Page 77 of Toxic Salvation
“Well, no, but?—”
“Then she won’t, either.” I start walking away from him.
“Where are you going?” he calls after me. I ignore him. “Vesper. Vesper!”
Both Yana and Luka have their backs to me, but Luka is busy scribbling on a piece of paper while Yana talks his ear off.
“Don’t you miss me, baby? Don’t you want to see your room again? I did it all up for you. It’s got so many cool new things; you’ll love it.”
I want to claw her eyes out right where she stands. But since I don’t want to traumatize Luka more than necessary, I swallow my rage and wait for his response.
“Come on, Lulu, don’t you miss your room?”
“I have a room here,” he says quietly. “And my name is Luka, not Lulu.”
“It’s Mommy’s special nickname for her baby.” She tries to make it sound cute, apparently forgetting her son turned nine years old recently. “You used to love it.”
“Nuh-uh, I never did. I always hated Lulu. My name is Luka.”
Yana is so engrossed in bullying her son that she still hasn’t noticed me standing there. “Fine then, Luka. You want to come home with me, don’t you?”
Her cutesy tone has dropped, but that only seems to remind Luka of who he’s dealing with. “No, I want to stay here with Uncle Kovan and Vesper.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. They’re not your family.”
Finally, he looks up at her. His angry face looks just like Kovan’s. “Yes, they are!”
Yana’s nose wrinkles. “For God’s sake, Luka, how stupid can you be? You think they love you? They’ll want a baby of their own soon and then they won’t want you around. They’ll want to make their own family instead of keeping you.”
That right there is the last fucking straw, as far as I’m concerned. “That’s enough. Yana, your hour is up. I think it’s best if you hit the road.”
She whirls around. Her eyes might actually be beautiful if they weren’t so wild and filled with hatred.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, kicking me out of here? This isn’t your house,” she sneers. “You’re just the glorified mistress.”
“Better a glorified mistress than a jailbird. As I said, I think it’s time for you to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not done spending time with my son.”
“You mean you’re not done trying to manipulate him?” I laugh, but there’s nothing pleasant about the sound. “You can try your worst mind games, Yana, but Luka knows that Kovan and I love him.”
I give Luka a wink and he sidles closer to me, his hand seeking mine.
Yana jumps between us and snatches up Luka’s hand instead. “That’s what she says, baby. But it’s not true. They’re just using you to get to Mommy.”
“Are you for real?” I snap. “Luka, honey, come here.”
Immediately, he tries to drop Yana’s hand, but she refuses to let go. “No! This is my son, you bitch. Go get your own.”
I keep my tone calm and even. “How mature. Can we please be adults for ten minutes, Yana? For Luka’s sake?”
“Don’t tell me how to behave with my own son!”
“Ow.” Luka winces, trying to pull his wrist from Yana’s grip. “Mom, let go. You’re hurting me.”
“Leave us alone!” Yana screams at me. “You’re upsetting him!”
“You’re the one who’s upsetting him! He’s had enough. Let him go!”
