Now she’d find out if she’d told him the truth.

*  *  *

“As deals go, it’s not bad,” the warning woman explains. Her name is Jill, so she says, and Iris has not seen her since Grant was a baby. Before all this, Iris last saw Jill in a Saint Petersburg café, faking a slight Russian accent, whispering a warning not to proceed with the adoption. “The evidence and the statements from his accomplices clear both your husband and your daughter; the blame is laid on this man known as Patrick Marland, whom Horvath hired as an accomplice. You all move from Austin, drop out of sight for a few years, it’s forgotten. News cycles are measured in minutes now. But we think it’s best you be here, close to the Agency, where the government can offer you protection.”

“And what about Mike? Does his story get buried along with him?”

“The late Mikhail Vladimirovich Ivanov, as we know him. The Russian government isn’t keen on acknowledging that one of their president’s billionaire inner circle and former intelligence officers went back to his active espionage background to exact a personal revenge. And then helped murder American citizens. The Russians will paint him as not close to the president, using criminals like Marland for his scheme and having gone rogue.”

“I just want to understand it…” Iris begins, but then she realizes she understands, at some level, what drove Mike. He wanted his child back. “If he was the father, why didn’t he just say so?”

“Because he knew you would never surrender Grant, and Grant would not go willingly with him. And he wanted to make you pay for Anya’s death. And also because if he had, certain…activities in his past would have come to light, and he couldn’t maintain his billions or his position if they had.” Jill clears her throat. “Years ago, Danielle worked for the CIA as a courier. One of her contacts that she received information from was…Mike. One of the others was Anya, who spied on Mike and his close friends for us.”

“And if he announced we had his son…that would have come out?”

“Yes. Most of the trusted advisers around the Russian president share his background of having worked for the KGB and then becoming powerful leaders of business in Russia. Mike was no different. Except he had shared information with us. He could only gain his son through treachery. So he forced Danielle to help him destroy your family.”

Iris closes her eyes for a moment.

“The flash drive Kyle found in Danielle’s house? It was insurance she thought she could keep to protect herself from Mike. A record of payments made to two Russian agents in the employ of the CIA from years ago, who passed along information to Danielle when she would come to Russia for adoption visits. She used their CIA code names: Lark and Firebird.”