Chapter 79
The rest of the night was spent in tense preparation. Adrian coordinating with Alexei through encrypted messages. Viktor checking weapons, planning sniper positions. Nadia preparing emergency evacuation routes.
And she sat with the baby, trying to process the impossible revelation.
Her father. Alive.
She'd spent ten years believing he was dead. Ten years grieving. Ten years building a life around the hole his absence had left.
And now Alexei was saying he'd been alive the whole time. A prisoner. Suffering. While she'd moved on, never knowing.
"Tell me about him," Adrian said, sitting down beside her. The baby was asleep, finally. It was nearly dawn.
"My father?"
"Yes. What do you remember?"
She thought back. Tried to pull up memories from before she was sixteen. Before
