Page 126 of Ruthless Sin
I tell her.
Not everything — not the parts that belong to Dante first. But I give her Moscow. I give her Yelena. The extraction plan. The concrete room. What I watched happen in it. The promise I made on a floor covered in blood.
I watch her face while I talk. She’s a doctor. She keeps it still. Her hands come together in her lap and she holds them there.
The lie I told Dante. The three years of carrying it. Finding Mila. Recognizing her from the hum in the hallway. Not telling her.
Gia goes very still.
I wait.
“She hummed it?” Her voice is quiet. “That’s how you knew.”
“Yes.”
She looks at the floor. Her thumb runs over her knuckles.
“And you said nothing.”
“No.”
The clock in the hallway marks the silence.
“Nico.” Soft. The way she says my name when something is really wrong. “She must be shattered.”
“Yes.”
“And you.”
I don’t answer.
She already knows.
Then she says the thing I don’t deserve.
“You have to fix this.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.”
“She’ll never forgive me.”
“Maybe not.” Giada’s voice is hard now. “But you owe her the chance to decide that for herself.”
She gets up.
Walks to the door.
Stops.
Turns back.
“Nico.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve watched you disappear for three years. Since Moscow. Since whatever happened there that you won’t talk about.”
