Page 73 of Depraved Royals
“I don’t know.” I stir my drink with the straw. “Any thoughts?”
“You told me you wanted to go to Paris. Pick up that lecture program at the Sorbonne.”
“I guess.”
I want my life with Kal, and I’m confident I’m making the right decision. If I leave the city quickly - the country, even - then by the time Papa finds out where I am, I’ll be far out of his sphere of control. Launch my art career in Europe, Florence, maybe? I never considered it before because Papa wouldn’t have wanted me to be far from home for so long. Now it doesn’t matter.
A family enters the diner. The parents are wrangling a mischievous toddler, a little girl. Her father is laughing as his daughter tries to climb up his leg. Behind them is an older couple, and from the resemblance, I’d say they are the child’s maternal grandparents. Grandma is scolding the toddler good-naturedly, coaxing her into a booth and distracting her with the puzzles on the back of the kid’s menu.
It’s not until Kal touches my arm that I realize I’m crying. The tears have puddled on my plate, and my fries are soggy.
“Fuck it,” Kal says. “I’m not letting this happen. We’re going home. Both of us.”
27
Kal
I’m standing in front of the house I thought I’d never return to, with Dani at my side.
“Are you sure about this?” she asks.
I nod. “Idina is grieving my brother, and so am I, although in many ways, I’ve been grieving him for years. She has only my sister and me, and I won’t help her fulfill her dreams of killing your father, so she may be in a reflective mood. Who knows?” I sigh. “But it’s gotta be worth a try. My mother used to frighten the shit out of me, but not anymore.”
I no longer have my key, so I ring the doorbell. It’s not Idina but Vera who opens it.
“Well, if it isn’t the prodigal son,” she says. “Why are you here? Come to kill me too?”
“Simeon died because our mother put him up to a job he couldn’t do. For an outside chance of getting what she wanted, she fucked around and found out. I warned her and you he couldn’t do it.”
Vera stands aside to let me in, and it’s only then that she notices Dani behind me.
“Oh, what the fuck?” Vera says, gesturing at Dani. “You had to bring her along? What good do you think that’s gonna do?”
I take Dani’s hand and pull her into the hallway. Something looks different, and then I notice.
The walls are covered in photos. Pictures I’ve never seen before. My siblings and I, at the beach, school sports days, and the park. Smiling but still looking somewhat uncomfortable. And a few taken at the Pushkin home, Erik and Idina standing with Fyodor and Marta. My mother is pregnant in some of them, and she’s holding me in one. It’s bizarre to see.
Vera sees me looking and scowls.
“You think there’s no good in her, but there is,” she says. “She’s heartbroken, Kal, just like I said she would be. She wants to remember the happy times in her life.”
Dani laces her fingers through mine. She sees my expression and knows I’m struggling.
“Tell her I want to talk to her,” I say to Vera. “There’s a way through this for all of us, and she can look forward to good times instead of clinging to the past. But she’s gonna have to eat humble pie with a side of crow to get there.”
Vera shrugs and goes upstairs. I hear her talking to Idina.
“So what are you proposing to do?” Dani asks.
“I want her to come to Fyodor, tell him the truth, and ask for his forgiveness. I believe he’ll give it. Maybe she’ll be a proper mother to me for the first time in her life. And I’ll be redeemed to your family and, hopefully, pardoned for the shit Ididdo.”
“It’smewho you need to beg forgiveness from.” Dani narrows her eyes at me. “When I saw you, I was too relieved to pick a fight, but I haven’t forgotten what you did to my art.”
“Me neither. I never will,milaya. You have that over me for the rest of our lives.”
Vera appears at the top of the stairs.
“So she’s willing to speak to you both,” she says. “Fuck knows why. You best come up here.”