Emily POVI woke up bound to a chair, my head banging from whatever drug or sedative they'd used on me. The room waselegant with expensive furniture, classical art, windows showing Russian building Icould I barely recognized from the news.And on a medical table beside me, preserved as if merely sleeping, was my mother."Catherine looks peaceful, doesn't she?" Margaret's voice came from behind me. "I've kepther body in perfect condition since I stole it from the hospital. Wanted her present for thisconversation.""You're insane," I whispered."I'm enlightened. There's a difference." Margaret moved to stand beside Catherine's body,stroking my mother's hair. "Did you know your mother and Iwere friends once? Brief friendship, one evening in Moscow, but profound. She told methings she'd never told anyone else. Secrets about the Lothan family. About you, Emily.""My mother never met you""Oh, but she did. November 1994, charity gala at the Kremlin. I was twenty-one, lost, tryingto
Last Updated : 2026-01-22
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