I wait. I wait and wait and wait, but the only answers are the ones I choose for myself. No one else is coming to save me.
And in the end, I make a choice.
I pull out my phone and dial.
52
STEFAN
I’m halfway home when my phone rings. Taras’s name lights up the screen. “We have a problem.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter. “What kind of problem?”
“Another attack on the manor. No fatalities, but…”
Silence. A tense emptiness that makes my blood run cold.
“Taras, what the fuck happened?”
He takes a breath. “Mikayla and Olivia are gone.”
The car swerves, almost into oncoming traffic. I correct it, pulling onto the shoulder and throwing the vehicle into park. “Gone? What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
“I mean they’re not here. They left.”
“Left how? Were they taken? Did someone breach the perimeter?”
“No. The security system on the manor itself held. Brother, according to the men and the tapes I just reviewed… it looked more like a getaway.”
“A getaway.”
“Yeah. Armored jeeps showed up. Olivia ran straight to them. Mikayla was with her. They got in and drove off.”
I can’t breathe. The air in the car feels thick enough to choke on. “You’re saying Olivia escaped. With Mikayla.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“No. No, that doesn’t make sense. Someone must have forced her. Threatened her. She wouldn’t just?—”
“Stefan,” Taras cuts in, as gently as he knows how to do, “it looked like they were working together.”
I close my eyes. “I’m on my way.”
I hang up and floor it. The Maserati roars to life. Trees and buildings blur past, but my mind is racing faster than the car.
Olivia ran. She left me. She chose Mikayla over me.
No. That’s not possible. She loves me. She told me she loves me. She’s carrying my child. She wouldn’t just abandon everything we’ve built.
Unless…
Unless she doesn’t believe me anymore. Unless someone convinced her I’m the monster they all say I am.
My mother. It has to be my mother.
I rip through the gates of the manor twenty minutes later. The place is crawling with guards. Taras is waiting in the foyer. He looks grim.
“Show me the tapes,” I bark.
