Page 83 of Betrayal and Vows

“That depends on who sent them.”

I want to vomit.

“Why are you showing me this?”

She sighs and moves to sit beside me on the bed.

“I loved someone once,” she says. I hear the sadness in her voice. “Forbidden. It was your father’s brother.”

The air cracks.

“He died in an accident three days before I was forced to marry Leonid instead. At least, that’s what I was told. But for twenty-five years, I’ve wondered if it was really an accident.”

A tremor shudders through me.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because you’re repeating history, Lena. Word for word.”

I shake my head, refusing it. “No.”

“Yes. And I need you to understand something before this goes any further.”

She shows me more photographs.

Anton in the garden.

Me at the window.

Anton helping me into a car.

Moments that felt private were being used to terrorize.

Someone has been watching all along.

“Whoever sent these wants you to know they could destroy you at any time. The question is why haven’t they?”

My skin crawls.

“Why would someone in this house?—”

“Jealousy. Revenge. Or maybe they think they’re helping you. Keeping you in line.”

The photos are a net. A noose tightening. They’re giving me enough rope to hang myself.

“What do I do?”

She hesitates.

And for the first time, she looks like my mother—not the elegant queen I’ve always known, but a woman who lost something once and never got it back.

“I don’t know.”

A knock interrupts us.

My soul drops through the floor.

“Lena,” Mikhail’s voice calls out. Cold. Razor-sharp. “I know what you did.”