“I don’t blame him for that.” I shrug. “He spent his entire life in my shadow. I can’t blame him for wanting to feel like he was in the spotlight with you.”

The fact that our fingers are still entwined means something, though I’ll be damned if I could put it into words. Her brow wrinkles with deep-etched concern. It makes me want to reach out and smooth her forehead with my fingers.

“You still care about him, don’t you?” she whispers.

“He’s my brother,” I say by way of an answer. “But… he’s crossed too many lines, medoviy. He died so that he could work against me from the grave. Then he came back to life just to finish the job. I can’t let this go unanswered.”

“That’s the don talking,” June says desperately. “Not the brother.”

“I made that distinction for years on end,” I say. “But I can’t do it any longer. If Adrian wants a war, he’s going to get one.”

“A war?” June gasps, withdrawing her hands from mine suddenly. “Kolya, you can’t—”

“He’s not a little boy anymore, June. And I’ve been patient. I gave him the benefit of the doubt for years. But now—”

“No,” she says, standing up abruptly before twisting around to face me. “Kolya, please.”

“You can’t be serious,” I snarl. “Even after everything he’s done, you’re going to stand there and plead his case?”

“He’s the father of my child.”

“He’s actively in the business of buying and selling women,” I growl. “He’s making an empire out of the same cesspit we lost our mother to. The same hell that Milana suffered in.”

She looks down, struggling to reconcile what Adrian has done with her need to save him. Her need to save everyone.

It’s her greatest gift.

It’s also her biggest weakness.

“We don’t know for sure if he’s involved in… in what you’re saying,” she argues meekly. “And if we don’t have proof, then we have to—we need to believe in him. I know he’s done horrible things, but so have you.”

I can feel the anger heating up in my chest. “Did you ever think about the fact that if I had acted sooner, then Adrian would never have involved you in the crash that cost you your dancing leg and your baby?” I slam a harsh, jarring chord on the piano as I rise up to join her. “If I had put my foot down, stopped his fucking nonsense early, then you would have been free of all the nightmares choking you out every time you go to sleep.”

She opens her mouth, but whatever answer she might’ve given dies on her tongue. Her lips come together, and she looks past me with a kind of hollow sadness that reminds me of my mother.

“June,” I say, taking a step towards her, “I know I should have been honest with you from the beginning. About The Accident, about Adrian, about all of it. But I didn’t want to hurt you.”