Kir turns and starts shoving through the crowd toward the exit. I watch him go—my son, my blood, my greatest failure—and I don’t try to stop him. He needs time. He’s just had eighteen years of hatred ripped out from under him, and I can’t expect him to process that in the span of a press conference.
But there’s someone else who needs to hear what I have to say next.
It’s Rae’s turn now. She’s standing near the back of the room, her face streaked with tears, her body twisting back and forth as she watches Kirill disappear through the doors. I can see the war playing out across her features—should she follow him out? Stay here? Run from both of us?
I don’t give her time to decide.
I lean into the microphone. “I have one more message. To the woman I tried to push away because I was terrif
