Epilogue

One Week Later

"Wow, that's cool," I say when Ania, who I guess is sort of my sister now, in a way, does a ballerina spin across the studio. Ania is fascinating, honestly. She's kind of unnerving because she stares and always looks a bit distracted. Then she's super friendly, too, and way talented.

"Want to try it?" I swallow, and then she totally sees through me and says, "You wouldn't have asked to come down here if you just wanted to watch."

"I wanted to ask …" It's hard even to say it because it feels like Dad will come down the stairs and yell at me any second. "Could I maybe get a lesson? Just a quick one? No big deal."

Ania skips over to me with a big grin on her face. She can tell how amazing I find the way she moves and how easy she makes it look. "I'd love that." She looks over my shoulder.

I turn, and Mila is there, looking so … It's crazy to say but happy, like really happy all the time. I never dreamed of that, even if I let my imagination go wild. That's why I can't miss Dad and everything he did. I'm speaking to some counselor lady because he showed me some pretty horrible stuff. I'm strong, though, just like my sister, and I know I will someday protect her the way she protected me.

"Are you ready?" Mila asks.

This is a big job, just like when I walked her down the aisle. That's the thing with Mila and me. I'll always be there for her, and she'll always be there for me.

"I think so."

We go upstairs, and then I knock on the door to the computer room. They used it for some Bratva stuff, but now they're working on Mikhail's game.

"Yeah?" Mikhail calls.

"Can I show you something?"

"Drake? Sure, bro. Come in."

It's so awesome when he calls me, bro. I go into the room and give him the memory drive.

"I tried some programming. It's just … You'll see."

He inserts the drive. Mila is at the door, watching sneaky-style while the program loads. The screen shows an image of a sketch that Lia did, a lady holding a baby. Then, the words I programmed start flashing on the screen.

Mia is pregnant!

"What!?" Mikhail jumps to his feet. "What!?"

He turns, and Mila is there, those happy tears in her eyes. "It's true," she says.

"Yes!"

Mikhail rushes over to her, lifting her like she weighs nothing, then waves at me. "Get over here, bro!"

Laughing, I run over to join them.