Dasha is going to learn the business. In time, she will be my sole heir and take over the company. I value your experience, dear niece.
So you’ll remain my senior advisor. Your role will still matter, but strategic decisions will be made differently from now on.” I watched my aunt lower her eyes to her plate, her hands tightening around her napkin.
She had no choice but to sit there and take the blow. But I could feel the cold fury building in her. In a single moment, she had gone from acting owner of the empire to second place behind what she clearly saw as an upstart impostor.
The old magnate, blinded by the happiness of finding family he thought was gone forever, didn’t seem to notice the change in her. He kept talking. “And Dasha and I have reopened the investigation into that terrible crash.
There are inconsistencies. My daughter, it seems, lived for some time afterward, and there’s a witness. I believe we’re close to learning what really happened that night.
I intend to get to the bottom of it.” Claudia slowly raised her eyes. Her expression was blank and cool, but there was a predatory glint deep in them.
“That’s wonderful news, Uncle,” she said in a tone that made me uneasy. “The truth should come out, whatever it costs.” I shivered. There was no joy in her voice. It sounded more like a warning.
But for whom? A couple of days later, Vasily finally tracked down the address of the witness. Grandpa wanted to go himself, but his health and his doctors made that impossible, so he sent me with his old friend.
The road wound through open fields and finally ended near a sagging fence on the edge of a remote rural town. “Gerasim lives here. If he’s out, we’ll wait,” Vasily said, pulling his SUV up beside the old house. A bad feeling settled over me.
Unfed chickens darted around the yard, and hungry cows in the pen bawled to be let out. The house looked lived in, but the front door stood partly open, as if the owner had simply stepped away for a minute. “Let’s go in and wait,” the veteran said with quiet confidence.
We stepped into the mudroom. The house smelled of dried herbs, but there was no one there. Then in the kitchen, Vasily stopped and listened. From somewhere below us came a faint sound—weak moaning…
