Page 168 of Betrayal and Vows

Vadim stands slowly. Both Natalia and Mikhail fall silent immediately.

"You will both shut your mouths," he says, his voice carrying absolute authority. "This is between me and my son."

The word “son” hangs in the air like a death sentence. Natalia's face goes pale as understanding dawns. Mikhail looks like he's been struck by lightning.

"That's impossible," Mikhail stammers. "I'm your heir. I'm your?—"

"Thirty years," he continues, still focused on me. "Thirty years I've watched you grow into exactly what I knew you could become. Strong. Ruthless. Everything Mikhail pretends to be."

I feel Dmitri tense beside me. This isn't going the way any of us expected.

"You tried to kill me," I say flatly.

"I tried to make you." His smile is cold, predatory. "Do you think it was an accident that you survived all these years? I could have you killed at any time. But I allowed you to live.”

My blood turns to ice. "What are you saying?"

"I needed you broken first. Remade. The boy who loved his mother, who cried for bedtime stories—that child was weak. But the man who crawled out of that training center?" He spreads his hands. "That man is my masterpiece."

The warehouse spins around me. Everything I thought I knew, everything I believed about my escape, my survival—it's all been orchestrated.

“You thought you could sneak back in, steal the girl from your brother, hide behind that name like a coward?”

I don’t flinch. But my jaw tightens.

That’s when the door slams open.

Lena stumbles in, dragged by two of Vadim’s men. Elena is behind her, wrists bound. Lena’s lip is split, her shirt torn, one shoe missing.

I lurch forward but Dmitri grabs my arm.

“They’re alive,” he says under his breath. “Hold.”

I want to kill everything in this room.

Vadim watches me closely. “You see? The woman you betrayed your family for. You should have left her to Mikhail. That was your chance. But no. You played pretend. To kill me, correct? That’s why you came to me.”

Lena meets my eyes. There’s blood on her lip, but she’s defiant.

“Lenoid gave them up,” Vadim says, amused.

And then Lenoid strolls in without a hair out of place.

I can’t decide if I want to kill Vadim, Mikhail or Lenoid first.

All three will die.

Vadim focuses on Lena. “You will marry Mikhail. Tonight.”

She laughs. “I’d rather slit my wrists.”

“Then we’ll help you do it,” Mikhail says.

I step forward. “Touch her, and I’ll peel the skin from your face.”

“Enough,” Vadim roars. His voice cracks across the warehouse.

He stares at me, trembling with fury. “You were my son. And you ran. Hid like a coward. And now, now you want to come back and take what should have been yours?”