“Obviously.” She hits me again with the cane. “The question is how badly.”
“Bad.”
“How bad?”
“She found some documents. Plans I made before… before I knew her.”
Babushka’s eyes narrow. “What kind of plans?”
“Business plans. About her clinic.”
“Ah.” She lowers the cane. “You were going to take it from her.”
She knows me too well.
“It was before—”
“Stop with the ‘before’! Before you fell in love with her? Pah! Tupitsa!” The cane comes up once more to whack me. I shut up, but it doesn’t stop her from smacking me across the shoulders. “You think I’m blind? Deaf? You think I don’t see how you look at her? You love that girl. And she loves you. And now, you’ve ruined it with your schemes and your compulsive need to control everything.”
“I had reasons,” I rasp. “I’m trying to protect h
