Chapter 11
-Kirrill-
“K-Kirrill…?” Ekaterina asks in surprise, looking between Wesley and I. “What are you…what are you doing here?” She practically whispers, her eyebrows creased in confusion. “Why didn’t you tell me you were here? I was worried about you,” she says softly, and god I want to believe her so badly.
The thing is, I don’t think she’s lying. I just don’t think that she realises how manipulative she always is towards me - acts a certain way, making me think something, and then saying the complete opposite, as if to reassure me.
The worst part is that it always works.
And I know that she’s not doing it deliberately, but that doesn’t stop it from hurting me.
“I don’t care whether or not you were worried about me. You should’ve replied to any of my calls, or even just a message saying ‘I’m safe’ would’ve been great. A proper explanation would’ve been…well that would’ve been unrealistic to expect.”
I’m being harsh, I know. And I’m hurting her with my words, but I can’t hold back. She has to know that I’m done with this.
“And just so you know, I don’t work for the Boss anymore. I’m through with all of that,” I continue, still not looking Kat in the eyes. She draws in a harsh breath, before nodding. “That’s good. He’s always been horrible to you, and I know that. You never deserved any of it. We can sort something out - I’ll get you paid for everything you’ve done for us, for the last twenty years, which he literally never paid you for.”
Frowning slightly, I’m not entirely sure how to feel about that. Obviously, being paid what I’m owed would be great; I know it’s a sizeable amount and I could afford somewhere to live, so that’d be nice.
But on the other hand…this feels like I’m being paid off. Bribed. And I know that’s not what this is, but it still makes me uncomfortable.
“Are you seriously trying to pay him off right now?”
Thank you, Wesley. He says what I’m too scared to, he confronts Kat time and time again on my behalf.
“No! Of course not! But it’s not fair that Kirrill has been working for us since he was a literal child, yet he’s never earned a penny from it! That’s ridiculous and something that I don’t have the power to sort out because my father will literally not listen to me at the moment. But if I- if I do what he wants, then he’ll do what I want too,” Ekaterina says more gently, glancing down at the floor.
“You’re going to…go back?” I ask hesitantly, not believing what I’m hearing. She looks up, and I finally meet her eyes. Kat nods, her eyes sincere. She’s not lying - not like she’d ever dare to lie to me anyway; I can see right through her.
“My dad- he contacted me, and I actually listened for once. He said that if I come back and take over, he’ll…tell me what really happened to my mum. He’ll tell me where she is.”
That’s a fucking lie and the Boss knows it.
He will never tell Kat the truth.
“He’s lying,” I say before I can stop myself. Kat shakes her head quickly, her eyes slightly glossy with tears. “He- he’s not, he can’t be! I just- I have to know, and I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Taking a step forwards, I will her with my eyes to listen to me. “Kat. Please, don’t trust what he says. He’ll lie to you, tell you what he wants you to think. I- I know what happened to Miroslava, and I could- I could tell you,” I say softly.
Kat’s gaze turns harder as she frowns at me. “What the fuck? If you knew then why didn’t you tell me?”
“It would hurt you,” I say simply. “And the Boss- he wouldn’t want me to tell you. I was worried about what he would do if I told you,” I continue, crossing my arms across my chest and hugging them to myself.
“But you know I would’ve wanted to know. That I do want to know. How would you feel if I knew where your dad was but didn’t tell you?” Kat asks quietly, sending a stab of pain through my heart.
“That’s not a fair comparison and you know it,” I whisper. My dad abandoned me. I love him, and he loved me, but he couldn’t- he couldn’t take care of me, so instead…he just left, without telling me anything.
Meanwhile, even from Kat’s perspective, her mother divorced her father and then left. That’s hardly being abandoned to become a homeless kid with no family whatsoever.
“But no matter how much the truth hurts, you’d still want to know, right?” Ekaterina continues, her gaze hopeful. She wants to hear the truth, no matter what. And she’s right…if I were in her position, I would want to know too.
Sighing, I reply with the tiniest nod. “You’re right. But if I tell you, some things will absolutely change. For one thing, you won’t trust your dad- this is if you even believe me, I mean obviously I hope you do, but still. And if you do believe me, and you stop trusting him…I think you should keep pretending that you do, and that you know nothing, until he officially hands you his title. Then, as the leader, he can’t do as much to hurt you,” I explain quickly, a confusing mixture of emotions clouding Kat’s eyes.
A gentle hand lands on my shoulder and it takes me a moment to realise that Wesley is still in here with us; he was so silent, just leaving Kat and I to talk for quite a while.
“If you want to do this now, then I can give you some privacy?” He suggests, glancing over at Kat. She smiles gratefully at him, before Wesley removes his hand from my shoulder, turning to go.
“Oh hang on, do you guys want to talk in my room instead? Just in case you don’t want Toby randomly walking in here or something,” Wesley proposes, smiling a little awkwardly. Once it’s just Kat and I in his room, I scrabble to grab some cohesive thoughts together about how to tell her everything.
“Just hit me with it,” she urges, her eyes desperate.
Not delaying any longer, I just say it. “The Boss tried to have her killed. She- she survived, thankfully. When we got to the hospital, she told me that he had stabbed her, but he’d heard someone coming and left before I arrived. He knew that I most likely realised it was him, because I was the one to find Miroslava. But she told me not to say anything, and to play dumb. So I told him that I thought someone had broken in and targeted his wife in order to get to him.”
Linking my fingers together, I daren’t even look at Kat’s expression. “And then Miroslava went missing from the hospital. For a long time I thought that the Boss had gone back and killed her, until one day someone slipped me a note from her. She explained that she had left the country and changed her identity, and that one day she was going to come back and get the Boss put in prison. I haven’t heard from her since then,” I finish, finally looking at Ekaterina.
She meets my eyes, tears in her own. “Thanks for telling me, Kirrill. I’m sorry for always being a shit friend and an even worse sister. I never-“ she takes a deep breath, wiping her eyes. “I never took care of you like you looked after me. And no matter what I do, I seem to hurt you. I have so much to work on with myself, and I thought- I thought I was doing well, but I went and majorly fucked up. Again.”
Moving to sit beside her, I wrap my arms around Kat’s waist. “I’m not going to keep doing what I have been for you, ok? Can we just…start over?” I suggest, willing to put behind me everything that Kat has put me through, because I love her and I want her in my life.
I love her.
Not in a romantic way, obviously, but…she is my family. She has always been my family, and she will always be my family.
No matter what.
“I would really, really love that, thank you,” she whispers, hugging me tightly, shaking a little as she cries. Stroking her back, I begin to formulate a plan in my mind.
“You know…” I begin, pulling back from the hug slightly. “Miroslava left me a way to contact her one time, if I ever desperately need her help. She said that she owed me or some bullshit, and that I could rely on her if I needed to. How about…we contact her, and see if she’s ready to come back and work on that plan of hers?” I suggest, knowing that during her father’s betrayal, Kat will need her mother back.
And it’s the perfect time to screw him over.
Ekaterina gives me the most determined smile she can, nodding resolutely. “Thank you. Let’s get that fucker punished for what he’s done.”
My gut twists at the word punishment slightly and my burns sting as if knowing what caused them.
Catching my discomfort, Kat touches my cheek lightly, turning my head to look at her. “What’s wrong? What- what happened?” She asks gently, cautiously. As if knowing that she has no right to even ask me this.
Standing up, I shake my head. “I don’t really want to talk about it. And just one last thing, Kat,” I say, gripping the handle of Wesley’s door. “This is your last chance,” I turn back to look at her, making sure that she can see the seriousness in my eyes.
“If you fuck up like this again, I’m going to pull a Wesley and tell you to get out of my life.”
The woman smiles wryly, nodding. “I know. And I won’t. I know I said that last time too, but I- I can’t afford to. I can’t lose you and I can’t lose Wesley either,” she whispers. I still have a lot of issues with her, especially with how she didn’t contact me, but came crawling back to Wesley.
But we’ll talk about it all, in time. For right now though… “then next stop: get your best friend back,” I say with a small smile. “If he wants you back, of course,” I frown, realising that I don’t really know Wesley’s stance on this.
But Kat is about to, apparently.
Wesley opens the door, his eyes meeting mine for a brief moment before I step out of the room, closing the door behind me, leaving the two of them alone to talk.
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