Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
“Oh my god. You found it.”
My words come out breathy. “It’s not the wedding, but—”
“It’s close enough.”
She slots onto the bed next to me before offering me one of her ghastly vitamin waters. I shake my head, unwilling to test my stomach so soon after its last exodus. I didn’t make it out of bed for over an hour yesterday.
When Nikita spots the signs of dehydration my scaly skin is struggling to conceal, she eyes me like she’s not above waterboarding me to replenish my body with the fluids it so desperately needs. I accept the bottle and take a hesitant sip.
It isn’t as ghastly as I remember, but it isn’t great either.
I’d much prefer coffee.
After a handful more sips, I calculate how long it will take for us to get to the Trudny District from Myasnikov, and an approximate cost. Nikita has to come with me. I can’t see the guest list since I’m not an official group member, and my ego is too fragile from the multiple hits it has endured over the past month to consider facing my mother alone again.
“You’ll have to fly,” Nikita murmurs, her mind reading skills at full capacity since we’re practically joined at the hip. Her “bed” is as saggy as my couch. “It will take too long to drive, and the cost to hire a car would be outrageous.”
She thinks Mikhail’s contribution to her grandfather’s breathing machine is because I sold my rusted bomb. I haven’t had the heart to tell her I left it in the basement of a man’s building because I can’t trust myself around his brother for half a second. My shameful act two nights ago proves this without fault.
“Not to mention the conditions,” Nikita murmurs, returning my focus to the task at hand. “You can’t drive in snowy conditions even when it’s not snowing.”
Since nothing she said is dishonest, I don’t argue. Instead, I veer my search to the cheapest available airline before placing two people in the ticket search bar.
“Z—”
“Please, Keet.” I peer up at her with big puppy dog eyes, praying they’ll be enough to pull her over the fence. “I can’t do this without you.” I take a breather before announcing the true cause of my worry. “What if she rejects me?”
“For what? Traveling three hours each way every year with the hope of seeing her for five seconds on her birthday? Or for acting like your letters aren’t returned unopened every time you send her a new one?” She looks sternly at me. “She has no reason to reject you, Z. And if she tries, I’m not opposed to teaching her some manners.”
I shouldn’t laugh. She is being dead serious. But I love how much she loves me that my smile radiates through me before I can shut it down.
“But…” I could kill her for the delay. “I promised myself if I were ever given the chance to repay you for getting Professor Kincaid off my back, I’d take it. So…”
I refuse to accept another delay. “So you’re going to break out a bikini for the first time in your life to join me in soaking up the rays of the Trudny Peninsula sun?”
“I was going to say…” I don’t know who taught her delayed gratification, but I’m about ready to smack them. “So I guess I’m not opposed to using my credit card points to purchase us tickets to your baby sister’s bachelorette party.”
I’m internally screaming, but the rattle of trains rolling over outdated tracks harnesses my excitement. “Are you sure you don’t need the points for something else?”
Nikita doesn’t live near a train station. That’s just how rattly Grampies’s chest is when he’s struggling through a severe case of pneumonia. While I strived and failed to pretend that I am a morally ethical woman, he had a bad turn. It’s been playing havoc with my mind even more than usual.
I really need a job, but the chances of me securing one will be even less likely if I place a stipulation for time off on my application.
“Maybe we should wait for the wedding. There will be more people in attendance, which means my mother will be on her best behavior.”
“But that means there will also be more people between Aleena and you.” Nikita plucks up her phone, searches for the group I found, then invites herself to the Facebook group Shevi accidentally made public. “The list of invitees is small. It’s intimate and manageable…” Her eyes pop open before her throat works hard to swallow. “And it is void of the Wicked Witch.”
I scroll the list of ten names at least a dozen times before letting the truth sink in.
My mother isn’t on Aleena’s bachelorette guest list.
None of her aliases are present.
“We have to go.” Nikita’s inclusion in her reply already has me on board. What she says next seals the deal. “And while I’m there, maybe I can hand Mrs. Ivanov my discharge plan in person.”