Page 26 of You Know I Love You

“Because it’s my name now. Mrs. Vasily King. We’re married.” I return his stare. I’m tired of his piss-poor attitude. I’m a damn grown-up. He has all of these secrets but I’m supposed to be an open book.

“You got married. To Vasily.” He’s not really asking but sort of talking things through to himself, I think. “What the fuck were you thinking, Willa? You don’t even know him.”

“Yes, I do. You’re too wrapped up in whatever the hell you're doing to even notice that things are changing around you.” A brief moment of hurt flashes across his face, but he schools it almost immediately.

“You don’t know shit, Willa.”

“Then enlighten me,” I toss back. “You keep me in the dark about so much of your life but expect me to let you know everything about mine.”

“You don’t want me to enlighten you. I promise you that.” The way his voice drops has an eerie sensation creeping up my spine, but if I want to know, then I have to face it. I can't duck my head in the sand like I did when we were younger, trying not to hear the shouting that my father would use to rain his wrath down onto our house, until one day it stopped.

I know Rich stopped it. He grew bigger and stronger. My father was no match for him any longer. Rich always took on my father when he was out of control. He'd bait him if he thought he was coming for me, but for the most part, he was always after Rich. Now with everything I know about my uncle and how much he and Rich look alike and the utter hate my father had for his brother, I wonder if that played a large part in it.

“I’m not a kid anymore.”

"You have no idea who you married. What we've done." The door opens, and Vasily comes walking in with West. He closes the door behind him.

"Who is ‘we’?" I ask. Rich's eyes bounce over to Vasily.

"You fucking married her?"

"I did," Vasily says, utterly calm, but this doesn't feel calm. There is something thick in the air.

"You realize how fucked up that is, don't you? And you know how much I wanted to protect her."

"I don't regret what I have done, Rich. Not marrying her or killing her father." What? I must have heard Vasily wrong because I swear he just said that he killed my father. That can’t be right.

“Killing my father,” I say the words out loud, trying to process them. Before I know it, Vasily is on me.

“I can explain everything, Willa.” He pulls me against his chest.

“You killed my father,” I repeat, trying to absorb what he is saying. It doesn't sound real. They said he'd died of a heart attack. If he killed him, then it was covered up.

“Holy shit,” I hear Teddy whisper.

Vasily’s hands cup my face. “Things got out of hand.”

“You don’t say,” I mutter dryly. I think they might have gotten more than a little out of hand.

“I did what I had to. It was let your brother finish what he started with him or do it myself.” I pull back to glance over at my brother.

“It’s one thing for me to kill him,” my brother says. “It’s nothing for King to do it. It wasn’t his place.”

“So you were going to kill him?” I ask, already knowing the answer, and honestly, that isn't so shocking to me. My brother hated our father. I did too. I was relieved when I found out hewas dead. That he would no longer be in our lives. I thought it was a gift.

“Yes,” my brother says, his face cold.

“But you stopped him?” I look at Vasily.

“He’s eighteen and a hothead. I wasn’t going to let him live with that. Your father wasn’t a good man. Rich’s reasons for wanting his father dead are his to tell, not mine.” I turn to face my husband. My eyes are filled with tears. “Princess, baby, please don’t cry.” He pulls my glasses off to swipe the few tears that spill free.

“I can’t help it.” I sniffle. “Thank you,” I whisper. “I could never protect him. No one ever did. Thank you for doing that for him.” I bury my face in Vasily’s chest. He wraps his arms around me tightly, holding me close. He kisses the top of my head.

I push back so that I can turn to face my brother. “I’m sorry you couldn't tell me.”

“Don’t apologize to me, Willa.” My brother runs a hand down his face; I can see he’s fighting his own demons. “I should have been the one to?—”

“No,” I cut him off. “You already have enough demons you seem to be fighting.” I walk over to my twin, wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug. "It's time to let everything go. He's gone, and that's all that matters."

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