"It's the only answer." His voice is not unkind, but there’s no softness in it. I’m glad he’s not trying to soften this. That’s not what I need right now. “Yuri will look for weakness. If he sees it, he’ll exploit it. If he doesn’t, he’ll manufacture it. Your reign will be tested from the first day and every day after that. That will be true no matter what you inherit."
"So what do I do abouthim. Today. What do I do with him?"
"I can't tell you that." He says it simply. "You know the problem. I can't give you the solution. If I give it to you, you wouldn’thave built it. And anything you haven’t built, you won’t be able to hold.”
“You won’t help me.”
“I won’t be here to do your thinking for you, Sofia.” There’s anger in his words. At me. At fate. At everything. "Whatever is coming, comes after me. I can't fight it from wherever I'll be, and I can't solve it for you now. You have to be the one left standing when it's over."
I hear him clearly. Hold your seat. Don’t die. And do it alone.
I’ve always known my family was small. In that moment, I understand the rest: I am standing in a city full of enemies with no one between them and me.
“When it’s over?” I ask.
"Don't die," he says. I used to think that was his version of I love you. Now I'm not sure it isn't just instructions.
“You think I will,” I say.
His eyes are a little cloudy these days, but there’s nothing uncertain in them now. “Yes.”
I nod, accepting his prediction of my untimely death.
I stand up. "Goodnight."
"Sofia."
I stop at the door.
He doesn't say anything else. He just looks at me in the lamplight for a moment. He doesn’t say he hopes I won’t die. He doesn’t say anything at all.
I leave his bedroom and slowly walk to my own.
For the briefest second I let myself imagine running. I have money. I could walk away and never look back. There’s a long life ahead of me if I choose to stop being Sofia Baranova.
All I have to do is give up.
I can’t. I won’t. I promised myself I would never give up again.
6
Sergei
There’s enough firepower in this room to start a war.
I scan the exits first. Then the men between them and me.
Not all of them are fast enough to matter.
The five-family meetings always run on the same lie. That we’re civilized. That we’re aligned. That the blood between us stays under the table as long as nobody reaches too fast.
Most days, it works.
Today, Yuri Baranov is sitting in a seat that isn’t his.
Where’s Mikhail?
I know where Sofia is. Class first. Then the gym.