The night in lawyer Stoyanov's office was long and sleepless. He put us in one of the back rooms, which was obviously used as an archive and a place to rest. There was a small sofa on which I curled up, but sleep did not come. Every shadow seemed threatening to me, every noise from the street made me jump. Maria sat on a chair by the window and looked into the darkness, lost in her thoughts.
The conversation with the lawyer played in my head like a broken record. Deal or justice? Both paths seemed thorny. If we chose justice, I would be sending my husband to court. The man I once loved, the father of the children we hoped to have. Yes, he had lied to me and betrayed my trust, but could I be the one to destroy him?
If we chose the deal, we would be letting a criminal like Ivaylo get away with it. We would be covering up the truth, becoming accomplices in the dirty game. And what was the guarantee that a man like him would keep his word? He could agree to anything just to get his documents back, and then destroy us.
A memory from a few months ago came to my mind. It was late at night, and Peter came home unusually tense. I was reading in bed. He entered the bedroom without turning on the light and stood by the window, looking out.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him.
“Nothing. Just… business,” he replied.
“This big project? It seems to me that it torments you more than it pleases you.”
He turned to me. Even in the dim light, I could see his tormented expression.
"Sometimes, to build something great, Annie, you have to tear something else down. And you have to make sure that when the dust settles, you're the one standing tall."
At the time, his words seemed like just another business metaphor. Now I understood. He knew he was entering a life-and-death battle. And he was ready to take it down. The question was what and who.
As I was tormented by these thoughts, another image surfaced in my mind. The image of Lilia. His business partner or assistant, I never understood exactly what her job title was. A tall, elegant blonde with sharp features and an even sharper mind. I had seen her several times at company events. She was always next to Peter. She was always whispering something in his ear, they were laughing at each other's jokes. I could feel the tension between them, that special closeness that exists between people who share a common secret or a common ambition.
