Page 84 of Deceitful Vows

“Z—”

“Please, Keet.” I peer up at her with big puppy dog eyes, praying they’ll be enough to pull her over the fence. “I can’t do this without you.” I take a breather before announcing the true cause of my worry. “What if she rejects me?”

“For what? Traveling three hours each way every year with the hope of seeing her for five seconds on her birthday? Or for acting like your letters aren’t returned unopened every time you send her a new one?” She looks sternly at me. “She has no reason to reject you, Z. And if she tries, I’m not opposed to teaching her some manners.”

I shouldn’t laugh. She is being dead serious. But I love how much she loves me that my smile radiates through me before I can shut it down.

“But…” I could kill her for the delay. “I promised myself if I were ever given the chance to repay you for getting Professor Kincaid off my back, I’d take it. So…”

I refuse to accept another delay. “So you’re going to break out a bikini for the first time in your life to join me in soaking up the rays of the Trudny Peninsula sun?”

“I was going to say…” I don’t know who taught her delayed gratification, but I’m about ready to smack them. “So I guess I’m not opposed to using my credit card points to purchaseustickets to your baby sister’s bachelorette party.”

I’m internally screaming, but the rattle of trains rolling over outdated tracks harnesses my excitement. “Are you sure you don’t need the points for something else?”

Nikita doesn’t live near a train station. That’s just how rattly Grampies’s chest is when he’s struggling through a severe case of pneumonia. While I strived and failed to pretend that I am a morally ethical woman, he had a bad turn. It’s been playing havoc with my mind even more than usual.

I really need a job, but the chances of me securing one will be even less likely if I place a stipulation for time off on my application.

“Maybe we should wait for the wedding. There will be more people in attendance, which means my mother will be on her best behavior.”

“But that means there will also be more people between Aleena and you.” Nikita plucks up her phone, searches for the group I found, then invites herself to the Facebook group Shevi accidentally made public. “The list of invitees is small. It’s intimate and manageable…” Her eyes pop open before her throat works hard to swallow. “Andit is void of the Wicked Witch.”

I scroll the list of ten names at least a dozen times before letting the truth sink in.

My mother isn’t on Aleena’s bachelorette guest list.

None of her aliases are present.

“We have to go.” Nikita’s inclusion in her reply already has me on board. What she says next seals the deal. “And while I’m there, maybe I can hand Mrs. Ivanov my discharge plan in person.”

She ribs me when I mutter under my breath, “And perhaps she’ll be so grateful she will share her marital status with you along with her many millions.”

Nikita met a man two nights ago. Her fascination was as instant as his, but unlike me, she didn’t immediately act on her impulses. She erred on the side of caution because the man who beguiled her in under a second shares the same last name as one of her patients.

She is a firm believer that cheating is a choice, not a mistake, hence me keeping quiet on my indiscretions with Andrik. I won’t survive a scolding by the only person who has ever truly loved me.

Mistaking my sigh as disappointment about the outrageous price gouge airlines have been undertaking since COVID, Nikita tells me to switch my search from paid fares to points. “It’s amazing how much further the dollar stretches when it’s fake.” She nudges me for the second time. “If only everything could be paid for with monopoly money, then we’d be set.”

31

ANDRIK

I’m not surprised when Anoushka’s tired eyes are the first I spot when exiting Zakhar’s room. It’s late, but Anoushka doesn’t sleep until all the Dokovic children she raised are settled—myself included.

In an endeavor to lessen some of the burden weighing down my chest, I returned home to once again try to convince Zakhar’s medical team to move him closer to the base I am endeavoring to set up near Myasnikov.

It only took one glance into Zak’s pained eyes to know my efforts would be fraudulent.

He is extremely unwell.

I wait for Anoushka to join me at the side of the den before instructing, “Call Dr. Makarand and request his attendance at the first available convenience.” I shift on my feet to face Zakhar’s room before breathing out some of my annoyance with a handful of words. “His pain is increasing to a level I’m uncomfortable with.”

“It is,” she agrees, her tone as low as mine, her shoulders just as heavy. “But Dr. Makarand announced earlier this evening that Zak can’t be offered more medication. He has reached his limit.”

I cuss before an excuse to shift my rapidly building anger onto someone else forms.

“Dr. Makarand was here earlier?” I’m yelling, and it is unsuitable. I am just too stunned she overstepped my directive to act cordial.

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