Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
She’s an elegant woman, in her sixties, rail thin and severe. Her hair’s dark and she’s wearing a conservative dress that highlights her straight waist and her bust. Jewelry glitters on her fingers and at her throat, and her face is heavily done up. I can smell her perfume from across the table. I try to find some of my mother in her, but I can’t see it at all.
“Why’s that?” I accept the wine and take a long sip, not sure what to make of this. I keep glancing over at the men, wondering what they’re saying. Valentin doesn’t look happy. Though Aram seems completely at ease.
“They have a past. Don’t you know?” She seems surprised when I shake my head and lowers her voice. “Aram and Valentin’s father knew each other. I actually met him a few times as well. I wasn’t a fan, but Aram—” She gestures vaguely in the air. “They got along until they didn’t.”
Until they didn’t. That’s one hell of a loaded statement.
“What was my mother like? Back then, I mean.” I don’t know why I blurt it out, but I can’t help myself—I’m too curious, and I don’t know if I’ll get a better chance to know my mother better.
“Young. Impulsive. Very… loud.” Sona presses her lips together in disapproval. “My sister and I didn’t always get along.”
I almost laugh. That describes my mother perfectly, or at least the woman before Dad died. Now, Mama’s like a depleted battery, but when I was growing up, she was a force. Nobody stood in Mama’s way, not for long. She got what she wanted, or she made everyone regret not giving it to her.
“What about my dad? Did you know him?”
She snorts and rolls her wine in a lazy circle. “I knew him. Everyone knew your papa. He was just as loud as your mama, the stupid idiot.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is all in the past now, but your father made trouble for everyone, especially for Aram. He hated who we are and what we stand for, and he convinced your mother to go along with his total idiocy. He turned your mother against her own family. Turned her into a traitor.”
My skin goes cold. I stare at my wine, remembering my father, and trying not to get angry at this woman’s characterization. “What do you stand for then?”
“Brotherhood,” she says simply. “The Armenian people. Our family, above all else. Strength and honor. Your papa didn’t understand that. He thought we were just some shady criminal organization, and he made his feelings very known. Which is not smart.”
“Papa cared about family more than anything else,” I say, voice trembling.
Sona doesn’t notice my distress. She’s busy watching the men and sounds more tired than anything else. “Oh, maybe he learned, but back then he was a nuisance. Always making threats and proclamations. Aram would say to me, Sona, if he weren’t married to our sister, I would cut his throat tonight. A stupid fool, if you ask me, a very stupid fool, and now here we are.”
“You have no right to speak of my papa that way.” The words come out soft, almost whispered, but they’re firm.
She glances at me, eyebrows raised. “Does it upset you? I’m not sorry. You asked and I’m telling.”
“My father was a good man. Better than your brother. What kind of monster hurts his own sister over money?”
Sona’s lips press together and she puts her glass down. “What kind of woman abandons her family only to come crawling back when life gets hard?”
“That’s not what happened.”
“It most certainly was. I know about your money troubles. I know your mother begged Aram for a loan, which he graciously gave to her, but with very strict terms attached. She agreed, she couldn’t uphold her hand, and Aram was forced to follow through with his promises. My brother is many things, but at least he’s honest.”
“He’s a fucking monster.” I shove my chair back, getting to my feet. “And you’re a horrible person, to talk about my parents like that. How could you be okay with abandoning your own sister?”
Sona watches me with an amused smile, and I’m suddenly aware that the whole room is staring. Even the men are looking over.
I could back down. I could sit and apologize to this horrible woman and let this outburst drift past.
But it kills me, to hear her speak of my father that way, as if she knows a damn thing about him.
“You’re as stupid as your mother is, aren’t you, little girl?” Sona sits back and sneers. “Don’t you understand what’s happening here?”
I don’t. I don’t understand at all.
But I’m too angry to care.
“Apologize,” I say, voice trembling with anger.
“What’s happening over here?” Valentin appears at my elbow. He touches me and I flinch back, staring up at him. I feel out of control with grief and rage, and I know I’m making a scene at the worst possible moment, but I can’t help myself.