That Summer In The Country

Fifty-eight:

Fifty-eight:

Genya was back home. Mika was sitting in front of her, coloring. David sat next to them working on sketches of his own for his engineering project that he was working on. She had stitches on her head from head wounds that she had gotten during her time in The Fold. Her memory was still faded from her kidnapping.

"Are you okay?" David asked her as the two of them sat there enjoying each other's company together. "You've been a little quiet. I know that you've been having a hard time, because of the kidnapping, but normally you don't stay quiet for this long."

Genya took a deep breath, then locked eyes with her fiancé. "There's something I need to tell you. I lied about who Mika's dad was."

David raised an eyebrow. "Why did you lie about who Mika's dad was?"

"Because Mal's place with the Morozova's was tenuous enough. If his father---if his uncle---had found out about him getting a girl pregnant, he would have lost everything. I couldn't do that to Mal. And then.... then..."

"Then what?" David said. "You can say it, Genya. You've told me what happened before."

"I know," said Genya, "but it's still hard. I still feel like such a fool. Mal was my first boyfriend, my first everything. And somehow, I got trapped in his world. I couldn't believe that this had happened. I grew up in this world. I know men like Petyr. I should have been----"

David grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look directly at him. "Genya, you need to stop blaming yourself. None of this was your fault. Petyr is a vulgar, rich man that is used to getting what he wants and taking advantage of people he thinks are less than. He's going to get his. You'll see."

"Men like him aren't the kind that get put behind bars. They are the ones that pay other people to get put behind bars for him. He's never going to see prison."

"No," said David, "but there are plenty of other ways to ruin a man like him. Ways that don't include prison. Um, you got a call while you were sleeping. I didn't recognize the number, but the girl said she was someone named Alina Starkov?"

"Oh," said Genya, "that's Mal's girlfriend. God, she must be losing her mind right now. What did she want?"

"She said that she wanted to talk to you. Apparently, Mal found some information out about Petyr. She can use it to destroy him if you want. But she won't release the information unless you give her the all clear. She says that she didn't want danger to come to Mika."

"What kind of information?"

"Well, have you ever heard of a place called The Menagerie in Ravka?" David asked.

Genya flinched. "Yeah. I know of it. It's basically a brothel. There are rumors they use underage girls that they traffic in there. No one can ever catch them though. They have too many high paying clients for anyone to ever investigate them."

"Well, the information that Mal found was all of the books for every shady thing that Petyr was involved in. Including The Menagerie. You wouldn't just be getting justice for you. You'd be getting justice for all of those girls to. Alina won't release the information unless you give the permission. She knows that there is a chance that Petyr could come after you and Mika, and she doesn't want the two of you hurt once she releases the information. So, she can sit on it if you want her to. Or she can release the information and let everything that Petyr Lantsov has get blown to hell. She left her phone number. She said you could text or call. It's up to you. Everything about this is up to you."

"Petyr sent men to kill Mal?"

David nodded. "He knew what Mal was doing the minute that he showed up working for Nikolai. He had him shot right in front of Alina."

"Where's my cell phone?" Genya asked.

"On the counter," David answered, "I'll get it to you. Hang on." He got up, and he went to the kitchen counter to get it for her. He placed it in her hands.

"Where's her number?" Genya said.

David slipped a sheet of paper with the name Alina Starkov and her cell phone number. With shaking hands, Genya typed out a text to Alina. Release it all.