Page 17 of The Lies Between Lovers

Many things.

He had a whole list for that, too.

“I know you’re crazier than batshit,” Feliks said, “on your good days, yeah, but I have done my very best to make my existence non-existent to you, Vas. Why can’t that be good enough?”

Vaslav cocked his head to the side, his gaze narrowing into slits. “How much was Nico planning to float you for The Swan House to get you through the year?”

Still confused, Feliks let out an anxious laugh. “I don’t know. What does that even matter or have anything to do with why you’re here? We had only discussed the initial—”

“What were the plans for the money?”

“It wasn’t going to anything outside of The Swan House, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I wasn’t. What were the plans for the money?”

If he had to ask again, Feliks was going to learn just what Vaslav planned to use to split his tongue. And it was not his very sharp knife. More like the dull edge of the man’s letter opener on his desk.

“You have to understand—”

Vas stood from the desk, already reaching for the letter opener that Feliks had left on the edge of the desk.

“To fund a production,” Feliks rushed to say. Whether or not he had figured out Vaslav’s next intentions without being told, he didn’t care. “Or mostly, to fund the production side of the company because I have nothing left over after classes and students are paid for. Even the scouts haven’t pulled in the money it used to over the last couple of years. We might as well be garbage to the rest of the ballet world at this point.”

Fascinating.

“She always said you’d run it into the ground,” Vas mused.

Feliks stiffened.

He didn’t ask who.

There was only one her between them.

Irina.

“She wanted to walk away from it,” Feliks returned, his words almost a hiss.

“Well, who was willing to play your father’s games, hmm?”

That shut the man up.

Fast.

“And look who lost because of it,” Vaslav added, quieter, too low for Feliks to hear.

“What do you want?”

“Ah, the important question. Well done.”

“Vas, just get on with it and leave me alone,” Feliks said, exasperated.

Didn’t he know?

The only peace he’d find was in a grave.

“Seven-point-seven trillion,” Vaslav said.

Feliks scrubbed a hand over his face, a sigh muffled into his palm. “I can’t read your fucking mind, okay? None of us can despite the number of bodies you’ve dumped at people’s feet trying to prove we should. I’m going to need more information to go on here.”