I stare at her answer, shocked. Roman’s father did that? The phone in my hand starts ringing. It’s Nina. I take the call.
“I know you can’t reply, but I think it’s better if I tell you than type. It’s . . . it’s a really bad story, Bianca.”
Nina’s voice is low and strangled, so different than her usual cheerful tone, which tells me that whatever she’s going to say will probably be worse than I could have imagined.
“I only know what Roman told me, and he didn’t go into details. I’ll tell you what I know. You can tap the phone for ‘yes,’ okay?”
I tap the microphone with my nail.
“Promise me you won’t ask Mikhail to talk about it. Ever. Please.”
Yes, it’s definitely worse than what I thought. I tap the phone again.
“Mikhail’s father handled the finances for the old pakhan. One d
