Page 34 of The Fixer
Ophelia
“Malda— what are you doing here?”
She smiled broadly at me.
I shuffled to the side, gesturing her in with a sweep of my arm. “I’m just about to eat. I’ve been neck deep in paperwork and computer screens all morning.”
“Find anything interesting that I should know about?” she asked.
Pursing my lips thinly, my brows furrowed while I shut the door behind her. What had I learned so far, sifting through a lifetime of bitterness and bad business models? Just that my dad hated Martin more than he was willing to verbally admit ? Martin wasn’t going to run awaywithhis pregnant girlfriend. He was going to runfromher… which wasn’t out of character for him. “My dad’s girlfriend was emailing him asking to meet her. I called her and she said she’ll be here in… about 20 minutes.” All the legal stuff I hadn’t thought about was rushing at me, and I fought a shiver of disgust. My dad wasmarriedwith kids; whatever legal leg this lady thought she had to stand on wasn’t as strong as she thought it was.
Quietly, Malda and I walked to the kitchen. I popped open the refrigerator with a heavy sigh. “She seems to think I’ll honor whatever she wants because my dad was ‘in love’ with her. I have all their emails and stuff. And he did promise her some stuff… like, he’d keep paying for her apartment, and they did briefly talk about what would happen when he died. I hope she doesn’t get all crazy, but I’m not sure how to deal with it. I was thinking of just giving her a lump sum of her estimated living costs for 20 years.”
“That’s very generous. Why indulge her at all?” Malda asked. “She’s only a few years older than you, and she was having an affair with your dad.”
Shrugging lightly as I grabbed a package of ground beef, I checked the date absently as my mind whirred.
“What about his other mistresses?” Malda suggested.
“She seemed like the most rational, so I decided to deal with her first. I honestly think she’s genuinely upset that my dad’s dead. I think she really liked him, even if she didn’t love him. I’m doing it because I just want her to go away and it’s honestly, not a lot of money. $3million Rubles should be on the higher end.” The problem was that even though this woman seemed to be my father’s favorite, she wasn’t the only one. His emails kept piling up…why did he suddenly stop correspondence? Was everything okay? Then, it all turned into anger at being ignored. “I sent out a mass email to the five of them explaining that he’d died suddenly, that I would appreciate it if they would just move on with their lives. This woman, Gigi was the only one who wanted to meet in person immediately.”
Malda cocked her head at me. “If she’s so rational, don’t you think it’s suspicious if your dad convinced her he was in love with her?”
Shaking my head, I set the package of meat on the counter as I pondered this notion. I didn’t care for this situation at all, but Ihadto deal with it. If I could make these women go away… good. I didn’t want to destroy them financially and emotionally because of my father’s empty promises. Ducking under the island to grab a cast iron pan, my lips twisted in a scowl before parting. “I guess there’s really no way to know for sure until I meet her. Speaking of suspicious… why areyouhere? Was Sascha too swamped or something to talk to you?” When I straightened, Malda was nodding, and my frown smoothened some. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I dropped by the University, but he was preparing for a lecture and I hate being there, anyway. I didn’t try too hard. I came by because I have an invitation for you from the Patriarch.”
Pausing at this, I clenched my jaw hard.
Malda leaned on her elbows on the island. “Makovich has been invited to America by Carlyle Santino, the leader of the Syndicate.”
Blinking hard, I sucked in a sharp breath as my heart leapt into my throat.
Malda cocked her head again.
The silence pooled in my gut in the form of dread. I didn’tfucking wantto go to America under pressure! Especially with Aleksander or Vyachaslav, or anyone else who wasn’t Sascha.His brother lives in America, though…“I can’t say ‘no’, can I?”
Her dark eyes narrowed before Malda shook her head slightly.
A deep sigh issued from my lips. “Why?”
“You’re a fixer, Ophelia. You have to fix this rift between Santino and Makovich. We need to get back into the States and Nikayev’s attempts to negotiate with Carlyle hasn’t gone well. If you succeed, you’ll save Aleksi and Erik’s livesandmake us a lot of money. Not to mention you’ll get to wag your tongue in Aleksander’s face some more.”
“… The Patriarch wants me to fix our relationship with Santino when I haven’t fixed the problems created by the attempt on his life?” Scrunching up my nose at my own question, I turned to the stove as my thoughts rushed behind my eyes.
Malda simply waited for me to work through this problem.
I braced against the oven door railing. “If he wants me to stop digging, I’ll stop. I don’t like not having answers, but if whatever I find puts me at such risk, I can deal with it. I figured that if Vyachaslav really did orchestrate his fake murder attempt, he’s not making this up as he goes along.”
“What is it you think is going on, Ophelia?”
Why is everything changing so suddenly?Closing my eyes to focus, I tugged my lower lip between my teeth. My parents and brother had been dead two weeks; every secret they’d ever had was coming to light. I’d gotten the best of Aleksander and I knew hehatedthat I did. I just didn’t want to be afraid of him the way I felt when we first met in person.I’d basically achieved that.“I think Vyachaslav planted the idea of assassinating himself to the families so Aleksander’s streamlining of the business would be easier. I think he’s pretending to be disappointed even though everything happened exactly how he thought it would.I think… he and Aleksander are fooling everyone and I was the one who didn’t react as expected, which is why Vyachaslav is doing damage control.” Tilting my head back to watch Malda through narrowed eyes, I licked my lips heavily. “Aleksander wasn’t hastily emotional when he did what he did. The only thing that didn’t go as planned… I was better at my job than they’d anticipated.”
“… You think very highly of yourself, Ophelia, and with good reason. You’re exactly right. You are truly formidable.”
I took this as a threat, not a compliment.
Malda ducked her head in a nod. “How long did it take you to figure out that Aleksander was fooling everyone?”