Page 19 of Truth or Lie

“How can I assist you, Commissariat?” I asked, in a perfectly flat tone, once we were alone.

He waved the words away and gestured me to sit at the small table set in the center of the room. I complied, figuring the symbolic barrier of a piece of furniture separating us could potentially be useful.

“I do not require assistance. Merely a brief conversation,” he said, taking the seat across from me. His features weren’t classically handsome, though I supposed they were pleasant enough. He had a prominent nose and an aggressive chin beneath sandy hair and light brown eyes. I wondered what Irina saw when she looked at him.

He isn’t a constant reminder of a past I would rather forget, she’d told me, the first time we’d spoken after I discovered she was still alive.

“You are Irina’s Alex,” Polonsky said, wasting no time in going for the jugular.

I pasted on a tight smile in response. It felt like it might split the skin over my cheeks. “Clearly not.”

He dipped his head—a gesture of self-effacing acknowledgement. “Forgive me. I know of no good way to say what needs to be said without dredging up old injuries.”

“And what is it that you think needs to be said?” I asked, hoping to bring this exchange to a speedy conclusion.

He met my gaze and held it. “I want you to know that I am deeply in love with your former mate. I’m certain I don’t need to enumerate all the reasons why. I would like to think she loves me as well—although the rationale on her end is considerably more opaque.”

I’m with someone, she’d told me.I’m in a relationship that makes me happy. He doesn’t make me feel as though my lack of a mating gland or a womb makes me somehow incomplete as a person.

At the time, I hadn’t been ready to hear what she was telling me. I still wasn’t, but I suddenly seemed to have less choice in the matter.

“She isn’t a beta woman, someone to marry in a church and hang off your arm like a trophy,” I said sharply, and probably unfairly.

His brows drew together, sadness visible behind his pale brown eyes. “No. Definitely not. She is a proud omega. One who was treated with utter barbarism by monsters in the guise of men. And since then, she has fought every single day to ensure that at some future date, there will be no more damaged omegas like her. She fights with words and with weapons, with her entire heart and soul. It amazes me daily that she still has room in that boundless heart and soul for me.”

I could barely breathe.

Betas lied. They lied all the time—politicians even more fluently than most. But deep in my heart, I didn’t think Dzimitry Polonsky was lying.

“As long as she’s with you of her own free will, then it’s no business of mine,” I managed, after too long of a pause.

He smiled—a bit tentative... a bit rueful. “Even if she weren’t, she wouldn’t need you to snap my neck for me. She already would have done it herself.”

And I wouldnotfind this Euro-Soviet beta politician charming, goddamn it. Icertainlywouldn’t find him likable.

“Then, as I say, it’s nothing to do with me,” I told him. “I’d tell you to keep her safe, but we both know what a sad joke that would be.”

He nodded once, allowing me my fictions. “Sadly, that is true. With great risk comes the potential for great reward, but none of us were ready to have our hands forced so soon. We all do the best we can for those we care about, and fate will take care of the rest.” He rose, reaching his right hand out to me. “I won’t keep you from your duties any longer. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me.”

I shook it—a dry, warm grip—and tried not to wonder who I would be if I didn’t have to carry around my guilt over a lost omega and a ruined life.

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