All the Lies We Tell Read online

  “Nikolai said his mother isn’t going back to South Carolina.” Alicia closed out of the multiple browser tabs she’d had open. Travel blogs, mostly. Just because she’d never gone anywhere exotic didn’t mean she didn’t like to read about the trips other people took.

  “She mentioned that to me, too,” Theresa answered. “I guess I hadn’t realized that she’d been down there so long.”

  “Since before Ilya and I got married.” Alicia talked to her parents weekly, sometimes on the phone or via video chat, and while they never came back to Pennsylvania, she visited them several times a year. Galina had often contacted Ilya over the phone or e-mail, but had also gone long stretches of time without a word. Alicia hadn’t thought it was right to have such sporadic contact, but Galina wasn’t her mother, and therefore it hadn’t been up to her.

  “Why do you think she’s staying up here this time?”

  Alicia thought about it for a second. “Is it wrong of me to feel suspicious? Like she has an ulterior motive?”

  “No,” Theresa laughed. “When someone behaves the same way for as long as you’ve known them, it’s natural to expect they’ll keep behaving the same way. It has that feeling about it, doesn’t it? Like an accident waiting to happen.”

  “That’s a good way to describe it.” It wasn’t Galina who made her feel that way, it was Nikolai, but she wasn’t going to let herself think about him anymore. Alicia stood. “Ready for lunch? Where do you want to go?”

  “You pick. Do you mind driving separately? I have some appointments on the other side of town this afternoon.”

  They agreed to meet at a local pizza shop, not yet crowded since it wasn’t quite lunchtime. They ordered slices and drinks and took them to a back booth. Alicia looked up at the sound of a cough to see a woman who looked semifamiliar, but whose face she couldn’t place.

  “I’m Mimi Zook,” the older woman said. “I work at the home where your grandmother lived. I’m sorry to hear of her passing. She was one of the loveliest residents.”

  “Thank you, I appreciate that so much,” Alicia said.

  When the woman had moved away to her own table, Theresa said, “Everyone loved Babulya. Do you know that she sent me a birthday card every single year?”

  Alicia’s eyebrows rose. “She did? Even . . .”

  “Yeah, even after. I mean, I only had one birthday when I lived there, but she remembered. Sent me a card every single year, with two—”

  “Two brand-new dollar bills!” Alicia clapped her hands. “Yes. Wow.”

  Theresa’s eyes glittered a little, and she smiled. “Exactly. There were times when my father didn’t even remember, but Babulya did.”

  “I’m going to miss her.”

  “We all are.” Theresa pulled a napkin from the holder and wiped her eyes. “But hey, listen, I came here for something totally unrelated to any of the craziness going on at the Sterns’. Talk about an ulterior motive.”

  Alicia grabbed a napkin, too, her own voice thick with tears. “Yeah?”

  “Yep.” Theresa pulled a thick white envelope from her bag and passed it across the table.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s an offer from the company I work with. Diamond Development.” Theresa cleared her throat and inched forward to sit on the edge of her seat. “They want to buy the quarry.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “Hey.” Niko nudged his sleeping brother. Ilya hadn’t been off the couch for the past couple of days except to use the bathroom and go back to bed. “Are you ever getting your ass up? Going back to work? I’m sure Alicia would appreciate it if you’d at least let her know what’s going on.”

  Ilya cracked open an eye and gave his brother the finger. “I have the flu.”

  “You don’t have the flu.” This came from Galina, who’d just come in from outside. The tang of smoke clung to her clothes. “You have the laziness. Get up. Take a shower. You stink.”

  Ilya muttered something and flopped back onto the couch, facing the back cushions. This was all getting out of hand. He should’ve left a week ago, yet here he still was, dealing with everyone else’s bullshit.

  Irritated, Niko poked him again. “Get up. Or I’m going to make you get up, and I’ll throw you in the shower myself. Mom’s right. You do stink. It’s been two weeks, man. You need to get up and get back to work, starting tomorrow.”

  “Bite me,” Ilya said.

  Niko grabbed his brother by the back of the shirt and hauled him upright, ducking out of the way when Ilya tried to swing at him. “You want to hit me? G’head and try.”

  “Boys.” Galina tut-tutted, shaking her head. “Take it outside.”

  It was what she’d always said when they were young. They were too old now to be scrapping, but Niko put up his fists anyway. Like a dare. Watching his brother’s expression for any sign that he meant to take another swing.

  “I don’t want to fight you,” Niko warned.

  Ilya snorted laughter. “Yeah. Sure you don’t. You’ve been aching to punch me in the face since you got here.”

  The only person Niko had ever punched in his life was his brother, and most often then only at Ilya’s instigation. He uncurled his fingers and held out his hands. Not a target. He’d gone away and come home again, but that didn’t mean he had to keep falling into all the same stupid patterns.

  “Boys!”

  Both of them turned to look at their mother. She’d put her hands on her hips. Today she wore her hair in a braid that swung over one shoulder. The lines around her eyes and creases at the corners of her mouth were a little deeper, but not by much. She didn’t so much look older as smaller, Niko thought. Galina had always been built tiny but strong. She looked frail now.

  “I’m making dinner. It will be ready in an hour.” She poked a finger at Ilya. “You. Shower and change your clothes. Niko, clear off the table in the dining room. We’re going to eat in there like civilized people. And set a place for Allie. I invited her to come over.”

  Both brothers stopped their posturing to face their mother. Ilya laughed. Niko didn’t.

  “What? Why?” Ilya asked with a shake of his head. “Jesus, Mother.”

  Galina waved a languid hand. “Because that girl used to be my daughter-in-law, and, so sue me, I always liked her. She was good to your Babulya and, frankly, Ilya, to you. So why shouldn’t I invite her over to spend some time with us? She’s family. We’re all a family. I told you, it’s time we started acting like one.”

  There wasn’t much to say when she put it like that, not without sounding like a dick or making too much of it and calling attention to a situation Niko really didn’t want to overthink more than he already had. He studied his mother’s expression, trying to see if she had any idea about Alicia and him, but Galina had always been difficult to read. Whatever her reasons for including Alicia in the “family” dinner, he convinced himself it probably had nothing to do with what had happened between them.

  “Go. Do as you’re told,” Galina said now with an imperious wave of her fingers that brought back flashes of memory from when they were kids. First she commanded, and if she wasn’t obeyed, she screamed. Even as an adult, Niko discovered he didn’t want to tempt his mother into a meltdown.

  To Niko’s surprise, Ilya didn’t argue. Maybe he also didn’t want to deal with Galina’s temper. Niko waited a beat or two longer before he went into the dining room to clear the table from the remnants of last week’s shiva. From the kitchen he heard the rattle of pots and pans. He smelled the tinge of smoke different from Galina’s cigarettes, and the underlying aroma of garlic and wine.

  He looked up when she followed him into the dining room. She went to the antique china cabinet in the corner and opened the door. She ran a hand along the interior, leaning forward to look deep.

  “Use these dishes, the good ones.” She glanced over her shoulder with a smile. “There’s no point in saving them for something special if we never make anything special, yes?”