Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

T atyana blinked her eyes open to rays of warm morning sun touching her face. She sat up in a panic, realizing as soon as she did that once again, she was waking up in her clothes from the day before, shoes removed, in a bed at the Admiral Hotel.

“What the hell is going on?”

Why was this happening? She had a vague memory of Oleg walking her into the lobby last night and Lorala and Marina helping her to her room and getting her into bed, but why was her memory so cloudy?

She’d had one glass of wine. Why wasn’t she able to remember anything after the restaurant? Was it stress? Was she sick?

It had to be the stress.

She took a deep breath and swung her legs over the side of the bed, glancing at the clock and noting she had an hour and a half before she needed to be at the office. It was more than enough time to get ready.

At least she didn’t have a headache. And the bed in the hotel was so comfortable even sleeping in her suit didn’t seem to have bothered her.

Maybe once her mind adjusted to not having to count every penny and watch every word with her mother, Tatyana would sleep better. She hadn’t been sleeping well for months. Maybe her body had finally given up.

She rubbed a hand over her eyes and stood.

How embarrassing! What must Oleg Sokolov think of her when she’d passed out twice in front of him? Was that why he’d forced her into a steak dinner? The man probably thought she was malnourished.

She’d never eaten at a Western-style steak house before, and she had to admit, so far it was the most enjoyable aspect of the extravagantly wealthy world she’d stumbled into. The food had been delicious, the wine was better than any she’d had in college, and Oleg’s company had been surprisingly pleasant. She couldn’t remember much of their conversation, but she had a warm, positive feeling about it.

Her phone buzzed on the counter. As soon as she saw the screen, panic leaped into her throat.

Five missed calls from her mother and one from Karol.

“Oh God.” She unlocked her phone and hurriedly tapped on the button to return Anna’s call, ignoring the voicemail alerts. The phone rang twice before her mother picked up. “Mama?”

“Tanya.” Her mother sounded surprised. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“Mama, there were five missed calls.”

“From who?”

“From you!” Tatyana let out a breath and leaned against the counter. “What is going on?”

“Mrs. Lipovsky was yelling at me last night, and I couldn’t sleep. Why does she complain about my angels?” Anna started whining about her birds. “They’re on the roof. She’s on the first floor. She doesn’t even hear them. I promise you that.”

“Mama—”

“And Popov, that old bastard, he’s going to raise the rent again. I know it.”

Tatyana closed her eyes. “Mama, we own our apartment, remember? It’s paid for. He can’t raise our rent. He’s not our landlord anymore.”

“But he’ll charge us more somehow. The second toilet is broken. I know it is and?—”

“Mama!” She barked at her mother, then winced.

That won’t help. That will only make it worse.

She took a deep breath. “Mama, I’ll be home soon. I’m going to come home today.”

She should have been back yesterday. She’d been gone for a week, jumping through hoops at SMO like a trained dog, and now she was wearing designer suits and eating extravagant meals while her mother fought her demons alone.

“I’ll be home tonight.”

“Are you sure?”

“As sure as I can be.”

Somehow she’d find a flight. She had money, and if there was anything she’d learned from growing up poor, money could make things happen.

She’d call the office and tell Elene that she needed to go back to Sevastopol and work from there. All the files she was supposed to check were electronic anyway. There was no reason she needed to work in Odesa save for Oleg Sokolov’s suspicious and controlling nature.

“Mama, take a breath.”

Anna gasped and let out a slow breath over the phone.

“Okay good. Are you feeling calmer?”

“Yes. As soon as you said that you were coming home, I felt like my heart just went very easy, Tanya. And my blood pressure. I think my blood pressure was bad like Papa’s this morning.”

“No, we checked it right before I left, remember?” She walked to the closet and opened the door to see four more garment bags lined up with notes from Lorala pinned to each and a neat line of office-appropriate shoes underneath them. “Mama, I need to go into the office and work for a little bit, and then I’ll be able to come home.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She grabbed the nearest garment back and unzipped it to reveal a pale yellow sheath dress with a jacket. “My new boss will be in at nine o’clock and I need to get some files, and then I can work from home again. Won’t that be nice?”

“So nice.” Her mother’s voice instantly transformed. “Okay, okay. I’ll go to the store and buy some pork cutlets and make that for dinner like Baboolya made, right? Does that sound good?”

Tatyana pressed her eyes closed, fighting the tears at the memory of her grandmother. “Yes, that sounds perfect.”

“I’ll see you tonight.” Her mother hung up the phone, and Tatyana’s arm dropped to her side.

Love shouldn’t feel like a trap. Her grandmother’s words battered her memory like a bird caught behind a window.

She’d been fifteen and convinced that her first boyfriend was her true love. That she had to bend to his ridiculous demands because she “loved” him. As if a sixteen-year-old boy’s whims should dictate her life.

Her grandmother had wisely taken her arm, hugged her, and told her that loving her grandfather made her feel free. “Love shouldn’t feel like a trap, Tanya. That kind of love will have you carving off parts of yourself until there is nothing left.”

Love shouldn’t feel like a trap, but Anna wasn’t a sixteen-year-old boy. Anna was her mother. The only parent she had. Anna was the last of her family.

She tossed the dress on the bed before she went to the bathroom to get ready.

This was going to be a long day.

“For how long?” Elene Beridze was clearly not happy with Tatyana’s request.

“I’m not sure, but when I left, she was expecting me back in a week maximum, and it’s been eight days.”

Elene frowned. “Is your mother in poor health? Is she disabled in some way? Does she have a nurse?”

“No.” Tatyana let out a breathy laugh. “Even if she was, we couldn’t afford… No, it’s not that. My grandparents died a few years ago, and that was very hard on her. She depends on me, but I will be able to get her settled if I go back today.”

“Hmm.”

Tatyana was twisting her hands, knowing how unprofessional it looked to show up on your first day at a new job and immediately tell your supervisor that you had to leave.

“As I said, I was only supposed to be gone for one week. We hadn’t prepared for an extended absence, and then this new contract happened so quickly that I wasn’t able to?—”

“Oleg won’t be pleased,” Elene muttered. “But I can’t argue with your logic. Being away from home for a week and being gone for months are very different things.”

A tiny spring of hope. “Thank you for understanding.”

“Go.” Elene waved a hand. “The files are on your desk and we’ve emailed them to you as well. But this is a break to get your mother situated, not a permanent situation. You do need to work from this office.”

“I understand.” She didn’t know how she was going to make it work, but she’d have to think of something.

She would have to.

“You have your advance,” Elene continued. “So if coming back to Odesa means hiring someone to look after your mother or be her companion, take care of it. You’re not doing yourself any favors coddling her like a child, and it’s going to hold you back professionally.” Elene’s frown was severe. “I understand family, but who pays the water bill if you don’t work, hmm?”

“I agree, and I will make my mother understand.” How, she wasn’t sure, but the idea of hiring someone to take some of the load off her own shoulders sounded like heaven. “I’ll work just as hard there as I would here. I promise.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Elene said. “Just go and do what you need to do, then come back and we can focus on following Zara’s breadcrumbs.”

“Yes. Thank you.” Tatyana nodded and grabbed her phone. “Flying is complicated now. Hopefully I can find something this afternoon. I’ll probably have to go all the way to Krasnodar, but?—”

“Don’t be silly,” Elene said. “You can take the company plane. Oleg’s flights always receive special permissions, so you should be able to fly directly. That will be much faster.”

Tatyana froze. “No, I couldn’t possibly?—”

“Of course you can. It’s not efficient for you to spend all that time jumping through governmental nonsense when you could take advantage of SMO’s connections. Besides, the plane is sitting at the airport right now and we’re paying the pilots whether they fly or not.” Elene put her reading glasses on and turned to her computer monitor. “I’ll call them and have them ready for you at three o’clock.”

“Are you sure? Is that… legal?”

“It will be legal when I call them and tell them that Oleg’s plane is coming.” Elene scribbled a number on a note and handed it to Tatyana. “Call this number an hour before you’re ready to go and the steward will give you directions.”

“Are you sure?”

“Tatyana, please don’t waste my time.” Elene was looking back at her monitor, already tapping on her keyboard. “It’s a small jet, so don’t set your expectations on the moon. We’re a shipping company, not rock stars. They will be waiting for you this afternoon. Now please work until noon so I can answer any questions you might have before you leave.”

Sevastopol

Nearly three years before

“It doesn’t add up for me.” Tatyana felt a headache starting in her temple. “And I can’t tell you why. But there is a discrepancy in the numbers and it’s driving me crazy.”

She and Zara were back at the karaoke club. This time they were talking in a corner booth at the back of the club while the regular employees from ZOL took turns on the stage.

“What are you saying?” Zara’s eyes were wide and shocked. “Are you saying” —she glanced at the data management supervisor on the stage— “you think someone is embezzling?”

“I don’t know.” She couldn’t think of any other reason though. “I don’t want to point fingers, but at most companies, there are separate accounts for fees, taxes, customs, all the payments that have to be made to the government, and I’m not seeing any of that in what you’ve given me so far. Maybe if I could get a look at last year’s books?—”

“They’re a mess,” Zara said. “That’s why I hired you. I wanted an independent audit because I suspected…” She sighed. “Tatyana, you’re the only one I can trust.”

“Why?” She didn’t know any of the in-office employees other than to wave at them, but they seemed fairly nice.

“Everyone else at the company was either hired by my father or his right hand, this frigid old woman who’s obsessed with him.” Zara waved a hand. “Boring family drama.”

“So I’m the only one you’ve hired?”

“Of the main team?” Zara nodded. “Yes.”

Tatyana had asked Zara multiple times if she could work from the office, but her new boss told her she wanted Tatyana to be independent of the rest of the group. She was the bookkeeper, so being in the office wasn’t essential.

Of course, Tatyana knew she wasn’t the only bookkeeper, but according to Zara, the bookkeepers at ZOL worked more for her father’s company than for hers.

“I’m a little bit worried that…” Zara sighed. “It’s my father. I haven’t told you much about Oleg, but he’s always been very secretive about where he made his money.”

“He didn’t inherit it?”

The kind of wealth that Zara exhibited, Tatyana just assumed that her family had always been wealthy. Even during the Soviet era, Tatyana knew that some in Sevastopol lived much better than others, especially if they had military or international connections.

“My father didn’t grow up wealthy, but somewhere along the way…” Zara let the idea trail off. “You have to know what I suspect, right? I mean, who makes that kind of money honestly?”

“Do you think you should” —Tatyana dropped her voice to a whisper— “report him? I know he’s your father, but if you’re worried he’s breaking the law?—”

“What would I report?” Zara snorted. “I’m not saying it’s not the right thing or even that I’m afraid of him. Oleg would never hurt me.” The corner of her mouth curled up. “Never.”

“So?”

Zara shrugged. “Right now all I have are feelings and suspicions.” She slid her hand across the table and put it over Tatyana’s. “That’s why what you’re doing is so important, Tanya. I trust you. I’m depending on you.”

Tatyana felt a surge of purpose in her chest. If Zara could be brave enough to investigate her own father, Tatyana could help. “If you can get me the receivables and the deposit account information, I think I can figure out what’s going on.”

“Thank you.” Zara’s eyes were sparkling. “Thank you so much. I know you could find another job so easily, so thank you for sticking with me. I know this is… far from normal.”

She felt her cheeks flush. “You’re welcome. I’m just happy I could help.”

Tatyana’s eyes opened when the plane bumped as it touched down. As soon as the bumping stopped, the automatic shutters that had slid down the moment they took to the sky opened, flooding the small jet with late-afternoon sunshine.

She looked out the window and realized they were on some kind of military base, but no one seemed alarmed to see the SMO plane.

An elderly steward who had introduced himself as Roman walked over with a warm towel on a tray. “I trust you were able to rest, Ms. Vorona.”

“Just for a little bit, but it was nice to close my eyes.”

The flight had been just over two hours, longer than it would have taken a few years ago because they had to fly what Roman had called “a creative route” to avoid trouble. Nevertheless, it was far easier than the complicated series of flights Tatyana had been forced to take to get to Odesa in the first place.

She looked out the window. “How do I get to my house?”

“We have people on the ground waiting for you,” Roman said. “It’s all been arranged.”

Tatyana pressed the warm towel to her face, refreshing her cheeks and neck. “Thank you.”

Professional clothes brought to her door. Bags packed for her by hotel staff along with an entirely new suitcase with all the clothes Lorala had picked out for her. Cars from hotel to airport. An entire cabin to herself.

It was hard not to feel like a princess in a fairy tale.

“It’s been a pleasure to serve you.” The old steward nodded kindly. “Miss Beridze said we will see you again to take you back to Odesa when everything has been arranged here, and we look forward to that.”

It would be easy—so, so easy—to accept all this without question, but Tatyana had questions. So many. “How long have you worked for Mr. Sokolov?”

“I’ve worked for SMO for nearly forty years.” His blue eyes crinkled at the corners. “As you can imagine, I have seen many changes during that time.”

“Forty years?”

“Mm-hmm.” Roman picked up the damp towel with a pair of gold tongs and stood. “They will roll the stairs to the door soon,” he said. “You will be with a driver named Kiril. Please follow all his directions. He already has your address and he will get you home.”

Tatyana stood and registered faint shouting from outside the plane, but it didn’t sound dangerous. She suspected it was just loud outside.

Roman began to retrieve all her luggage and place it by the door. “Kiril will transport your bags, but I understand you will hold on to your computer bag yourself. Is that correct?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Roman smiled and waited with her as the door opened and the roar of military jets filled the air. “I will see you next time, Miss Vorona.”

“Please call me Tatyana.”

She couldn’t hear how he responded as she was swept off the plane and into the long shadows of the afternoon sun, hustled toward a black car, and quickly shuffled inside.

Moments later the doors shut and everything went quiet again.

She couldn’t see her driver through the black divider in the front of the car, but she recognized the streets they were driving a few minutes later, even through the near-black windows of the luxury sedan.

Eventually they turned onto the rutted street north of downtown where Tatyana and her mother lived in a three-story house that had been divided into three flats with generous balconies that looked over the ocean when the sky was clear.

She tapped on the divider and it rolled down. “This is fine. You can drop me off here.”

“I’ve been instructed to take you to your front door and help you with your luggage, Ms. Vorona.”

“Oh my God,” she muttered before she sighed. “Fine, but my mother is going to interrogate you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

As soon as they pulled onto the street, Tatyana saw curious eyes peering out.

It was a perfectly nice, perfectly safe neighborhood of middle-class retirees and civil servants like her mother. Nothing was too run-down. Nothing was too fancy. Walled compounds were common, but there were still a few brightly painted summerhouses with metal roofs and large gardens with fruit trees in the yards.

Kiril opened her door before he went to the back of the car and retrieved her two suitcases.

“We’re on the third floor.” She pointed to the tall building painted an optimistic yellow. “Stairs are on the left, so you can?—”

“Tatyana Vorona.” The grating sound of Mrs. Lipovsky’s voice stopped Tatyana in her tracks. “Your birds are shitting in my fruit trees again.”

She sighed and turned to the middle-aged woman who lived on the ground floor. “I’m really not sure how you know that it is our birds who are shitting, Mrs. Lipovsky. Unlike the government, we don’t control the airspace.”

Kiril snorted and started up the stairs as Mrs. Lipovsky looked her up and down.

“Did you get a new boyfriend?” Her smile was twisted. “He looks rich.”

“I have a new job.” Tatyana turned to go. “Have a good afternoon.”

The woman grumbled something about Tatyana’s mother before she turned to go inside. Kiril was already at the top of the stairs and waited for her.

Tatyana opened the door and immediately called out, “Mama?”

The house was so neat you could eat dinner on the floor, but her mother was nowhere to be found. Still, the old car was sitting in their spot and the house smelled of pork cutlet and her grandmother’s gravy. Anna was definitely at home.

She turned to Kiril as he set down her suitcase. “Thank you. I don’t know if I’m supposed to tip you.”

“You’re not.” He gave her a hint of a smile. “Mr. Sokolov pays me enough. I’ll see you next time.” He tipped his head, then backed out of the doorway and closed the door behind her.

With a purr, Pushkin the cat walked down the hall and wound his grey tail around her legs.

And Tatyana was home.

She gave Pushkin a quick pat, then quickly moved her suitcases into her room—better that her mother not see the new one—before she walked to the back balcony where the stairs to the roof were located. She walked out the back door, sliding it closed quickly to keep Pushkin from escaping up to the pigeon loft.

She could hear the soft cooing of the birds as soon as she stepped outside.

As she climbed the stairs, a few of them flapped out to greet her, and she called them by their names, old Hollywood royalty from the classic American movies her mother loved.

“Hello, Audrey.” She recognized the bright purple feathers of a favorite. “Cary Grant, you handsome devil. It’s good to see you.”

Cary Grant landed on the edge of the wall that encircled the roof and started strutting, his bright purple head flashing in the setting sun.

Anna glanced over her shoulder as she cleaned out the aviary. “You’re back. The food is ready when you’re hungry.”

“I’m fine for now. Just wanted to watch the sunset.”

Her mother wasn’t an expressive woman—she reserved most of her affection for her feathered pets—but the neat house and the food told Tatyana that Anna was happy and relieved that she was home. “How is Rex Harrison?”

She nodded toward the coop. “Healing. I let him out last night, and he flew around the neighborhood a bit before he came back.” She touched the head of a shining white male pigeon who had injured a wing a few weeks before.

“Did he shit on Mrs. Lipovsky’s apples before he came back?”

“I certainly hope so,” Anna said.

“Me too.” She watched the sun slip past the horizon, and the sea settled into a deep blue green that pricked at something in her memory.

“You did this?”

“Yes.”

“By yourself?”

“It took some time.”

It was a faint memory that drifted away before it clarified. Was it a movie? A conversation she’d overheard? Something about the garbled memory gave her a warm, contented feeling.

It’s not something I share…

Her mother turned and brushed off her hands, taking off her work gloves before she walked toward Tatyana. “Why don’t we go inside and eat? I’m done up here. The boys will put all the girls to roost. Tell me about the new job.”

“I will.” Tatyana stood and followed her mother down the steps. “But let me unpack a few things from my bag and plug my computer in before I set the table.”

“You and the computer.” Anna muttered something under her breath. “Don’t be long.”

She followed her mother inside the house and went to the back bedroom that she’d claimed for her office with Pushkin tagging at her heels. Her suitcases would be fine as they were, but there was one thing she needed to check before she did anything else.

Tatyana took her computer from the messenger bag and set it on the desk that looked over the back garden of the house. Then she plugged it in, grabbed the small screwdriver from her desk drawer, and crawled under the desk to take off the register cover over the heating vent in the floor.

She carefully set the small screws to the side and shined her phone’s flashlight into the cavity she’d cleared the year before.

Her heart stopped.

No.

She shined the light into the corners even though she knew there was no way her backup laptop should be anywhere but exactly where she left it before she flew to Odesa.

Oh God.

Oh no.

No one knew about this hiding place, and nothing in the rest of her office was out of place, but her backup computer, an external hard drive, and all her micro USB drives were gone.