Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Out of my life,” my father said, his voice trembling with fury. “You're nothing more than a curse. A scourge to punish me.”
A curse.
A scourge.
I didn’t reply.
“Answer me!” he thundered.
My father took a step toward me, and my mother stepped in front of him. “No! No more,” she said, her voice cracking. It was only last month that he put Aleksandr in the hospital with a broken jaw because of a trivial misunderstanding that could easily be twisted by a narcissist.
This time, I saw the determination in my mother’s eyes.
I didn't blame her. My mother, a woman of firm resolve, was so diminished she needed to choose carefully when to intervene. If she didn't, it would come back on her, and the rest of us would suffer.
“Get out of my way,” he sneered.
She shook her head, and her hair fell from the clip holding it together. It cascaded over her bare, thin shoulders as she stood her ground.
“Move.”
My father raised his hand to strike her.
I leaped to my feet and grabbed the front of his shirt. It took everything in me to hold myself back from throwing him bodily into the cold, empty fireplace.
My father’s eyes widened with fear. I dropped him. He stepped back, stunned.
The realization hit me like a punch to the gut—I was someone to be feared. My sheer size made people cower.
It filled me with a mix of pride and sadness. I didn't fully understand why.
“I'm done with you,” my father spat, his voice laced with contempt. “You're dead to me. Let Kolya deal with you.”
Relief and sadness entwined, even as the blood pounded in my veins, and I wished I could hit him, just once, without losing my hand and my position in this family.
My father's rejection stung, but I welcomed the change. This was my path now, one I would walk with pride and resolve.
CHAPTER TEN
Viktor
We walk out of the shop with a few bags. She sits in the passenger seat beside me, doing some kind of magic to her mane of hair and applying lip gloss she found at the checkout.
“What’s happened with your brothers?” she asks.
I don’t want to take her to where I’m about to go.
But she needs to see. She needs to know.
“There’s a secluded warehouse that’s one of our secure locations. Only family’s allowed there. We need it quiet and off the grid.”
Nodding, she looks out the window.
“And why am I coming with you?”
“Because I can’t trust you at home.”
The cars zoom past us as we take the exit that leads us to the warehouse. “So I accompany you everywhere you go, then? That’s your big plan?”
“Until I can teach you to behave yourself.” The truth is, once we’re married, she’ll be a lot more secure than she is now. The Ledyanoye Bratstvo will have less of a claim on her, and even our rivals would know she’s off-limits.
“Indefinitely?”
“Yeah, Lydia. Indefinitely.”
She drums her long fingernails on the dash. “I need a phone, Viktor.”
“I know. I’m on it.”
We drive in silence. We’re only a few minutes out.
“What if I promise you I won’t try to escape again?”
I shake my head. “Talk is cheap. I don’t give a shit what you tell me. I won’t let up until I know you’re not going anywhere.”
She frowns, shaking her head, and curses under her breath.
“You’re a fucking liar,” she finally says. “You know that, don’t you?”
I’m not a liar. I tell the truth even when it hurts. She’s baiting me, trying to get some measure of control back—a last-ditch effort to rattle me.
I won’t be baited.
“I don’t. So why don’t you fill me in on why you think I’m a liar?”
Her eyes flicker with surprise, momentarily thrown off. She shifts, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. The air between us is thick with tension, unspoken words, and unresolved anger.
“You keep telling me you won’t hurt me. You keep hinting at the fact that you know me. But if you really knew me, you’d know that the number one way of hurting someone like me is trying to control them.”
Ah. Well played. But she’s still missing a piece of the puzzle.
“Mmm. When someone makes choices that could endanger them, sometimes the only option is to ensure their safety by exerting control. You ought to know that.” I give her a sidelong glance as I exit the highway and make a quick turn toward the warehouse. “Your parents sent you to boarding school for that reason, didn’t they?”
They sent her to boarding school because she was a danger to herself and her peers. They sent her to a place with strict rules and an authoritarian structure in an effort to give her the guidance and supervision she needed. Like most attempts at controlling defiance, it didn’t work well.
“You don’t know the first thing about me,” she seethes.