Chapter Seventy

M I K H A I L

The aftermath of what I can confidently call a war was almost . . . calm. There were no notable ups and downs, but I couldn’t really say there were no hard emotions involved. I guess what I could say about it is that it is subdued. Quiet. Defeated.

We are the winners, my family and I. And yet victory is not something that we feel.

Because today is the burial of Uncle Amos, and we have to remind ourselves once again that someone we considered our family has betrayed us and died in the process.

But of course, we all know that the pain and fresh betrayal and perhaps even guilt that my parents and I are all feeling right now is nothing compared to what Evan is feeling.

After Yana and I kissed in the hallway a week ago, I went to see Evan. He was in the morgue, crying over his dead father’s body, which was in the other side of the place being embalmed. We couldn’t see the process, only some views of it through the little window on the door.

He turned to me abruptly when I wen