I shook my head. “Not Mamma.”
“I told you before. Your mother is theproblem.”
My heart sank. His words scraped at old memories of him hinting that my mother carried secrets.
“What do you mean?” My voice cracked. “Don’t tell me to ask them. I can’t take it anymore. You know something. Tell me.”
Rodion’s hands slid down my arms. “Fine. I will take you tomorrow.”
“Rodion,” I gripped his shirt, desperation rising. “Don’t make me hate this night.”
He smiled, amused, as if he had every right to decide how much truth I could handle. His gaze fell to my grip before hetilted my chin, thumb brushing my lower lip.
“Your mother loved your father. That is why she abandoned her first child at an orphanage and moved here to marry him.”
The words hit me like a foreign tongue. “What does that even mean?”
He chuckled, brushed a kiss against my lips, and whispered. “Your father found out about the child. That’s why they fought.”
A child? An orphanage? My mind spun. “I don’t understand. Are you saying—”
“You have a brother.”
I stared at him, disbelief clashing with dread. My hand slipped from his shirt, and a laugh tore out. I shook my head. “You’re drunk. You killed your half-brother, and now you’re imagining mine. That’s ridiculous.”
But my smile faltered. Deep down, I knew Rodion. He didn’t make jokes like this. My stomach knotted as fear crept in.
“No,” I whispered.
“Not to worry,” he said. “He is a grown man now.”
“No. Mamma would never. I mean, she…”
“Hey.” Rodion cupped my face, his eyes searching mine. “It doesn’t changeanything.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t change anything? You expect me to smile after you drop something like this?”
“So you want to cry?” I struck his chest with my fist, but he pulled me against him, wrapping me in his arms. “You are an adult,” he murmured.
“I don’t like how you think I should take it.”
“I like how you are taking it,” he whispered, holding me closer.
“How long have you known this?”
His silence stretched before he answered. “You don’t wish to know.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
Alessia
Rodion promised to take mehome, and he kept his word. The car slid down the familiar streets where I grew up. Memories pressed in, and it all felt unreal after all this time. We passed St. Leontius Chapel, its stone spire shadowing the road. My gaze caught the white statue of Mary standing in the courtyard, her hands open in silent blessing. Her eyes followed me, and a shiver swept over my arms. That chapel meant we were close to home. My fingers locked around the seatbelt while my gaze clung to the window.
Rodion drove silently, as if he understood I needed the time to wrestle with my thoughts.
The car eased to a stop outside my house. It didn’t rattle me to see that he knew the place. My stomach knotted as I stared at the peeling gray gate. The cracked stone wall still leaned the samefamiliar way. I once prayed to vanish from here because of my parents. But now, against all odds, I ached to step inside.
Nothing had changed. The neighbors’ houses were still as I remembered them. I could almost feel the weight of their eyes behind the curtains, already peering out to see who had pulled up to our gate.