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To seal the deal, she tells hi his favorite pork shashlik, chunks of barbequed ranate juice

He coht for the har he butchered Not just any creature My baby It’s not even like he didn’t knoI look up at him in wonder This is my father Incredible how he had co what he did to my mother

It is almost as if the love he deliberately withheld from me put me under a spell where all I wanted to do was obey him and please him Or perhaps my sub-conscious mind assimilated that scene with my mother better than I properly understood it Fall out of line and get kicked out of the house forever So I beca, but I was gray inside

If I hadn’t had the courage to turn up at Noah’s office that night, I ht still be under his spell But I’ve had a taste of what lies outside the cage He crossed the line when he ive him for that

He looks at me directly and smiles ‘You look well, Solnyshko’

‘Thank you, Papa,’ I reply with lowered eyes

He asks our server to bring him two bottles of Tsimlansky Black Baba approves The smoky, dusty red redolent with the srilled meat

The wine is uncorked and left to breathe, and our glasses are filled with anisette My father raises his glass and makes a toast

‘To the wealth of this family’

I dutifully throw the drink down my throat

He looks directly at me ‘One day, you will understand me’

We stare at each other and suddenly we are locked in a vortex There is no one else but us in this spinning world The powerful bonds of love, hate, fear, loyalty, duty, deceit keeps us joined together as irl inexorably Surely it ainst its own father? It is i mother are about to kiss his cheek and betray hi