Page 32 of Ace of Hearts

“I was in a state of shock myself. I never thought I’d dare to do it. I didn’t mean ... I didn’t mean to kill him, of course. I just panicked. I didn’t want to die.”

I didn’t want to die .

I know I should be panicking now. I should be frightened.

I should get as far away as possible, go to my father and tell him I’m bailing out.

But ... but, there’s only one thing I want to do: send everyone else out of the room and take Levi in my arms. Stroke his hair and tell him it will be all right.

Kiss him on the mouth until he forgets everything else.

How has he managed to live with that on his conscience?

“I was stunned after it happened,” he continues.

“My mother immediately grabbed the gun and ordered me to keep quiet. I realized she was going to claim responsibility. I started to cry and said I wouldn’t obey, but she told me there was no way her son was going to prison for something that was her fault. ”

“But it wasn’t her fault, or yours! It was self-defense. If you hadn’t fired, you’d probably both have ended up dead.”

“She’s right,” says Li Mei. “He was hitting you. All that physical and psychological damage over so many years ... It’s impossible to imagine. Anybody in that situation would lose their head.”

“But it’s not that simple,” says Thomas, “especially since Russia decriminalized any acts of domestic violence that don’t lead to hospitalization. Jacob wasn’t armed, so self-defense would have been difficult to prove.”

It would have indeed. I hadn’t thought of that. In that case, I guess his mother was lucky to get away with just ten years in prison.

“When the police arrived, my father was taken to the hospital,” Levi says, “but he died on the way.”

He explains that his mother immediately “confessed” to the police. He tried to tell the truth, not wanting his mother to take on his guilt, but the case was soon closed.

“They had my mother’s confession, and all the signs pointed to the same thing. Everyone thought I was lying to protect her ... when the opposite was true. She got ten years. I went to live with my uncle until I turned eighteen.”

All at once, the jigsaw pieces fall into place. Levi is traumatized. That’s why he has panic attacks every time he hears a noise like a shot. First the thunderstorm, then the fireworks. Every time it happens, he relives that terrible night and the act he still feels guilty for. I’m sure of it.

That’s what he wants to punish himself for. For having killed his father to save himself. For having let his mother pay for his crime.

“I inherited my father’s debts. I dropped out of school. A few days later, Tito gave an interview to the Italian media. He boasted that my father’s death meant he could win more easily from now on.”

I close my eyes, pain swelling in my chest. That bastard .

“I started playing poker myself, first to pay back the money I owed, then because I realized I was good at it. I had ten years ahead of me before my mother would be out of prison, and I vowed I’d use it to destroy the man who fucked my father over.”

“It’s all his fault,” I whisper, almost to myself.

A sad smile flickers briefly across his face.

“I don’t hold him responsible for what I did. I had a choice. I chose wrong. That’s my mistake. But ... I’ll never forgive him for having fleeced my father. That’s what ruined him. That’s what cost me my childhood. Our family life. Everything.”

He’s right. Even though Levi is responsible for what he did, he’d probably never have found himself in that situation if Tito hadn’t brought his father down.

Bringing people down is exactly what he always does.

And then, he lies. Like he did with me. He carefully avoided telling me all of that because he knew.

He knew if he did, I’d never have followed him into this.

“Which brings us ... here. Now,” Levi says, opening his arms to indicate the room we’re all sitting in.

I look at him with a mixture of compassion and anger—at Tito, at myself, at Levi’s father. I know what I said before, and I believe it: revenge is never the right answer. But I understand Levi’s reasons.

Levi Ivanovich is a victim of our parents, just as I am. Instead of hating him for stealing my father from me, I should have suspected he was going through something like I was. He didn’t choose to be in this situation either. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In fact, he should be the one hating me for what his family went through. He lost everything because of Tito. If he knew my secret, he wouldn’t be looking at me with such tenderness and blind trust. The thought makes my stomach turn over.

“So what are you planning to do?”

There’s a long pause before he replies; then he nods to the others and says, “Introduce yourselves to Rose. For real this time.”

“I’m Li Mei. I’m thirty, not twenty-four. I was born in Shanghai. I’m a Buddhist, and I’ve done a few years inside for burglaries—but in my defense, I only stole from the obnoxiously rich who have more money than they know what to do with.”

At the mention of her age, my eyes widen, which makes her smile with pride, and I’m even more amazed when I hear the second part.

In prison? Burglary? Who are these people?

“ I’m Lucky. I’m twenty-five, from Los Angeles, and I’m an architecture student. Oh and I’m also an escort. Li Mei is my ex ...”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” she butts in. “She didn’t need to know that. Ugh , please.”

“It’s an important detail, OK?”

He blushes furiously, folding his hands shyly as Li Mei mouths to me that I should forget everything he’s said. I’m speechless. So everything was ... fake.

I’d thought I was tricking Levi with my dual identity, but he’s been the one who’s been pulling the wool over my eyes from the start. He and his friends aren’t who they said they were. Every single thing he’s told me could turn out to be a lie.

“You already know the truth about me,” Thomas says, interrupting my thoughts. “I’m twenty-seven, I’m from Sweden, and I’m a bodyguard. None of us is a professional player. We all learned on the job from Levi.”

“But why?”

“The goal is for all four of us to make it to the final table, along with Tito.”

“And then?”

“Win, of course,” Levi says. “It doesn’t matter which of us it is, though obviously I’d like it to be me.”

Yes ... except he’s still hiding something very important from me. All the things I found on his USB key had nothing to do with poker.

Almost as if he’s read my thoughts, he adds, “It’s simple. There are two stages: first, we win the tournament; then we turn his investors against him.”

I think back to the proofs of bribery, and I get what he means. My father really is rotten to the core, isn’t he? And because of me, Tito has destroyed the evidence they had against him. Even worse, he’s on his guard now because he knows Levi’s after him.

I’ve messed up his plan, like an idiot.

I can’t help gazing at him in admiration. Levi is an absolute genius. He’s planned everything to perfection, or almost—he just didn’t factor my arrival into the equation.

Resentment gnaws at me, for having been betrayed by my father. All my life I’ve tried to make him proud, and for what? He doesn’t deserve my efforts. He isn’t the respectable man I thought he was.

And God knows I’d give a lot to see the look of horror on his face when Levi wins the tournament.

I make my decision there and then. I want to be part of this. It’s time to switch sides.

“So ... if I have this right,” I say, looking from one to the other of them, “this is your team?”

“Yes, why?”

“A color-blind killer, a sociopathic Chris Hemsworth look-alike, a Swiftie ex-con, and an escort addicted to rom-coms. Plus me, your fake fiancée with a gambling problem.”

Levi smiles at me. “That’s us!”

I nod.

“Fantastic. Count me in!”