Elena’s POV

The question left my mouth before I could stop it.

“Who is Kolia?”

The silence that followed was worse than any answer.

My father’s face changed in a way I had never seen before. The fear I thought I glimpsed earlier hardened into something colder, more deliberate. The color that had drained from his cheeks did not return. Instead, his jaw locked. His shoulders squared as if he were bracing against a physical blow. He looked at me the way a man looks at a door he has already decided to bar shut.

“Eh… Elena.” His voice was quiet, but there was no softness in it. “You need...