.
‘Mmm… Amongst other things.’ Oxana drinks the rest of her wine and places her glass carefully on its coaster. ‘Can I say something weird?’
Eve smiles. Johnny watches her from behind his whisky tumbler.
‘I don’t think what Defne did was murder. I mean, obviously she shot her father, but…’
‘How do you mean?’ Eve frowns.
‘The Defne I knew couldn’t have done what she did. She was a typically awkward, unconfident seventeen-year-old, and actually very sweet.’
‘Nevertheless, shediddo what she did,’ Eve says. ‘So what are you saying?’
‘I think Emir reminded her of who she was, and who they could be together. Killing Tahir was her way of claiming that legacy. Of showing that she could put aside her feelings, and do what had to be done. She wasn’t acting as herself, as seventeen-year-old Defne, but as a Mafia princess, acting for the long-term good of the organisation.’
Eve shakes her head. ‘That’s terrifying.’
‘Maybe,’ Oxana says. ‘But also an act of great purity.’
‘You’re mad.’
‘We both know that, babe.’
‘Emir’s a clever strategist,’ says Johnny. ‘He’s not at that elite business school for nothing. He was always his father’s heir, always the appointed one, and he was smart enough to see that when he finally made his move, Defne could be his strongest ally. Now she’s bound to him and the organisation forever. Brother and sister united by blood. Their ruthlessness and their legend established in one brilliant coup.’
‘So Defne knew all along who her father was, and what he did?’ Oxana asks him.
Johnny inclines his head thoughtfully. ‘My guess is that she knew and she didn’t know. She probably told herself that his activities were just “business”, and that there were things that, as a good daughter, she shouldn’t look at too closely. But it would always have been there. That tension. That subconscious, secret knowledge.’
‘There was something about her,’ Oxana says. ‘Something undermining her sense of self, something that made her see herself as ugly. In the end it must have been a relief to stop pretending. To become the person that, deep down, she knew she was. I wonder when that happened. I wonder when Emir told her the truth and initiated her into the cause.’
‘My guess is that he waited until you’d left theMedusaand started your swim to Skila. Once you were gone, and committedto your mission, he could tell Defne everything. He could weaponise her latent ambition. Impress on her that this was no time for compromise, and that it was the two of them together, all the way. Which, at that moment, was probably exactly what she wanted to hear.’
‘Kids,’ Eve murmurs.
‘I know.’ Johnny smiles. ‘Never saw the need, myself.’
48
‘Angel, what are we going to do?’
Oxana throws back the bedsheet and lets the warm breeze roll over them. ‘Right now? I can think of some things.’
‘Seriously.’ Eve sighs. ‘We have to find a way of loving each other without destroying each other.’
‘Mmm.’ Oxana gazes out of the window at the Acropolis, its illuminated columns rose-pink on its rampart of rock. ‘I… I think, maybe, I have to be kinder to you.’