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“As true as that is, I’m still not marrying you.”
“I wasn’t really asking.”
He stands up and heads for the door as though that’s the end of the conversation. “Kolya!” He doesn’t stop walking until he’s at the threshold. Even then, he throws me a glance like it’s an afterthought. “What does a fake wedding entail exactly? What’s the point? What’s it going to do?”
He sighs wearily. “It’s going to force my cousin to make his move.”
“What does that mean? What move?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
39
JUNE
I pace back and forth until the news has sunk in. Then I head over to my sister’s room. I recognize the guard standing outside her door.
“I want to speak to my sister. Let me in.”
To my surprise, he shrugs and steps aside. “Genny?” I call out the moment the door shuts behind me.
She bursts out from the bathroom almost instantly. “June! What did the beast want?”
“Well…”
Her face falls. “Oh no. It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“It’s… um… not bad, per se.”
Geneva crosses her arms over her chest. “Spill, Junepenny.”
I shoot her a disgruntled glare. Sometimes, it feels like she’s purposefully trying to remind me of Adrian. It’s not like I need the reminder. I’m carrying around the reminder inside of me.
“He thinks we… that we should get married.”
“What?!” she screeches.
“Will you shush?” I hiss, glancing back towards the door. I grab her arm and pull her deeper into the room.
“H-he proposed to you?”
The way she says it snaps me out of the fog I’m in. Of course she thinks Kolya proposed to me. She believes that I’m carrying his baby. She believes that I’m with him.
Because that’s what I told her.
I lied to my sister. And right now, I can’t really remember why. Is it as simple and as pathetic as “Kolya told me to”?
I feel my heart shudder as I wonder where to go from here. Come clean or keep the charade alive? Geneva’s eyes are zinging with fire, and it’s making me nervous.
“Yes,” I say, because making a decision right now is just too hard. “He did.”
She grabs my hand and stares down at my empty left fingers. “Without a ring?”
I bite my bottom lip. “He had a ring; it just didn’t fit. He’s going to get it resized.”
“That’s a metaphor if I’ve ever heard one.” She lets go of my hand, but only to lock onto my upper arm and drag me even closer. “This is exactly why we need Ravil, June! He can save us from this. You don’t want to go down this road. I know you don’t.”
She’s wrong about so many things. She’s wrong that we need Ravil. She’s wrong that Ravil could ever stop Kolya from doing exactly what he wants.
