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Just then, Ivica arrives with a plate of pancakes. She yelps when she sees Konstantin and immediately bows.
“Konstantin Yurevich! I didn’t see you there. I was bringing some food for Emily Samovna. Had I known that you would be here as well, I?—”
“That’s alright, Ivica.” I interrupt her with a smile, one more genuine than before. “I didn’t tell you. You can leave the pancakes here, thank you.”
“Of course.” She does as I command. After giving both of us a short bow, turns and walks away.
“Go ahead,” Konstantin turns his attention back to me. “Take the time you need. The castle is wired with an international data line, so it’ll be as if you never even left the States. When you’re ready, I’ll be in my office.”
His office …I’m not sure that I’m ready to find him there after everything that’s happened this morning.
“Okay.” It’s all I can manage to say.
Konstantin walks away, and I wait until he’s out of view before turning my phone on. Just like he says, it’s fully charged. As soon as I turn it on, a stream of missed messages starts rolling in. Every one of them is from my parents asking if I’ve made any progress on finding out anything else about Olivia’s life insurance policy.
But as I scroll towards the recent ones, Nadia’s texts start taking over.
Every one of them is asking if I’m doing okay and if there’s anything she can do to help me.
My heart sinks the longer I scroll. She must be worried sick that I haven’t responded. A few of them must have been sent when she was drinking. But it’s the most recent ones that stab at my heart.
NADIA: Emily, what’s going on? Talk to me, please!
NADIA: Are you okay? Please talk to me. I’m worried about you!
NADIA: Please call me back. If I don’t hear back from you soon, I’m going to NYPD.
“Oh no”.
What had started as a lie to stop Konstantin from finding out about what his grandmother did to me turned out to be the awful truth.
I have to call her.
I scroll to her contact info and press the call button.Please answer. Please, please, answer!The line rings, and my anxiety crawls ever higher.
“Emily? Is that you?”
“Nadia! Yes, oh my God, I’m so sorry!”
“Oh my god!” she says on the other end. “Thank goodness. I thought you might’ve, I don’t know, gotten kidnapped or murdered or something. Because when I went over to your sister’s apartment, there was police tape everywhere. Apparently some guy got murdered there the other day, and you weren’t answering and so I thought … I thought that you …”
Oh, Nadia …Guilt washes over me again.
“Nadia it’s okay.” I muster up a weak laugh. “I’m fine. I’m alive. I’m talking to you right now, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, you are.” She breathes a sigh of relief. But then, her voice gets sharper. “What’s going on? Wait … where the hell are you? I haven’t heard a damn thing from you since Italy!”
“I know, I know, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
Panicking on the spot, I drill my brain for options. If I tell her I’m in Croatia, she’ll have a hundred more questions. And I have afeeling that if I were to start telling her about Konstantin, about the deal we made, and about the truth of why he’s keeping me here …
I can’t tell her. I can’t make her worry about me when she can’t do anything to help.
So, despite my own reservations, I lie again. “I’m staying at another friend’s place in Brooklyn. But I must’ve caught something on the way back from Italy because I’m as sick as a dog right now.”
“For almost two weeks?” Her voice lilts higher at the end. “Jesus, are you okay?”
