Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Z
Victor stared at the photograph until Aliyah feared he had stopped breathing.
Elena sat beside a window.
Her hair was shorter.
Her face thinner.
But the blue eyes matched every photograph in Victor’s penthouse.
On the back was a date.
Eight months after Saint Agnes Hospital.
“No,” Victor said.
Anton remained calm.
“She survived.”
Victor crossed the distance between them and slammed him against the wall.
“You have five seconds.”
Anton smiled despite Victor’s hand around his throat.
“Ask your lawyer.”
Victor stopped.
“Gabriel?”
“Ask him who signed Elena’s death certificate.”
Victor released Anton.
Aliyah saw something she had never seen before.
Victor Malenkov looked lost.
Anton adjusted his collar.
“The shooting wasn’t supposed to kill Elena.”
“You arranged it.”
“Yes.”
Victor struck him.
Anton hit the floor.
Aliyah did not intervene.
Anton wiped blood from his mouth.
“I arranged for her to be frightened.”
“You put a bullet inside my wife.”
“The gunman missed his mark.”
Victor reached for him again.
Aliyah caught his arm.
“Victor.”
He stopped.
Barely.
Anton looked at her with curiosity.
“So it’s true.”
“What?”
“He lets you touch him.”
Victor’s expression promised death.
Anton stood.
“Elena discovered Victor’s organization was being used to move weapons through humanitarian shipments.”
Aliyah looked at Victor.
His face changed.
“You knew?” she asked.
“No.”
Anton laughed bitterly.
“Victor never knew half of what happened inside his empire. He wanted legitimate ports, construction, unions. Gabriel and Reed wanted more.”
Victor slowly turned.
“Gabriel.”
“Your trusted attorney.”
Anton nodded.
“He built the financial network. I helped. Elena found records.”
“Why would Gabriel hide her survival?”
“Because she could destroy him.”
Victor stared at the photograph.
“What happened at Saint Agnes?”
“Reed controlled the police detail. Gabriel paid a surgeon. Elena was transferred under another identity after you left.”
Victor went white.
“Where?”
“A private clinic in Maine.”
“And Denise?”
Anton’s smile vanished.
“Denise saw too much.”
Aliyah stepped forward.
“You killed my mother.”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Reed.”
Her hands shook.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing.”
“I was trying to stay alive.”
Aliyah slapped him.
The sound cracked across the pub.
Anton accepted it.
“You deserved worse,” she said.
“Yes.”
Victor looked back at the photograph.
“Where is Elena?”
Anton was silent.
Victor grabbed him.
“Where is my wife?”
“She died eleven years ago.”
Everything stopped.
Anton continued.
“Cancer.”
Victor released him.
For one awful moment, Aliyah thought Victor might collapse.
“She was alive for a year?”
“Fourteen months.”
“And she never contacted me?”
“She tried.”
Anton removed a folded envelope.
The paper had yellowed.
Victor recognized the handwriting before touching it.
Elena.
His hands trembled violently.
Aliyah looked away as he opened it.
Vitya,
If this reaches you, then Anton kept his promise.
Please understand that I chose not to return.
They told me they would kill you if I did.
More importantly, I learned things about your world I cannot unknow.
I loved you. I think part of me always will.
But love cannot survive every truth.
Do not spend your life looking backward.
You were always better when you were moving.
Forgive me for leaving.
Forgive yourself for not being there.
E.
Victor read the last line three times.
Forgive yourself for not being there.
Aliyah felt tears sting her eyes.
Victor folded the letter carefully.
“Why now?” he asked Anton.
“Because Gabriel knows Denise left evidence.”
Anton looked at Aliyah.
“He believes she has it.”
“The tape?”
“More than that.”
Aliyah frowned.
“My mother mentioned a blue notebook.”
Anton nodded.
“Elena’s ledger.”
“Where is it?”
“I thought Denise hid it.”
Aliyah remembered the safe-deposit box.
“There was no notebook.”
Anton’s face tightened.
“Then someone removed it.”
Victor looked toward the door.
“Nikolai.”
No answer.
Victor frowned.
“Nikolai?”
A gunshot sounded outside.
Victor moved first.
The alley was empty except for a black sedan speeding away.
Nikolai lay beside the curb.
Blood spread beneath him.
Aliyah ran.
She dropped to her knees.
“Call 911!”
Victor already had his phone out.
Aliyah pressed both hands to Nikolai’s abdomen.
“Stay with me.”
His eyes fluttered.
“Miss Brooks.”
“Don’t talk.”
“Victor.”
Victor knelt.
Nikolai gripped his sleeve.
“Gabriel.”
Victor went still.
“He took the book.”
An ambulance arrived seven minutes later.
Aliyah rode with Nikolai.
Victor followed.
At Massachusetts General, Aliyah stood outside surgery still wearing blood on her coat.
Victor approached.
“I should never have brought you into this.”
She looked at him.
“You didn’t.”
“What?”
“My mother brought me into it twelve years ago by trying to do the right thing.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I can send you away.”
“Stop.”
“You could leave Boston tonight.”
“Stop deciding what I should do because you’re scared.”
Victor stared.
Aliyah lowered her voice.
“You think protection means controlling everything around you.”
“It has kept people alive.”
“Has it?”
The question hurt.
She saw it.
“Elena spent fourteen months hiding because everyone around you made choices for her.”
Victor looked away.
“My mother spent years afraid because powerful men decided she didn’t deserve the truth.”
Aliyah stepped closer.
“You want to protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Then trust me enough to let me choose.”
Victor’s eyes returned to hers.
“What do you choose?”
“You.”
The word surprised both of them.
Aliyah breathed.
“Not your money. Not your guards. Not whatever criminal empire you think makes you invincible.”
She touched his chest.
“You.”
Victor looked at her hand.
Then he covered it with his.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
“Neither do I.”
“I may get you killed.”
“You may also annoy me to death.”
His mouth almost smiled.
Aliyah rose onto her toes and kissed him.
Victor did not move.
For one terrifying second, she thought she had made a terrible mistake.
Then his hand came to the back of her neck.
He kissed her like a man learning how to breathe again.
Slowly at first.
Carefully.
Then twelve years of restraint fractured.
When they separated, Victor pressed his forehead to hers.
“No one has kissed me since Elena.”
Aliyah whispered, “I know.”
“I thought it would feel like betrayal.”
“And?”
His thumb brushed her cheek.
“It feels like survival.”
Behind them, the surgery doors opened.
The doctor stepped out.
“Nikolai made it.”
Aliyah closed her eyes in relief.
Victor kissed her forehead.
Then his phone rang.
Gabriel Stone.
Victor answered.
Gabriel’s voice came through the speaker.
“I have the blue ledger.”
May you like
Victor’s face became ice.
“And if you ever want Aliyah’s mother’s full confession released instead of burned, you’ll come alone.”
