Chapter 28
CINDY
The morning sickness finally eased, replaced by a gentle roundness that's becoming harder to hide under loose tops. At four months, the baby feels more real every day. Our secret is about to become very public.
Leo sits cross-legged on the living room carpet, building an elaborate fortress with his Legos while Luka and I exchange glances over his head. We've been planning this conversation for days, waiting for the right moment to change his world forever.
"Hey, buddy," I say, settling down beside him on the floor. "Can you pause the construction for a minute? We have something important to tell you."
His eyes light up with curiosity. "Are we going somewhere fun? Like Disneyland?"
Luka chuckles, moving to sit on Leo's other side. "Even better than Disneyland."
I take a deep breath, my hand unconsciously drifting to my stomach. "Leo, how would you feel about being a big brother?"
For a moment, he just stares at us, processing. Then his face breaks into the biggest grin I've ever seen. "You mean there's a baby? In your tummy?"
"There is," I confirm, laughing as he launches himself into my arms with enough force to knock me backward.
"This is the best day ever!" he shouts, then immediately pulls back with wide, serious eyes. "Can I pick the name? When is it coming? Will it be a boy or a girl?"
"Slow down," Luka says, ruffling Leo's hair. "One question at a time."
We spend the next hour fielding his endless stream of questions, watching his excitement bubble over with each new detail. He's already planning to teach the baby to play soccer and build Lego spaceships. The pure joy on his face makes my heart feel like it might burst.
That evening, after putting a very excited Leo to bed, I go downstairs to make myself a snack. Luka disappeared into his office an hour ago. He’ll tell me if I need to know. I don’t ask questions. I trust him. He’s doing all he can to keep us safe.
Luka finds me in the kitchen. I take one look at his expression and my stomach drops.
“What is it?”
"We found Charles," he says.
I drop the knife I was using to slice an apple. My hands are suddenly unsteady.
"Where?" I ask quietly.
"Safe house in Queens. He's been moving around since the warehouse." Luka's voice is carefully neutral, but I can read the tension in his shoulders. "He reached out through intermediaries. Wants to make a deal."
Mixed emotions churn in my chest like a storm. Relief that he's alive wars with anger over his disappearance—love tangled up with betrayal—until I can't separate one feeling from another.
“A deal?” I ask.
“He’s being hunted by two different groups, Cindy. He will die. It’s my hand or Kozlov’s. He’s coming to me because he wants me to save him.”
I slowly nod.
I owe Charles nothing. Not really. But he did take care of me in his own twisted way when I had no one. He is the only father figure I’ve ever had. He was a terrible father, but there were moments.
I have so many questions that only he can answer.
"I want to see him," I say.
Luka's immediate response is written all over his face. Hell no. But I press on before he can voice it.
"He's still my father, Luka. Whatever he's done, whatever mistakes he's made—he lost Anna and Drew. He's lost everything."
"He made his choices," Luka says. His tone is harsh. Angry. "Choices that put you in danger."
"I know." I step closer, placing my hand on his chest. "But I need to hear it from him. I need to understand why."
Something in my voice must convince him, because after a long moment, he nods. "I'll arrange it. But it happens on my terms, in a place of my choosing. And I stay with you."
"Of course."
An hour later, we’re on our way.
The warehouse Luka chooses is neutral territory—not his, not affiliated with any particular organization, just four walls and concrete floors where business can be conducted without interruption. Charles sits at a metal table in the center of the space, flanked by two of Luka's men.
The man waiting for me is a stranger. The person hunched over the table looks nothing like the man I wanted so desperately to love me like I was his daughter.
His face is gaunt and lined with exhaustion. His clothes hang loose on a frame that's lost too much weight too quickly. When he looks up and sees me, his eyes fill with tears.
"Cindy," he breathes, half-rising from his chair before thinking better of it. "You look... You look beautiful, sweetheart."
I want to run to him, to throw myself into his arms like I'm twelve years old again and he's rescuing me from a shitty foster home. Instead, I take the chair across from him, hyperaware of Luka's presence beside me like a protective shield.
"Charles." There’s a lump in my throat. Luka warned me, on the way over, that there was a very good chance this meeting would end with Charles dead.
I had to accept it.
Didn’t mean I had to like it.
His gaze drops to where my hand rests protectively over my still-small bump. Despite everything, his face lights up with something approaching his old smile. "Congratulations. Both of you. A baby—that's wonderful news."
"Thank you," I manage.
We stare at each other across the table.
"Why?" The question bursts out of me before I can stop it. "Why the lies? Why did you disappear and leave me to figure out the mess you made?"
Charles glances at Luka, eyebrows raised slightly. "Didn't you tell her?"
Luka shrugs, leaning back in his chair with deceptive casualness. "This is between you two. Your story to tell."
My father's shoulders sag even further. "I'm sorry, Cindy. I'm so damn sorry. I didn't realize how bad things had gotten with the shop until it was too late."
"What do you mean?"
He runs a hand through his thinning hair, looking every one of his fifty-eight years.
"Drew and Anna had been skimming money for months. Protection payments to the Kozlov organization, buying their way into good graces. I thought business was just slow, but they were bleeding us dry. I couldn’t make the payments to Luka.
They knew it. I—I think that was their plan all along. ”
Anna and Drew, stealing from their own father while smiling to our faces, planning their futures while destroying his.
"When I couldn't make the payment to Luka," Charles continues, "Drew told me not to worry about it.
Said the Kozlovs would take care of everything, that they had it handled.
" He looks directly at Luka now, something like defiance flickering in his tired eyes.
"It came down to my life and future, or his. I chose my family."
"You didn't choose me!" The words explode out of me, loud enough to echo off the warehouse walls. "You let him take me! You left me for dead!"
Charles flinches as if I've slapped him. "I made mistakes, Cindy. God knows I made terrible mistakes. I knew Luka. I knew he wouldn’t hurt you.”
“I didn’t! I didn’t know him. You made no attempt to get me back. And then you just left me! Kozlov wants to kill me. He almost succeeded. Twice!”
“I thought—I hoped—that if I disappeared, if they thought I was gone, they'd leave you alone."
"Your daughter paid the price for your choices,” Luka says. “They were never going to leave me alone. He’s my enemy.”
"I know that now." Charles looks between us, his face crumpling with grief. "I know I failed you, Cindy. I failed Anna and Drew, too, in the end."
The silence stretches until Luka breaks it. "You want to make it right? Tell me where Yuri is."
"Gone," Charles says immediately. "Bailed right after the warehouse fire. He's probably halfway back to Moscow by now or holed up somewhere planning his next move."
"Then you're not much use to me." Luka's tone doesn't change, but something dangerous creeps into his posture. "Which brings us to the matter of your debt."
I see the fear flash across my father's face, quickly suppressed but unmistakable. "Luka, please—"
"Here's my offer," Luka continues as if I haven't spoken. "You help me draw Yuri out. Convince him you're ready to make a deal, that you have information he wants. You do that, and I'll zero out your debt and arrange safe passage back to Russia."
"And if I refuse?"
Luka's smile is cold. "Then we finish what we started before you disappeared."
"Luka, no," I start to protest, but he holds up a hand.
"He's not that man anymore," I argue, looking between them. "Look at him. He's learned from his mistakes."
"Has he?" Luka's gaze never leaves my father's face. "Because from where I'm sitting, he still chose to save his own skin when things got tough. Still left his daughter to clean up his mess."
The words sting because they're true. I want to defend him. I want to believe that the broken man across from me deserves mercy and redemption. But this is Luka's world, and Charles made choices that put me in danger. In this life, those choices have consequences.
Charles seems to understand this, too. After a long moment, he nods slowly. "What do you need me to do?"
"I'll be in touch," Luka says, standing. "Until then, you stay exactly where my men tell you to stay. You don't contact anyone, don't make any moves without my permission. Are we clear?"
"Crystal."
I want to say something more, but I realize I’m never really going to get closure. Some bridges can't be rebuilt. Some betrayals cut too deep, leaving scars that never fully heal.
"I'm sorry it came to this," I tell him quietly.
Charles nods, his eyes bright with unshed tears. "So am I, sweetheart. So am I."
As we walk away, Luka takes my hand and squeezes. This is my family now. Charles had his chance to choose me.
He chose differently.
Now he gets to live with those consequences, just like the rest of us.