Page 182 of Cashmere Ruin

“I know,” he replies, voice icy. “And if you so much as think of trying anything else, I won’t punish you—I’ll punishhim.”

“Why?” I start sobbing. “Why are you doing all this? We’re family, aren’t we?”

“Family?” another voice laughs. “I’m afraid not.”

Carmine.

He steps out of the shadows, again, one hand landing on Yuri’s raised arm. “He has his mother’s eyes; did you know that? Of course, he couldn’t have mine. After all, when I met Irina… Well, she already had a son.”

My head’s spinning.This can’t be real.Because if it is, then that would imply…

“You’re lying,” I murmur. “He’s lying, Yuri. Don’t listen to him, don’t?—”

“He’s not,” Yuri cuts in. “I verified it myself. Carmine’s not my father. Which means that Matvey isn’t…” He clenches his teeth, like it’s painful to say it. Like it’s painful to even think it. “We were never really family, April. Not me and you, and not… me and him. Never.”

“You’re wrong.”

He frowns. “What?”

“You’re wrong,” I repeat. I don’t care how badly my voice is shaking—I will say it as many times as he needs to hear it. Until my last goddamn breath. “You may not be related, but you’re still family. All this time, you’ve been family. You think that just goes away? You think it doesn’t matter?”

For a second, he hesitates.

But that’s all it is—a second.

“It doesn’t,” he rasps. “Not to him. Because I’m not blood.”

My heart breaks for him. For both of them, two brothers on opposite sides of a war. “Have you tried asking him that?”

“I don’t need to. He’s made it clear over and over.”

“He’s changed,” I whisper. “He isn’t the same person he was.”

“He’s changed foryou,” he replies, voice hoarse. “He will never change for me.”

He puts the gun away, turns on his heel, and disappears in the tunnel.

“Too bad you couldn’t talk him out of it,” Carmine remarks as soon as he’s gone. “I guess that son of mine did too much damage. All that talk of ‘blood.’ Obsessive, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Only because of you.”

“Maybe. But now, I have his blood. And once I’m done with him, I’ll make sure to wipe away every trace.”

My heart drops. “You’d hurt our daughter?”

“Oh, no, sweetheart. She won’t feel a thing.” He gives me a cruel, sinister smile, all shark teeth and broken promises. “And neither will you.”

54

MATVEY

“You knew.”

Grisha doesn’t reply right away, just takes a long drag out of his cigarette. “I suspected.”

“How long?”

“Since April was taken from the motel.” The smoke rises, curling into spirals. “How did he know where to find her? How did he know she was missing at all?”

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