Isabella stares at me as though she’s taking me in, too. For a moment, she doesn’t look like she knows how to react. Then she shakes it off.
“No, Liv, you’re not hallucinating,” she whispers back.
I’m shocked, but the undeniable feeling rushing through me is, of all things, relief. Pure, unadulterated relief.
“Oh my God.” I dash forward, wrap Isabella up in a hug, and squeeze her as tight as I can. “Rob was right. You’re alive.”
She hugs me back, but she’s also the first to let go. “Hey, kid. Yeah, I am. Alive and well.”
“You’re okay?”
She nods. “Yes.”
I drop my arms and back away a little, just to get some perspective. She’s wearing loungy knitted sweatpants and a matching crop top. She’s got a belly button piercing. That’s new.
Slowly, as the relief wears off, other questions start rattling around in my head. Especially once Aleks walks over to stand beside Isabella.
They’re not even touching, but there’s a familiarity between them. Comfort. Rapport.
“Wait… what’s going on here?” I ask, looking between them.
“I told you,” he says. “I had nothing to do with Isabella’s disappearance.”
“That’s not totally true,” Isabella points out.
He throws her an impatient glare. “It was for your own good.”
“I know,” she sighs. “I know.”
“Well, I don’t!” I say, furiously trying to control the burgeoning panic inside me. “What the hell is going on? And why am I getting the feeling the two of you know each other way too fucking well?”
“Because we do,” Isabella tells me gently. “We have known each other for years.”
“Almost a decade, in fact,” Aleks says.
A decade? So the two of them knew each other long before Isabella ever met Rob.
“Isabella…？”
She winces. “That’s not my name, Liv. I’m sorry.”
I shake my head like that’ll make everything fall into place. Shockingly, it doesn’t work. “Who are you?”
“She was mine from the beginning,” Aleks says. “A Bratva spy.”
“Spy?” I repeat, as if the word is brand new to me. “I… I don’t understand…”
“The FBI received a tip about the Makarova Bratva,” the woman who isn’t Isabella says, sending my brain spinning in a hundred different directions at once. “About two and a half years ago. No one paid any attention to it. But the tips kept coming, and coming, and coming. And finally, an ambitious young agent decided to make it his mission.”
I know who it is immediately. “My brother.”
She nods, confirming my guess. “He didn’t have much to go on. But he was smart. Persistent. Righteous.”
“So I found out everything I needed to know about him,” Aleks explains, taking over the narrative. “And then sent my best asset in: Jennifer.”
“Jennifer,” I say, repeating her name. “You don’t look like a Jennifer.”
She gives me a sad smile. “That’s who I am, Liv. You only ever knew me as Isabella. But Isabella died the minute I walked away from my role.”
Anger is starting to take root in my chest. “Oh, you mean when you disappeared and broke my brother’s heart?”
“I never meant to hurt him.”
“That’s bullshit!” I say as my fury finally explodes outward. “That’s complete bullshit! You came crashing into our lives and made sure everyone fell in love with you. What did you think would happen when you disappeared?”
“I had to deceive him. All of you, actually. I had to play my part.”
“All for a fucking inside scoop.”
“That was the goal,” she admits. “But no matter how close we got, no matter how deeply he fell for me, he refused to talk about his work in detail. It became apparent that being with him was not getting me anywhere.”
“So you just said, Fuck this and got yourself ‘kidnapped.’”
“It was more complicated than that.”
“Uncomplicate it for me then,” I demand. “I’m all ears.”
She takes my anger in stride, like she knows she deserves it. She glances towards Aleks, who nods in approval. I hate the shorthand they have with each other. It makes me feel like the black sheep in the room, whining and bleating for attention.
“My job isn’t easy,” she begins, “but it is simple. I become who I’m meant to be. Who I need to be. My identities don’t overlap, and when the work is done, I sever ties completely and move on. I kill who I was and become someone new. But I was involved in another mission years ago, and the man I spied on… he was looking for me.”
I frown. “Okay, and…？”
“I knew that if I stayed, he would find me. I didn’t want him connecting me with Rob or any of you.”
“So you were playing the hero then?” I ask sarcastically. “How noble. I guess I should be throwing myself at your feet in gratitude.”
“I would never claim to be anything of the sort,” she says calmly. “But I knew that my time with your family was coming to a close.”
“One way or another,” Aleks adds.
I turn to him. “What does that mean?”
He glances towards the spy who I thought would one day be my sister-in-law. His look says, This isn’t my story to tell.
“I’m good at my job, Liv,” Jennifer says. “I seduce men and convince them I love them. It’s easier than you would imagine. But this was the first time that I got emotionally involved.”
My frown deepens. This is sounding more and more like bullshit. “Are you telling me that you fell in love with Rob?”
“Falling in love,” she whispers as if tasting it. “I don’t know what that means. I just know that I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“Well, you did a bang-up job of that,” I snap. “Your disappearance nearly destroyed him.”
“She had no choice,” Aleks cuts in smoothly. “It was my call to make. I pulled her out.”
She gives him a grateful smile. “He’s being generous. I was the one who made the ultimate choice, Liv. I knew I was in over my head. Leaving was the only way to guarantee my safety as well as his. And yours by association.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?” I ask coldly.
“That’s up to you. What I’m telling you, though? It’s the truth.”
“Do you even recognize the truth?” I scoff. “I mean, Jesus! What kind of person comes home to meet her boyfriend’s mother and his sisters, knowing it’s all a lie? We spent Christmas together, Isabella—Jennifer—whatever the fuck your name is. We were still hurting from losing our dad, and we welcomed you into our family. Rob proposed to you and thought it was going to be forever. You know why? Because you fucking said yes.”
Tears are pooling in her eyes as she nods. “I know. I did say yes. It was the one thing I did for me… because in the moment, it felt like the right answer.”
“In the moment,” I scowl. “And what about afterwards?”