Page 72 of Hey, Daddy

Who would give up a place like this for our apartment complex?

Look at me, ignoring all the red flags.

“Dad, this place is the bomb,” Desi declared. “And Finn will love the yard!”

“Yeah, baby. It is. And he will. Maybe we can get a fence installed, and we can bring him with us when that happens,” I said as I took everything in. “I think it’d be really hard not to love the hell out of this place. We’re never going to want to leave.”

The problem with ‘treating yourself’ is that I don’t know how to stop. I had a bad day in October, and I have been treating myself ever since.

—Nastya’s secret thoughts

NASTYA

I woke up and felt…stiff.

I couldn’t figure out why until I opened my eyes and saw the state of my body.

Blood.

There was blood everywhere.

I had it on my face.

I had it on my hands.

I had it in my mouth.

I could taste the coppery scent on my tongue.

I scanned the apartment, and the first person I saw was the bodyguard that’d been sent with me to help pack my things.

Daniil was on the ground in front of me, his head and upper body in the closet, and the rest of him hanging out of the doorway.

I tried to get myself up and couldn’t.

At least, not on the first try.

Or the second.

Or the fifth.

By the time that I was able to get myself up—it was only to my hands and knees.

I crawled my way over to Daniil, my hands and knees slipping and sliding through the blood, until I got to his prone body.

But once I got there, there was no reason for me to check to make sure he had a pulse—at least I didn’t think so at the time—because he’d been shot in the head.

He also had a hole in his chest.

I’d seen enough damage that a shotgun could do to know that’s what had done it.

I sat back on my knees, my hands now shaking.

Shock.

That was what I was experiencing.

My heartbeat was pounding in my ears.

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