Page 99 of Unexpected Redemption

Oddly, I don’t feel shame or embarrassment over Klein and Mia having a glimpse at the worst moment of my life.

Of course, I wish those photos didn’t exist. For that matter, I wish the whole experience never happened. I don’t particularly like that these people who I’ve come to know have witnessed something so horrific and personal.

And yet . . .

The prevailing emotion is a throat punch of hopelessness because Tomer will see it. He’ll know Viktor’s taunting triggered my panic attack. He’ll have yet another visual of my trauma to haunt him.

With my whole heart and all my being, I long to protect him from this.

Unfortunately, I can’t.

He’s come so far and healed so much. The idea of him suffering further because of that sick monster claws inside me.

I’m powerless to prevent his continued agony.

My heart thuds dully in my chest, thick layers of defeat muting the sensation of each beat. I press my fist to my closed lips, holding back a wail of frustration. Tears build behind my eyes, stinging my sinuses while a sagging sensation falls over my entire body, inside and out.

“Lettie, listen.” Klein rubs my upper back. “We’ll wait to show him the email for another day or two. In the meantime, Mia’s going to do her thing, analyzing it and shit. When we show him, we’ll use a copy with the photos of you redacted. He’ll understand why.”

My eyes stare off in the distance, focusing on nothing. “What’s the point in waiting?”

“We need to see if we can find something to directly tie the email to Viktor first. Additionally, maybe whatever is on the other end of the email address from inside the Russian doll canhelp us implicate Viktor. If we find more compelling evidence, we might not need the email as badly.”

The silence grows stale. There’s no sense begging them. They’d spare him if they could.

As much as I’d love to cling to the hope that they’ll find something more important to take Viktor down, thus rendering the email he sent useless, I won’t be holding my breath.

Instead, I offer up what I can to help matters. “I suppose I’m the one who could link Viktor to today’s email since he was the one who mentioned the matching eyes thing to me.”

“Speaking of that,” Klein starts, his tone leery. “You and Tomer need to discuss amending your witness statement. You should probably loop in Boss since he’s the one with the tightest law enforcement connections. Currently, they don’t have you putting Viktor at the house.”

“Tomer told me to hold off on amending my statement for now since it’ll seem like you guys fed it to me.” Resting my elbows on the desk, I bury my face in my hands. “I’ll talk to him about it tonight. Should I mention the email then too? Get it all out at once?”

“It’s up to you, sweetie.” Mia taps my forearm, gently pulling my hands away from my face. “Related... we haven’t told Boss you didn’t name Viktor in your statement, nor why that might be the case. And he hasn’t noticed either. He’s been focused on some of the other columns on the board, letting us run with the trafficking.”

I inhale briskly through my nose, causing a slight hissing sound. My pulse begins hammering wildly, like a drum speeding up. “Can we not tell Big Al for now? Until I figure out what to do about my statement?”

Mia opens her mouth to answer but quickly shirks backward as if rethinking her response.

I add some reasoning to my request. “It’ll hurt Boss Dad if I have to explain why I didn’t tell the cops about Viktor.”

“Why didn’t you tell the cops?” Klein asks, his voice soft and reassuring.

“I was protecting Tomer, and in a way, protecting my papa’s legacy. You see, Viktor told me I was taken because of Tomer and”—I put up air quotes—“my father. More so, my father. At the time, I didn’t understand what he meant and had no choice but to think my small-town grandpa had somehow gotten mixed up with the mafia. But now, it’s clear I was abducted and assaulted because of my birth father, and to a lesser degree, Tomer. Viktor sort of threw that on at the end like it was some bonus.”

Klein glances at Mia. “Boss doesn’t need that on him right now.”

“Agreed.”

Thank goodness. I can’t protect Tomer, but at least I can protect my birth father.

As that thought permeates deeper, my breath leaves me in a rush.

Well, I’ll be a so-and-so.

Here I am, considering holding back the truth from the man I love because I want to protect him. Same as Tomer did for Boss Dad all along. Until the lie spiraled away from him. Then he held it back so he wouldn’t hurt me.

I didn’t need the reminder of how he must have felt all those months and years. Yet I got one all the same.

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