CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
(part six)

“What? What was that?” Mike jumped to his feet. “Why did you look at Jill? Leave Jill out of this.”

When Jill put her hand on Mike’s forearm, Mike looked down at his sister.

“Please sit down.” Jill said. Leaning around Mike, she said, “Please Steve. Please.”

Steve’s attention jerked to Jill. Seeing her distress, he flushed.

“I’m sorry Jake, I broke your china,” Steve said.

“Actually, it’s my china,” Valerie said.  “And that’s all right. Let me get you another plate. Leslie? Tim? Jazmyne? Why don’t we work on dessert while they talk?”

Jacob leaned down to kiss Jill as he got up. He swept the mess of Steve’s dinner onto a tray and carried it into the kitchen.

“Wine?” Jill held up the bottle of wine.

Anjelika’s husband smiled at her. He said something in Russian to her mother. Anjelika chuckled.

“We don’t know what to call you,” Mike said. “And Papa doesn’t really work for us.”

“I’m called Perses,” he said. “Anjelika calls me Pyotr, when she’s angry. Most people call me Peter or Pete. I will answer to any of those names.”

Mike sat down then yanked Steve down into his chair.

“Why did you kill our father?” Mike asked.

“He was dying. I sped the process along,” Perses said. “Some might say it was quite the humanitarian gesture.”

“What?” Candy’s voice echoed over the others.

“Stuff it,” Mike said. “I’ll handle this.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Steve said. “I say what I want.”

Candy giggled at Steve’s oft stated sentiment. Megan and Mike laughed. Jill joined in when Steve finally laughed. They stopped their tension filled laughter when Mike cleared his throat.

“We don’t understand what you’re saying,” Mike said. “You killed our father.”

“He was not your father, Mikhail,” Perses said. “But, yes, I ended his life.”

“And he was dying?”

“He had an injury to his neck,” Perses said. “Rather than let him bleed to death, I finished him. There would have been no way to save him, even if I’d wanted to.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to save him?” Megan asked.

Mike kicked her under the table. She glared at him.

“He stole my wife, my children. He beat my Anjelika, my children. I am sorry to stay this, Steven. I am. But your father was a cruel, abusive man who did terrible things to people I love.”

Perses and Steve’s eyes held across the table. Steve’s face clouded. He looked away.

“How was he injured?” Mike asked.

“He was injured in the middle of committing an unspeakable act of cruelty.”

“That doesn’t really answer the question,” Mike said. “What…?”

“I shot him,” Jill said.

Denver Cereal continues on Monday….