Cream-colored.
Beneath it lay black trousers, undergarments, and a nightdress.
Everything was exactly my size.
On the nightstand sat a silver picture frame.
Empty.
I stepped closer.
No.
Not empty.
The photograph was turned facedown.
My pulse began hammering.
I reached for it.
Galina caught my wrist.
“Don’t.”
I pulled away.
The photograph showed me standing outside Massachusetts General Hospital.
Pregnant.
Smiling.
Daniel’s arm around my shoulders.
The twins alive inside me.
Written across the bottom in black ink were five words.
SHE WILL OPEN THE DOOR.
My knees weakened.
Galina took the frame from my hands.
“We must show Nikolai.”
A soft click came from behind us.
The bedroom door closed.
Galina turned.
A man stood inside the room.
He had entered without a sound.
Tall. Gray-haired. Impeccably dressed.
A gun rested in his hand.
Galina went rigid.
“Viktor.”
He smiled.
“So dramatic, all of you.”
Sofia was still in my arms.
I pulled her closer.
Viktor’s gaze moved toward the baby.
“Careful. She is worth more alive.”
Galina stepped between us.
“You betrayed him.”
“I corrected an imbalance.”
“You killed Daniel Carter.”
Viktor looked at me.
“No.”
The answer surprised me.
“Then who did?”
“Your husband killed himself the moment he discovered something beyond his understanding.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only one you will receive tonight.”
Footsteps sounded faintly in the corridor.
Viktor raised the gun toward the door.
Then he looked at me again.
“You were supposed to arrive here quietly.”
“You arranged the plane?”
“I arranged many things.”
“The attack?”
“That was necessary.”
“People died.”
“People always die when Nikolai refuses to listen.”
Galina’s voice trembled.
“What do you want?”
Viktor smiled again.
“The child.”
Nausea rolled through me.
I stepped backward.
His expression changed.
“Not that child.”
He pointed the gun at my stomach.
“The other one.”
For a moment, I thought he was mocking me.
“My sons are dead.”
“Your sons,” he said softly, “were never buried.”
The world stopped.
I heard the fire crackling.
Sofia’s faint breathing.
Galina whispering a prayer.
Nothing else.
“That’s a lie.”
“One was.”
My vision blurred.
“What?”
“One of your boys died in the hospital. The other was taken.”
The room tilted beneath me.
I gripped Sofia harder.
“No.”
“Your husband discovered the exchange too late.”
“What exchange?”
Viktor’s eyes gleamed.
“The medical records were altered. The death certificate was duplicated. One infant was cremated beneath two names.”
A sound came from my throat.
Not a word.
Not quite a cry.
Galina turned toward me.
“Elena…”
I could barely feel my legs.
“Where is he?”
Viktor’s smile vanished.
“That is why you are here.”
The footsteps outside grew louder.
Voices.
Roman shouting in Russian.
Viktor crossed the room and pressed the barrel of the gun against Galina’s ribs.
“Tell Nikolai to enter alone.”
Galina stared at him with hatred.
“Do it.”
She called out.
The door opened slowly.
Nikolai stood in the corridor.
His gun was already drawn.
Behind him, shadows moved.
His men.
Viktor tightened his hold on Galina.
Nikolai’s eyes went first to Sofia.
Then to me.
Then to the photograph on the floor.
“What did he tell you?”
I could not breathe.
“My son.”
Nikolai’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Viktor saw it.
So did I.
The horror on Nikolai’s face was not surprise.
It was recognition.
My blood turned cold.
“You knew,” I whispered.
Nikolai said nothing.
“You knew?”
Viktor laughed.
“Not everything. But enough.”
I looked at Nikolai.
The man who had told me I could not go home.
The man who had claimed to protect me.
The man who said my husband’s killer was his enemy.
“You knew one of my sons was alive.”
“Elena.”
“Say it.”
His jaw tightened.
“I knew there was a possibility.”
“For how long?”
Silence.
“For how long?”
“Three months.”
The exact length of time since the funeral.
I felt something break inside me.
Not grief.
Grief had already broken everything it could.
This was something else.
A door opening onto an abyss.
“You watched me bury an empty coffin.”
“I was trying to confirm—”
“You watched me believe he was dead.”
“I did not know where he was.”
“But you knew enough to find me.”
Nikolai’s eyes moved to Sofia in my arms.
“I found you because Daniel left your name in a file.”
Viktor pressed the gun harder against Galina.
“And now the touching reunion must end.”
Nikolai’s attention snapped back to him.
“What do you want?”
“A trade.”
“For whom?”
Viktor looked at me.
“Elena comes with me.”
“No,” Nikolai said.
“You don’t have a choice.”
“I always have a choice.”
“Then choose.”
Viktor’s gaze lowered to Sofia.
“The daughter you can see, or the son she cannot.”
Nikolai’s face became stone.
My heart pounded so violently it hurt.
“You know where my baby is,” I said.
Viktor looked almost amused.
“I know who has him.”
“Who?”
“You will learn when we leave.”
“You’re not leaving,” Nikolai said.
Viktor shifted the gun toward Galina’s heart.
“You have grown predictable.”
“And you have grown careless.”
A red dot appeared on Viktor’s forehead.
A sniper laser from outside the window.
Viktor froze.
Nikolai’s voice was quiet.
“Move the gun away from her.”
For the first time, fear entered Viktor’s face.
Then the lights went out.
Sofia screamed.
Gunfire exploded.
Glass shattered.
Someone struck me from behind.
I fell toward the carpet, twisting my body so the baby landed against my chest.
Men shouted.
Galina cried out.
A heavy weight crashed beside me.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red again.
Always red.
Viktor was gone.
