Chapter 21
Twenty-One
The Present
I bookmark his journal and stare up at the stars.
That morning at the Knight estate changed everything and altered our destinies.
It’s mind-blowing how something so awfully tragic can also bring about something truly wonderful.
It’s like the dichotomy of yin and yang, good versus evil, light and dark, hate and love, enemies to lovers, angels and devils.
The world exists in opposites of symbiotic duality. Without one, there can’t be the other.
Aleksander returns with a freshly made hoagie and a bowl of ice cream. I take the ice cream and immediately dig in.
“A lot from that day is still a blank. Cillian never told me how he knew you’d be there that morning or how he found out about your plans.”
Aleksander’s large body takes up most of the lounger when he slides in next to me. “Cillian’s idea of a distraction by blowing up the house was a bit over-the-top.”
That day was all sorts of fucked-up chaos.
I still don’t know exactly what transpired after the explosion.
Somehow, Drako and Pyotr got Aleksander, recovered Aleksei’s body, and were able to kidnap Francesco and Helena as well.
Cillian’s men got me and the guys out and took us to him in Boston.
Patrick came out of the entire thing unscathed. How was all that possible?
“And it was Pearson,” Aleksander adds.
My spoon arrests midway to my mouth. “Pearson, as in Declan Levine’s Pearson? Andie’s Pearson?”
“One and the same.”
“No fucking way.”
“It’s a very small world, Songbird. Six degrees of separation isn’t a myth.”
I lick cookies and cream from my spoon as I make the connections. Pearson is Russian. His real name is Nikolai Volkov. Ex-bratva. “Petrov relative or former associate?”
“Both. He’s Drako’s third cousin, once removed.”
It really is a very small world. Aleksander and I are interconnected in so many ways. Our families. Our lives. Our pasts. It’s those knotted strings the Fates weave, tying us together in an intricate web.
A lightbulb moment hits me over the head with the subtly of a brick. “That’s how you found out I was in Texas with Andie. Pearson told Drako.” Aleksander nods, confirming my guess. “You came for me.”
He softly kisses the pulse point of my neck. “I will always come for you.”
Everything that happened after that night in Texas was the beginning of us.
Not of Aoife and Aleks, but of Syn and Aleksander.
Deep down, I knew I could trust him, even when he was manipulating me with those photos he hid in my journal for me to find.
Even after he dropped the whole “you’re my wife” bombshell on me.
I could have left Darlington when I discovered the truth, gone to Andie for help, or Cillian, but my broken compass veered me in another direction—straight to Aleksander.