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“Of course not, Papa.”
“One year,” he says. “You pass information about your new husband to me and your brother, and then I’ll get you your divorce. You’ll be free of him, and of us, and I’ll pay for your education.”
He sounds so cold I almost shiver. “Papa,” I say desperately. “It’s not that I want out of the family—”
“Your foolish dreams won’t forward our business,” he says.
Well, I don’t think wanting to be a nurse and work with disadvantaged people in ER spaces all that foolish. I mean, for as much as his men get shot at and stabbed, I’d have thought he’d find it convenient. And I can’t help that I’m more passionate about that than the bottomless greed that’s kept me in a privileged, pampered prison since I was born. I’ve studied in secret since I graduated high school, but never really had any hope of getting to go to nursing school and making my dream a reality. Not even Katya knows about my deal with Papa.
Become a spy for my freedom.
For once, my own greed came out. To live the life I always wanted? To not be under a cruel tyrant’s thumb anymore? Because telling my father I didn’t want out of our family was a lie. I do want out.
I don’t think about what the information I have to gather about Alexei Grishin might be used for, and what might become of my husband after I’m granted my divorce.
I can’t. Because it will make me falter. As sheltered as they’ve kept me, I still know what happens to my family’s enemies. It’s never simple, never quick, and it goes against every fiber of my being. All I want to do is heal, not harm.
“Now is your chance to show your loyalty, Sera,” my father says when I’ve stayed silent too long. It’s like there’s a hand wrapped around my throat, squeezing the air out of me. “This man is a threat to us. The guilt that’s written all over your face is misplaced.”
Alexei is a threat to us? And he still agreed to put me in his house? All for information to bring him down? I feel myself slipping toward the floor and Papa roughly grabs my shoulders, shaking me. I feel one of the flowers in my hair slipping underneath my veil and almost laugh at what Katya will say when she sees it.
Papa has condemned me just like I’ve condemned Alexei to whatever his fate might be once I’ve managed to get enough information on him to earn my freedom. The thought of that freedom is what’s been keeping me going for the last three days since this alliance was made. Now the cost is making my knees buckle.
I’ve already agreed, so there’s no backing down. To do so would be a joke because Papa would still force me to go through with it anyway, but without the end date to look forward to. Or he’d kill me here and now. I sometimes think he’s been looking for a reason ever since I was born.
Well, I’m not going to give it to him. I straighten my spine and shrug his hands off my shoulders, looking him in the eye with a fierceness that shocks him. In a few hours I’ll be out of this luxurious prison. I could be heading into something much worse, but I cling to the thing that’s kept me going my entire life.
Hope. Hope that I won’t always be under someone’s control. That I can make my dreams come true and live a life that means something. The cost no longer matters.
Papa looks away first, reaching for the door and holding it open to let me through. Katya jumps from where she’s been waiting in the hallway and hands me my bouquet, then grabs my train as we silently head toward my fate. We stop in the vestibule so she can fix the damn flower in my hair and pull the gossamer veil over my face.
“You ready?” she whispers, squeezing my arm as the wedding march swells from inside the church.
Two of my father’s men fling open the double doors and Papa holds out his arm. The scent of incense hits me like a wave. The church’s nave is packed full with family and associates, and dripping with flowers and ribbons scattered among the icons. Anyone who thinks it takes a minimum of six months to plan a wedding has never met anyone in the mafia.
I keep my eyes on the icon of the Theotokos on the wall that blocks the altar from view, not yet wanting to see the big, grumpy man that I’ve been sold to. She had to make a really hard decision for herself once. I’m doing the same thing today.
“I’m ready,” I say, and step into the nave.
Chapter 2
Alexei
Am I actually married? It seems to be the case, since my bride and I are currently being driven to our hotel suite for the honeymoon.
I don’t know what to make of my new wife—seriously, what the fuck? How the hell did I end up married? Why did I agree to this, again?
Right, my mountain of debt is now magically leveled to the ground. I’m free of it at last, but got shackled to a stranger in the process.
No, not shackled. Strangely, I don’t feel like that at all. Sera isn’t anything like how she was described to me.
I spent the last three days of my bachelorhood trying to find out information about her. The youngest daughter of the Novikov family was supposed to be mediocre at best in all ways. At only twenty, she still hasn’t been given any real responsibilities in the family, which led me to believe she was somehow incapable or incompetent. She was supposed to be mousy, plain, and weak.
When I saw her making her way down into the church, her small form swathed from head to toe in acres of white fabric, my heart sank. I know a full veil is just some traditional thing—most women in those old-fashioned churches cover their hair in services anyway, wedding or not—but in my mind I thought brides were all keeping their dark secrets until the last possible second.
Then Ivan got all that gauze away from her face and my heart skipped a beat. Not plain at all. Her hair was a dozen shades of tawny chestnut and caramel, her pale blue eyes piercing straight through me as our gazes met for the first time.
Seraphina Novikov, now somehow Seraphina Grishin, is gorgeous. Stunning. Breathtaking, even. I turn to look at her now, and she once again meets my eyes. Just like throughout the ceremony and lavish reception, it’s like she sees right through me.
