All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)(86)

Monday morning, instead of going to Dr Lau’s class, I went into the chapel to pray. I couldn’t concentrate. So many thoughts were bouncing around in my head.

I sat in a pew and crossed myself.

‘Annie,’ a voice called in a hoarse whisper. I looked around the chapel. No one appeared to be here.

‘In the middle,’ the voice called again.

I walked halfway down the aisle. Then I sat in another pew. Lying on the ground was Leo. I did not move to hug him though I wanted to. I focused my eyes on Jesus and kept my voice steady.

‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ he said. ‘You don’t say prayers as much as I thought you did. A school is a good place to hide. I get food in the cafeteria at night. Then I stay in the chapel all day. No one comes in here, and if they do, they think I’m some kid trying to skip class. When there’s school chapel, I go to the theatre. One day, I saw Scarlet kissing Gable Arsley, Annie. Did you know they were together? It makes me like her less. I knew they thought I would go back to the apartment, so I came here instead.’

I wanted to cry. ‘Oh, Leo, that was very smart of you, but you can’t stay here. Eventually, someone will see you. And then . . .’

‘Pow! I’ll be dead,’ he said rather cheerfully. Leo took the gun out of his waistband. Daddy’s Smith & Wesson, like Mickey had reported. I resisted the urge to take it from him. If the Balanchines showed up at school, Leo should have some ability to defend himself.

‘Why did you do it, Leo?’

‘There were a million billion trillion reasons.’ Leo sighed. ‘Because I’m the son of Leonyd Balanchine and I’m the rightful head of the family,’ he said. ‘Yuri is old and he’s trying to set things up so that Mickey can be the next head. He’s trying to steal my’ – Leo struggled to find the right word – ‘my birthright.

‘Also because Mickey is bad. He set up the Fre . . . Fre . . . Fre . . . chocolate poisoning to make his father look weak so that he could be the head sooner—’

‘Wait, how do you know that Mickey set it up?’ I asked.

‘Because Jacks told me,’ Leo replied.

‘What else did Jacks tell you?’

‘That Mickey and Yuri made us go to the wedding so that they could kill Nana. Yuri controls the power and that’s why the machines stopped.’

‘Leo! What sense does that make? Why would they want to kill Nana?’

‘So I’d be too busy being a guardian to claim what is rightfully mine.’

I put my head in my hands. My poor brother. ‘Oh, Leo, why would you even want to be the head of the family? It’s a terrible job. Look what happened to Daddy.’

Leo paused. ‘Because it was the only way to protect you and Natty from the people in our family.’

‘But Natty and I were fine until—’

‘No you weren’t. You were sent to jail last fall because of our family. You came home like a little broken doll, Annie. That’s when I knew I had to do something. Daddy told me before he died that my job in life was to protect my sisters.’

Stupid Daddy. He’d told me the same thing. ‘But, Leo, the best way to protect us would have been to stay out of it. Now they’ll come for you. And if they find you, they’ll probably kill you.’

Leo slowly shook his head. ‘I know you think I’m dumb, Annie. That I’m like Viktor the Mule.’

‘Viktor the Mule?’ Who the heck was Viktor the Mule? And then I remembered.

‘You didn’t know I was outside the door but I was. Nana said I was like him. That he was dumb and good for moving boxes. And you agreed. Dumb Leo. Just like Viktor the Mule.’

‘No, Leo, you misunderstood . . .’ But he hadn’t. He had heard exactly right.

‘Everyone underestimates me, Annie. Just because I struggle with words and cry sometimes doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. Just because I have seizures doesn’t mean I’m weak and can’t protect my sisters. Just because I was hurt doesn’t mean I’m a worthless thing who never got better.’

I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t afford to attract attention to us. ‘Did Jacks explain this to you?’

‘No! You haven’t been listening, Annie. This is me. Maybe Jacks told me a couple of things about how the family works. But I did this myself, Annie. I did this for all of us.’

Leo was delusional and dead wrong. He had been manipulated by Jacks, that much I knew. But it didn’t change the fact that Leo was now an attempted murderer. If the family got to him, Leo would be killed. If the police got to him, Leo would be sent to prison, which could be even worse than death for a person like my brother.

I had to get him out of the country. But first I had to get him out of this school.

I crossed myself again and said a quick prayer.

I made Leo promise to keep alternating pews throughout the day to reduce the chance of being spotted. I gave him my school scarf to wrap around his head so that, if he was seen, he might be mistaken for someone else.

I left the chapel and went into the church secretary’s office. The office was empty, as they had yet to replace the secretary these many months later. I picked up the phone. It was nine at night in Kyoto. I didn’t think it was too late to call, but even if it was, it couldn’t be helped.