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I’m white as I turn back to him.

“Okay,” I whisper. “Yes, it was me writing to you. But I didn’t…” I close my eyes, hugging myself as a chill rips through me. “I didn’t know it wasyouwriting back.”

He barks out a joyless laugh.

“I wanted it to be!” I blurt, the tears falling more freely now. “I really, really wanted it to be you. Since we’ve been together?—”

“We’re not fuckingtogether.”

A sob strangles in my throat.

“Since…this, then,” I say, weeping. “I’ve wondered about it all the time, if itwasyou. I wanted it to be youso much. Tonight, I was reading our old notes—I…” I look down. “I saved them.”

He says nothing.

“I came across one where you were talking about Krakatoa. And you always finished them with “be heard”, which you said the other day. And?—“

“This is alovelyfucking story, Milena,” Nero snarls. “But you’re conveniently leaving out the part where youSET ME UP!!”

His roar is so brutal that I scream and stumble backward, tripping over the chain around my feet. I hit the ground with a painful smack, sobbing as hot tears stream down my face.

“Save it,” he snarls. “The little crying act isn’t going to work.”

“It’s not an act!” I wail. “Andthat!”…I turn and jam a finger at the TV…“Is not me! I never had that conversation with my father! It's overdubbed or something! Maybe it’s voice actors! Or AI!”

Nero barks another thin, cold laugh. “AI? Are you fucking kidding me, Milena? How veryau courant. Fuck off.”

“I never set you up!” I scream at him. “I didn’t know until I got home that night that my uncle had sent men?—”

My mouth snaps shut.

The room goes still.

And suddenly, though I wouldn't have thought it possible, he looks even angrier.

“You…” His face contorts with rage. “Youknew,” he snarls lethally.

I’m trembling as I shake my head side to side. “Nero?—”

“Let’s pretend,” he hisses, “that I believe for one fucking second that you didn’t set me up—no,” he snaps. “Donotfucking talk right now.” His jaw grinds. “Let’s say that youjust happenedto come meet me and fuck me right before assholes with guns barged in and tried to kill me after murdering my parents at my father's restaurant.”

His hands tighten so hard around the bars that his knuckles go white.

“You still went home that night and found out that the men who killed my parentswere sent by your family.”

I swallow, trembling.

“DIDN'T YOU!!” he bellows.

“Yes!” I sob, crying freely as I hug myself, shaking all over. “Nero! I’m sor?—”

“I don’t want your fucking sorry!!” he roars. “Youknew. You kept meeting up with me, and fucking me, and you listened to me tell you about my goddamn parents, and the whole timeyou fucking knewthat it was your family that killed mine!!”

Darkness throbs around us as I drop to my knees, crying and shaking.

“I’m proud of you,malyshka. Doing what the family needs you to do.”

“Of course, Papa. This is what we Kalishniks do. Besides, he means nothing to me. It’s all a means to an end.”