Page 18 of Blood Mosaic

She stared at the number again.

It was much harder to back out of a deal when doing so meant returning money. And, of course, it was a large reminder that one hundred thousand was only a fraction of the money Tatyana could make should she find the money Zara stole.

“Checkmate, Mr. Sokolov.” She felt a band tightening around her chest.

Tatyana, what have you done?

Someone knocked on the door, and she blinked back the tears that were threatening her eyes. She smoothed her hair back, shook out her wrinkled skirt, and tried to straighten her sweater before she opened the door.

A young woman in an elegant navy-blue suit was standing in the doorway next to a rolling rack filled with clothes in black garment bags. A pile of shoeboxes was lined up under the hanging rack.

“Good morning, Miss Vorona. My name is Lorala, and I’m the hotel stylist. Marina asked me to bring these clothes up for you to try on. She had to guess your size, but she’s usually very accurate. I brought a range of items from the boutique downstairs for you to try on.”

Tatyana stared at the rack of black garment bags, then glanced down at her wrinkled shirt. “Ms. Beridze ordered clothes for me?”

She couldn’t decide if she was relieved or embarrassed. Probably both.

“Oh no, Miss Vorona. Mr. Sokolov asked Marina to help you dress.” Lorala glanced at the polyester skirt Tatyana had bought years ago and her creased sweater. “He mentioned that you would be working at SMO and told her a more appropriate professional wardrobe was necessary. All of this is compliments of the hotel.”

“Mr. Sokolov ordered the clothes.” Tatyana’s cheeks were burning. “How… thoughtful.”

Lorala’s chin tilted up. “But if you’d be more comfortable in your own clothes, I would be happy to have yours dry-cleaned. We have a one-hour cleaner nearby, and I will take them myself.”

Tatyana felt her embarrassment wane in the face of the woman’s generosity. She had a spare shirt and a pair of summer trousers in her bag, but she knew they were shabby compared to the wardrobe of everyone in the SMO corporate offices.

“That won’t be necessary.” She opened the door for Lorala to come into the room. “I will be in Odesa longer than originally planned. This is very convenient and will save time. Thank you.”

Tatyana would be shooting herself in the foot if she passed up the opportunity for some better clothes. She needed to be taken seriously, and clothes were part of that. She couldn’t let her pride get in the way of professionalism.

The woman was clearly in her element. “I’ll order breakfast for you, and then I can lay out some outfits while you get cleaned up. We’re going to make you look amazing.”

Tatyana was dressedin a muted grey-blue suit that complemented her eyes when she slipped into the car that would take her back to SMO International. Her battered messenger bag was unchanged, but her hair was carefully twisted into a neat chignon, her feet were cushioned in a pair of stylish low-stacked heels, and her makeup was understated and elegant.

By the time Lorala was finished, Tatyana hardly recognized herself, but the stylist was clearly satisfied and promised to bring even more clothes the next day.

“They brought clothes to your hotel room?” Her mother was almost shouting into the phone.

Tatyana held the phone away from her ear and hoped the driver couldn’t hear her mother’s voice. “I’m going to be staying in Odesa longer than I thought. I’m sure this just saves time. That’s why I’m calling.”

“How long will you be gone?” The nerves were evident in Anna’s voice. “I thought you could be a bookkeeper from home? Do you need a new computer? Is your old one not good enough?”

“It’s not about my computer.” Her hand rested on the laptop as if it was a talisman that could protect her. “I’ll know more after I meet with Ms. Beridze this afternoon, but the good news is they’ve already paid all my back wages.”

“Of course they did. Didn’t I tell you they would? There are laws about this, Tanya. They cannot refuse to pay people. That’s notlegal.”

“You did tell me.” Tatyana sometimes envied her mother’s simple views in life. Anna knew that corruption existed, but itwas something that happened to big people with big money, not ordinary people who worked as bookkeepers. “And you were right, Mama. So I already transferred money to your account, okay? You can pay back Karol and the bill at the grocery. There’s also enough in there for next month’s electricity too, and if you want to go to the movies or something with Gabi, you have some money for that too.”

“Gabi was gossiping about me.”

“I don’t know about that.” This was typical of her mother. She was highly paranoid.

“No, she was. I can tell. She was talking on her phone, and when I walked into the restaurant, she got off her phone and was quiet, so obviously she was talking about me.”

She had no idea what was going on with her mother, but Anna had been like this as long as Tatyana could remember. “We’ll talk about it when I get home. If you want to go to a movie, you could go on your own.”

“What fun is that?” Anna huffed out a breath. “There’s nothing good at the cinema anyway. All the movies are too loud.”

“Okay.” She closed her eyes and rubbed a circle on her temple. “I’m just telling you there’s a little extra money if you want to do something fun, okay? Take the car to the farm for a visit if you want.” They’d spent all their savings paying the taxes on the place. Anna should enjoy her childhood home. Sometimes it was the only place that made her happy.

---