13
ANTON
Yulian and Lev are both waiting for me in the sitting room, a wall of windows behind them showcasing the view. It’s so clean that I almost feel like I could give someone the tiniest push and they’d go right through as if the glass didn’t even exist.
When I look at my brother, I’m genuinely tempted.
Lev is looking out at the panorama, but Yulian is hunched in a chair staring at his feet. I walk in and they both turn to me.
“How was the flight?” I ask before either one of them can speak.
Lev is the first to answer. “Fine. The stewardess was a pleasant distraction.”
On another day, I might have made some salacious comment. But I’m not in the mood today. “Did you enjoy the jet I paid for, Yulian?”
Annoyance flashes across his face. “Let’s get right to it, then. Please remind me that you’re the all-powerful brother and I’m just the screw-up.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth, sobrat.”
He sighs. “It was a mistake, okay? I know that. I fucking know that.”
“You mistook a random woman’s corpse for Marina’s?” I press. “Pretty massive mistake, don’t you think, brother?”
“I told you before, her face was completely obliterated.”
“And?” I ask in a bored voice.
“And the body looked like hers! I mean, fuck—it had Marina’s clothes, Marina’s jewelry. You saw the signet ring she wore all the time. She never took that thing off. I gave it to you myself.”
“Almost as if Marina gave it to the corpse when she dressed it up.”
“Okay!” Yulian says, sounding frustrated with himself as well as me. “It feels obvious now. She clearly fucked up the corpse’s face to hide the fact that it wasn’t her.”
“You burned the body,” I growl.
“Yes, I burned the damn body. I was trying to protect you!” he says, raising his voice. “I knew that her death would be pinned on you. Bad marriage, dead wife, the husband is the first person people look at. I knew that Rodion would want to see her body if I didn’t dispose of it properly before he found out. So yeah, I made an executive decision and I burned the body. You’d spent the last few years of your life in hell because of that woman. I wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.”
“Is that the real story?”
He exhales in frustration. “Why else would I have done it?”
I raise my eyebrows. “You tell me.”
“Anton—”
“Just say it, Yulian. It’s obvious to all of us. It clearly wasn’t suicide and you knew that because of the state of the body. So just fucking say it. It’s right there.”
“Then why do I have to fucking say it?” he asks angrily.
“Because I want to know that you understand exactly how and when you fucked up.”
He looks towards Lev helplessly. But I see the exact moment he admits defeat. I see the fight leave his eyes.
“Fine. I burned the body because I thought you killed her.”
“Even after I told you I didn’t?”
His jaw tightens and I know that I’m pushing him too hard. He never liked that, even as a child. Even when it was our father pushing him.