“What happened to Mikhail?” I ask. Roman is silent for a few moments and then takes a deep breath and squeezes me to him. “My father happened.” “Dear God. He . . . did that to him? Why?” “It’s a long story, malysh. A long and terrible story, and definitely not something I want to talk about in our bed. You’ll have nightmares.” “That bad?” “No. It’s much worse than you could imagine, Nina.”
