But he wasn’t finished. “Right now, the only way he can get access to his brother’s vast fortune is through Yulia, so of course he has to care and keep her safe. If anything at all happened to her, the entire estate becomes a charitable trust.”
I thought back to how Yuri had over-reacted just because I had taken Yulia out of the house with me. Had that been not just out of care for her safety then? I shut my eyes. “So what do we do now?” I asked.
His answer came, “Just go on as though nothing happened. If Yuri even gets a whiff of our knowledge of any of this, then we will all be in trouble. If it’s too much for you to handle then just quit the job and walk away.”
Jesus, pretend as if nothing has happened? No wonder, little Yulia took the path of refusing to speak.
There was a noise of a vehicle arriving outside and three of us turned towards the window.
Ivan hurried over to the window and when he turned back, his eyes were filled with panic. “Yuri’s here.”
“He’s not supposed to be back until tomorrow,” I whispered.
Yulia instantly shot up to her feet. I watched her and now it all made sense. Her fear and instant change of mood every time Yuri walked into the room.
“Yulia return to your bedroom,” he said and but she didn’t move. He came to me, crouched down and pulled out a gun from behind him. “Hold onto this,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
I gazed at the dark cold metal in alarm, but just before I could ask what the hell I was supposed to do with it, he was out of the door. A few moments later, he hurried back in, tucking in I was certain another pistol behind him. “Yuri is on his way here,” he said to me.
“Why the hell do I need this?” I asked in a shaky voice.
“Most of the rooms in this house are monitored. He might have already caught on to what is going on.”
“That doesn’t answer my questio—”
The door was pushed open and Yuri stood there. He looked around the room at the three of us and said four simple words. “Yulia and April, leave.”
She instantly broke into tears and ran to me, wrapping her arms around my neck, refusing to let go. I rose to my feet then. Things happened really quickly after that.
Ivan suddenly drew out the weapon from behind him and pointed it directly at Yuri.
“No!” I screamed before I could hold myself back.
Yuri’s eyes were glued on Ivan. “What the fuck are you doing in my house?”
Ivan turned towards us. “April take Yulia out of the room.” His voice was cold steel. When I hesitated, he roared with a bone chilling urgency, “Right now! Use the gun I gave you, don’t let anyone stop either of you. There’ll be a car waiting downstairs.”
Yuri turned to me then at the mention of a gun. “April, I haven’t given my security any instructions,” he said. “The moment they catch sight of a gun you are finished. Don’t you dare leave this room.”
“April get out of here, right now!” Ivan yelled.
I had never been so torn, as I looked between him and Yuri.
Ivan went on, “Do you want to ruin Yulia’s life? This fucking bastard killed her parents.”
Yuri turned to me then. “Is that what this scum told you? And you believed him?”
“There’s a video,” I said.
“Did you see the video?” he asked.
“Yulia saw it, that’s why she hasn’t spoken for the past six months.”
Yuri looked devastated his gaze centered on me.
I couldn’t stand it. I was weakening, so I pulled out the gun and pointed it at him.
“It’s very easy to deceive a child with a video, April. Children don’t know what can be done with photoshop,” he said to me.
Now things clicked into place.
I took my first real breath in God knew how long as I finally received the only answer I was searching for. My hands were shaking when I whirled around unsteadily and pointed the gun at Ivan.
His eyes shot open in shock. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I believe Yuri,” I said.
Yulia began to pull at my legs. “April no!” she wailed.
I turned a stern gaze to her. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded.
“Good. Go to your bed right now and pull the covers over your head.”
She stared at me silently.
“Go!” I screamed at her.
Wailing, she refused to move.
I supported the gun with both hands, wishing in that moment more than anything in the world, that I had listened to Yuri when he’d told me to at least learn how to use the gun. Hopefully, I would somehow be able to escape here today without killing myself.
“April put the gun down and take Yulia to her room,” Yuri said.