Author's Notes:

Thanks again to RozamarieH and TheTrebledMom for beta-reading this chapter.

-=o0/&\0o=-

Rose POV:

After coming home and scrubbing myself down in a boiling shower until I almost bled, I immediately called Christian. As soon as he picked up, I yelled into the phone, "You knew! You lying piece of shit, Christian! You. Knew! And you didn't tell me!"

"Rose, it's not like that," he began, "But you know how wary I was of you going out with him when I first saw you two together. I told him he had to tell you and he said he would. You told me that what you do on a date with a guy or who you go out with is none of my business.'"

"But you could've at least let me know who I was going out with. And why the hell did you tell me Dimitri was in your class?" I asked, "That asshole is in high school!"

"He is in my class," Christian defended, "And in high school. He's in a dual enrollment program because of advanced placement. He's one of the most gifted high schoolers I've ever seen. He's always seemed very smart and responsible."

"More like cunning and calculating. And he's still a kid! He's practically a baby compared to me!"

Christian countered, "It's not like it's a huge age difference, Rose. Lissa and I are eight years apart."

I was getting pissed again. "For fuck's sake, Christian, eight years younger than me is still not eighteen yet, and for all I know he's even younger than that! He's just a teenage boy who just went out with an older girl to try to get in her pants."

"He promised me he would be honorable with you and not take advantage. I made him promise that he wouldn't even start to get physical with you until he went out with you at least three times!"

"You made him ... promise?!" I shrieked into the phone, "WHAT. THE. FUCK! Christian, I don't even want to speak with you anymore!"

I hit the end button and turned off my phone.

-=o0/&\0o=-

I was hurt.

If I was honest, I was in agony.

I'd spent the last few days - at least the part that was uninterrupted - crying into my carton of ice cream with a tissue box watching sappy romantic tear-jerker movies. I thought that they'd be cathartic, but they just made me hurt more.

It was all because of Dimitri Belikov. I wish I'd never met him. And none of my friends would let me forget him. Lissa kept telling me I needed to at least give Dimitri a chance to tell his side of the story and insisting that she'd never seen me happier than when I was with him. Christian kept trying to call. I'd even had a few furtive texts from Dimitri that second night before I blocked his number to keep them from coming through.

With Jesse, I had given my innocence years ago to a man who had thought of me as nothing but a conquest - even if he found me to be an amazing one -, but he had slowly worked his way in under my defenses for months before I gave in to him, and then shown me his true colors little by little after that. Although I had hated to admit it to myself, I knew, even before Jesse cheated, that he had never been the man for me. Then, when he showed me how much the commitment he'd made to me - the one he made when he took my virginity - had really meant to him, he'd shown me that he truly wasn't.

Then Dimitri had come along. Everything - and I mean everything - about him had screamed that he was the perfect man for me. The dutiful way he cared for his family and shouldered their responsibilities, the way he worked through things like moving strangers' furniture without giving a thought to himself, the way he opened up to me alone, the way he didn't even seem to know how to have fun until I showed him how. His body and face had the beauty - because, let's face it, you don't usually use that word for a man, but there just isn't another word strong enough - of a work of art.

And now I was left wondering if it had all been an act - an elaborate lie crafted to be exactly what I needed. I even had to wonder if he was lying about having access to social media or any of those other things. I had always assumed that the reason he had never talked about his job was because it just wasn't something he really invested a lot of himself in, but now I had to wonder if the reason he never talked about it was because he had been lying about working.

It was so hard to know what he had lied about. The crappy car couldn't be faked, of course - especially since he had it on the night we had met. The fact that he had a car at all meant that he wasn't really at the poverty level, though. With a car like that, he obviously didn't have access to a whole lot of money, but that could have been even more motivation to try to get in close with the girl whose father had the money to buy her a new car and pay for a three-bedroom house for her and her roommate for the summer just so that they could be closer to the beach.

Was he also after me for my money? I honestly didn't even want it. I didn't even have money until Abe - ugh, I mean 'Dad' - came into my life a few years ago. And up until Sunday night, I would've pretty much decided Dimitri could have my money, for all I cared. All of it.

Agh, this was infuriating! How would I know what was real and what wasn't?

All I knew was he lied to me. I felt like there was no way that he could've found me anything more than a conquest. So many guys in my life had been interested in only my body. Granted, with Dimitri, the feeling was mutual at first, but he didn't stay that way for me.

I had given him my whole heart. I was completely in love with him. I knew I hadn't known him long, but Dimitri was my whole world in the short time we were together. I felt so much stronger about him than I had with Jesse. And even if it was just lust at first, by the time that Sunday had rolled around, I gave him my body willingly as a sign that I was willing to give my heart, and not just as a way of providing each other a - very sensual - quid pro quo that I might have initially envisioned.

No, this was different. Dimitri had weaseled his slimy way into my heart like Jesse never had, not just into my pants. I was in love - in love - because of a man's - make that boy's - creative deception and there was absolutely no way he felt it back. The only thing I knew for sure is that his feelings for me were anything but real. He had used me to get what he wanted in a way that Jesse never had.

Maybe one of the worst parts in all of this was just my staggering need for him. Even knowing what I did and feeling what I felt, my traitorous body still wanted him. Ached for him. I would lay in bed at night with my whole body just thrumming from thoughts of Dimitri that wouldn't go away. Thoughts of his hands, mouth, and cock bringing my body to new depths of pleasure I'd never been before. Every night, I would lay there yearning for a satisfaction that never came. Nothing could replace his touch, his kiss, the feel of his body holding me close, moving inside me. No amount of using Mister Shaggins or my fingers could quell my desire for him.

And no amount of desire alone could make me cave and go running back to the high school boy who had conspired with his pervert friend to use me, and had broken my heart in the process, to rid himself of his virginity.

So why did I have to keep reminding myself of that?

Worse still? I still love him; present tense. I knew it, to the core of my soul. Even with what he had done, even though he was a minor and far too young for this to be an appropriate relationship, Dimitri Belikov had my heart.

I kept mulling over it all, replaying every moment in my mind. How much was a lie and how much was the truth? Why couldn't he just have been older - and completely honest with me?

I sat there thinking, letting the tears flow freely, when my cell phone rang.

I looked at the caller ID. JIll. I'd been avoiding it, but this girl needed a talking-to from me.

She knew about Dimitri; knew I had been dating him. She knew that he wasn't what I thought he was.

I pushed the answer button and moved the phone up to my ear.

"Jill, you better have a good explanation for this," I told her. I hadn't realized until that moment just how hoarse my voice was from all the crying.

In a meek little half-defeated-sounding voice, Jill told me, "You sound as bad as him."

For some reason that I didn't understand, her words made my heart ache even more. "Good," I told her, trying to put my patented Rose Hathaway - er, Mazur - bravado into it.

"What happened with you two?" she asked. Okay, that pissed me off!

"What the fuck do you mean, 'What happened with you two'?" I asked, incredulous, "You knew how old he is! You had to! You've known this whole time! And you still let me go out with him when you found out, you deceitful bitch!"

Jill gasped and I could hear little sobs in the background of the call. I felt worse than I expected for hurting her. Sweet, innocent little Jill had been like a baby sister to me ever since Lissa and I had found out she was her half-sister. And she was the kind of person that would never try to hurt anyone.

I took a deep breath and tried again. "Jill ... Please ... I'm sorry. But you knew, didn't you? That Dimitri is still in high school."

I heard the phone moving and her sobs, but nothing else. I heard someone female in the background, probably Jill's mom, say, "She can't hear you nod your head, you know?"

"Yes," Jill breathed.

"Jill, why wouldn't you tell me? Why would you let me go out with a ... a kid ... without saying anything to me? How could you let him lie to me," and use me, "like that?"

"Because he's not a kid, Rose. I mean, Dimitri's eighteen; I was there at his birthday party. I knew you didn't know, but I thought he should be the one to tell you. And he told me he would! I even have a text message from him saying it. I can screenshot it and send it to you after we're done here if you don't believe me."

"Why did you believe him? And how could you let him use me like that, Jill?"

"Rose, Dimitri is a good guy. I don't think he used you."

"Really?" I asked her, "And why should I believe that?" I knew she couldn't see me, but I was once again jealous of those who could arch an eyebrow, because I felt like it was warranted here.

"Really," Jill said, "You know by now that he's the guy I was going out with last fall, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Do you know what happened? Or why we broke up?" she asked.

"No," I said, scowling, "Why should that matter?"

"One of the other guys on the basketball team, this guy Dane, was being a jerk and wouldn't leave me alone. He kept trying to get me to go out with him and making all of these really crude, perverted suggestions. Dimitri came up to my locker in the hallway and stood between me and Brett, asking me to be his girlfriend. I knew Dimitri had seen the whole thing happen and only asked to try to be nice, but I agreed with Dimitri because he was so sweet - and so freaking gorgeous - that there was just no way I could say 'no'. He was the perfect gentleman the whole time we were dating and never even tried to kiss me, Rose! And he spent so much time at work, at basketball, with his family, or at his dad's house that I barely saw him outside of school. After like three weeks of 'going out' - without actually going out - and holding my hand in the hallway every day, Dimitri broke it off. He told me that he really liked me as a friend but he didn't think that either of us was really into it, that he couldn't really afford to take me anywhere or anything, and that I deserved someone who really cared for me and could treat me right."

I sighed. I sat in silence for a moment, thinking through what she had just told me. This whole story sounded like the Dimitri I had thought I had gotten to know - the sweet, thoughtful, giant teddy bear of a guy who respected women, stood up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves, and put others' needs before his own. How much of that was a lie?

"Rose?" Jill asked, "Are you still there?"

"Yeah," I told her, more solemnly than I had responded a minute ago.

"He told me - sort of - that he loved you. He was crying. He didn't mean to tell me and I don't even think he realized he said it," Jill said.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Just ... send me that screenshot," I told her.

-=o0/&\0o=-

A few minutes after I had hung up with Jill a few days ago, the screenshot was in my hands. Sure enough, Jill was telling me the truth. Not that it made me feel any better that she was keeping it from me - or that anyone was - but at least she had a good reason.

He had told her, "I'd like to be the one to tell her, but I just haven't found a good time to do it yet."

Why did he lie like that? He was never going to tell me.

Now, here I sat, staring at Jill's screenshot on my phone.

My phone rang again, breaking me out of my thoughts. I glanced at the caller ID.

With a slight laugh, I answered the phone, "Mia Rinaldi, you bitch! It's been - what - two, three years now? Since Mason's wedding - right? Why'd you wait so long to call me? And how are you?"

"Rose, it's good to talk to you, too! I've actually been meaning to call for a while now, but ... well life kinda got away from me," I could almost hear the shrugged shoulders in her voice as she said it. "I'm doing okay, but I called about you today."

"Me?" I asked, "What about me?"

"You remember Sonja Belikova?" Mia asked.

I was curious why Mia would be asking me this. Or what it had to do with me. "Sonja Belikova? I haven't talked to her since that party in high school where I pulled Rolan Kislyak off of her. I remember I used all of my self-defense training on him and he still was back to harassing girls the next day!"Mia continued, "I know. I don't think any of us really saw her out in social situations again after that night, but Sonja and I were lab partners in Bio class our senior year, so we kept in touch for a little while. She always felt like she kind of owed you for that. She asked me if I could get in contact with you to help her pay you back."

"Pay me back?" I asked skeptically, "What's this all about?"

"Your number was in my old phone, so it took me a while to find it. She contacted me a few weeks ago and said that she came across something that belonged to you. She said she wanted to make sure you got it."

"And what exactly was it of mine that she came across?"

Mia replied, "She didn't say, but she sent it to me in an envelope and asked me if I could make sure you got it. If you tell me where to send it, I'll drop it in the mail tomorrow."

"Okay," I told Mia, "I'm staying in a rental house with Lissa right now. I'll text you the address after we get off the line."

Mia replied, "Okay. Oh, and by the way, a few years ago, Sonja said that her baby brother is this badass who kicked Rolan's ass when he caught Rolan trying to take advantage of her younger sister, Viktoria. She said he taught him a lesson once and for all. Nearly broke his nose and Rolan hasn't bothered another girl since."

It was then that I recalled Dimitri's words: "... I still fought my sister Viktoria's date when I caught him trying to take advantage of her a few years ago. I almost broke his nose."

Wait. Belikova - Belikov? It couldn't be; could it?

It almost seemed too big of a coincidence, especially since she had those same deep brown eyes.

I decided to let it go and settled in for a long phone call with my old friend.

Wanting to take my mind off of Dimitri, I asked Mia, "So, what else is up with you, Mia? Tell me about the exciting world of fashion."

"I'd hardly call working as a sales person in a clothing store 'the exciting world of fashion'," she told me, "but it has been fun."

-=o0/&\0o=-

I sat with the letter from Sonja in one hand and the letter from Dimitri in the other.

Sonja's letter, marked "Read me first" on the outside, had said:

Dear Rose,

I owe you a debt that I could never fully repay because of your pulling Rolan off from me that night, but I would like to start to try to repay it now. My baby brother Dimitri has been head-over-heels in love with a girl for weeks now. I overheard him telling his best friend one night that the girl named Rose that he had been seeing had gone out with Jesse Zeklos. I knew in an instant that there was only one girl named Rose that dated Jesse that he could've been talking about, especially when he described her "beautiful dark hair".

Dimitri is a good kid, but he can be a real chucklehead at times. I found this letter wadded up on the floor outside of his room a few nights ago. I'd bet good money that he still chickened out and hasn't told you the truth, so I thought I'd let you see it, in his own words. He tried to tell you once and you deserve to know.

Sincerely,

Sonja Belikova

Mia - who had grown to become a close friend I had learned to trust - had told me that Sonja had wanted to give this to me weeks ago. Weeks ago. Before I had seen Dimitri's school ID card.

He was going to tell me. He had tried.

And then he had chickened out.

Or - worse - this whole thing is a very elaborate fake, and Mia is in on it, too.

-=o0/&\0o=-

It was late Saturday afternoon and there was no way I was going to be back at Lissa's. After listening to Lissa and Christian nagging me to give Dimitri another chance for almost an entire week, I had finally picked up a bag of my stuff and headed to stay at my parents' house for a few days.

I took a deep breath and pressed the call button on my phone to talk to Adrian.

"Hello, little hooligan," Adrian said, answering the phone.

I decided to start with the thing I wanted to know most, "Adrian, You have five minutes. FIVE. MINUTES. And if I don't like what I hear, I'm never talking to you again. Why did you lie to me about Dimitri's age?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, little hooligan," he said. I knew Adrian would try to downplay this! "Who says I lied?"

"Adrian, you told me Dimitri was twenty," I said, getting more angry by the second, so tired of being lied to.

"No," he said, the epitome of casual self-assuredness, "I asked him if he was twenty, while you were standing there. The rest is all just your mind making assumptions, Rose."

I was fuming. If I was a cartoon character, there would've been little spouts of steam coming from each of my ears. "Adrian!" I practically growled, through the phone.

I heard Adrian take a deep breath and then he started over again. "Look, I'm sorry, Rose. I shouldn't have done that. Dimka's a good guy. He promised me he would tell you."

"What made you think he was ever going to tell me?" I asked, almost resigning myself to the idea that everyone had just taken him on faith that he would tell me, even though I still doubt he ever would have.

"I gave him one chance to tell you and I told him if he hadn't told you, I would. He asked for two months."

"Adrian!" I nearly shrieked into the phone, "A lot can happen in two months!"

"I never told him I'd give him that long. That's just what he asked for," he replied, "I probably would've told you in the next week or so."

"Uh-huh," I told him, making it clear in my tone that I didn't believe him.

"Little hooligan," Adrian said, "Have I ever lied to you?"

I frowned, telling him, "Deception by omission is still a lie, Adrian. I want proof."

"I'm sorry, Rose," he said, finally sounding contrite, "I can see this really bothered you. I'll send you a picture of my text messages with him as soon as we get off of the phone. And I won't lie to you again."
"And no more talk about Dimitri," I told him, firmly, "I don't want to hear about him ever again."

-=o0/&\0o=-

Less than five minutes after I hung up with Adrian, Mason had texted me to talk about Dimitri. It was starting to feel like everyone in my life was on Dimitri's side in this, and that was just making me even more angry and frustrated. I sent Dimitri a quick text, irritated that he seemed to know everyone I was close to and that they all wanted me to run back to him, then I blocked his number again before he could do his own talking to try to weasel his way back into my life.

It took me several hours to reply to Mason.

-=o0/&\0o=-

"Is Rose home?" a heavily-accented feminine voice had asked from my parents' doorway, just after dinner, "Lissa told us we could find her here."

After the phone call with Adrian this afternoon and the texts with Mason later on, the last thing I wanted was to talk with anyone else.

"Yes. Why don't you both come in and I'll go get her," Janine - Mom - had told her, "May I ask your names?"

A chill ran up my spine as I heard the girl say, "I'm Viktoria Belikova, but you can call me Vika."

Another, deeper voice, had said, "Ivan."

My mother, in her shrewdness, had picked up on the fact that Ivan hadn't provided a last name. As if she didn't trust him, she asked, "Do you have a last name, Ivan?"

Ivan cleared his throat and said, "It's Zeklos, ma'am, but please don't hold that against me."

"Well, you're certainly more polite than the last Zeklos boy who darkened my doorstep, but don't start thinking that means I trust you," she said, "I'll go get Rose now. Why don't you both sit in here?"

When she approached me, I whisper-hissed to her, "I heard. I don't want to talk to them."

"What's this about?" she asked me.

"I don't want to talk about it," I repeated for the thousandth time in the past week.

"They appear to have a gift for you, Rose, so the least you could do is accept it before turning them away," Janine had said, "They're in the living room."

When it came to gifts, I was usually a lot less selfish than the average girl whose parents lived in a 12-room house, but it did seem rude to turn away someone who had come with a peace offering. "Fine," I huffed.

When I walked in the room, the family resemblance to both Jesse, for Ivan, and Sonja, for Viktoria, was immediately clear. I couldn't help but part my lips in surprise. I wondered if Ivan was half as arrogant or womanizing as Jesse.

"Hello," I said, not sure what this was for. One thing was for certain, though, this was about Dimitri. No matter what, there really seemed to be no way of getting away from him.

After a few introductions, Viktoria said, "We're here to talk to you about Dimitri Belikov."

"Why would I want to talk about Dimitri?" I asked, giving them both a piercing look.

Viktoria said, "I think he is in love with you. Lying to you about his age was the stupidest decision my brother ever made and he regrets it."

Handing me the gift in her arms, she added, "Dimitri had talked about you at home a lot. He told us how much you loved Mama's black bread. My mama, who never shares her black bread recipe with anyone, gave it to me and told me to give it to you, because she believes that he loves you. She already welcomes you as a member of our family."

"And why are you here?" I asked Ivan, turning to give him a look that could kill. Ivan looked similar enough to Jesse that it became even easier to believe that Dimitri - Ivan's best friend - could be just like Jesse, a womanizing user who lied and took advantage of everyone around him.

A shimmer that I could've sworn was a tear threatening to fall was in Ivan's eye as he said, "Because Dimitri is my best friend. He's like a brother to me. He is absolutely broken without you, Rose. He has barely eaten or slept in days. He won't talk to anyone. All he cares about is you, and you are gone. I can't leave him like this."

"And I'm broken, too; I'm the one he lied to," I retorted, "What do you expect me to do about it?"

Ivan replied, "Dimitri graduates from St. Vladimir's next weekend. My guess is that you might be there at the graduation ceremony for Jill, anyways. Give us half an hour of your time this evening. If we can convince you, cheer for Dimitri at the ceremony to show him that you're willing to give it another try. One of us will even come get you to bring you there, if you want. If you're not convinced by then, we'll leave when the half hour is through and we won't bother you again. Cheering for him doesn't have to mean that you'll take him back right away, just that you'll at least give him the chance to tell his side of things. He deserves a chance to explain himself. The rest is up to you."

"And either way, Mama wants you to keep the bread recipe. She made a loaf that is in there for you, too."

I pulled out my phone and set a time for thirty minutes, showed it to them both, and said, "Start talking."

-=o0/&\0o=-

Author's Notes:

I hope you all caught some of the more subtle references to the previous conversations in there. You might even catch a phrase or two that OTHER people have said in the previous few chapters (after Rose said it to them first in this chapter).