Chapter 229

"I was six when I discovered that the convent sisters who came once a week to take children from the orphanage were anything but angels," Ruslan said, rocking my daughter's cradle. "It became clear why the boys never came back, and the girls who did barely lived."

Twenty minutes ago, I had laid my sleeping daughter in her crib and rushed into the bathroom for a quick soak, despite knowing she wouldn't stir.

Two seconds ago, I stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around my chest and damp hair still dripping, only to see Ruslan standing over Constance's crib and staring at her.

Even though he didn't touch her, my racing pulse refused to die down.

But he paid no heed to my presence and continued, "They needed us in a coal mine in this little spot in Serbia." He paused, his gaze remote. "Our starved, wiry, agile bodies were the perfect fit for narrow spaces, running errands, and sometimes checking if the explosives had completed their work."

My hawk