Then Pakhan opened his mouth.
“Kira,” he said casually, cutting into his meat. “We need to talk about finding you a new fiancé.”
Her leg stilled.
Without sparing her a glance, he went on. “They’re dropping left and right these days. Inconvenient. But you can’t remain single forever. I refuse to let my daughter turn into some pathetic old virgin.”
The words landed like a slap.
Something inside my chest snapped clean in half. For one blinding second I saw myself lunging across the table, wrapping my hands around Pakhan’s thick throat and ripping his tongue out by the root for daring to speak to her like that.
I bit down hard and stayed exactly where I was, fists clenched beneath the table, jaw locked until it ached. I had a plan—tight, ruthless, perfect—and in a few bloody weeks, he would be dead. If I moved now, if I gave in to the urge clawing up my spine, I’d ruin everything. So I swallowed it.
Just a little longer, my love.
A few more weeks, and I’ll rip this piece of shit out of your life with my own hands.
But Kira had other plans. Playing the obedient daughter wasn’t on tonight’s agenda, not when her blood was boiling and her pride had been dragged through the dirt in front of everyone. She shoved her chair back so hard it scraped against the floor. “Can you stop?” she snapped, her voice shaking with fury. “I’m not marrying anyone. I’m done with this.”
The room went silent.
“It’s him,” she said to Pakhan, steady despite the tears rising fast. “It’s always been him.”She turned to me, and time stilled.Her lips parted. Her eyes locked with mine, wide and wet.“I love him,” she said, her voice shaking like the rest of her. “I love Maksym. And I’d rather die than belong to anyone else.”
The whole room blurred. All I could see was her—this girl who should’ve run from me long ago but stood tall, heart open, while I stayed stone silent.
She was confessing her love to me. Out loud. In front of all of them. And I couldn’t give her anything back. I just sat there like the fucking traitor I was, letting the girl I loved bleed out in front of me.
Pakhan laughed.
Actually laughed.
“Maksym?” He turned slowly to look at me, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Is that so?”
Kira probably believed my new status changed things. That because I was standing beside him, he’d let me stand beside her too.
He never would.
Her future husband would have to be filthy rich, wired into the right circles—useful. Someone who could tighten Pakhan’s grip on power, stretch his empire wider. No matter how high I climbed, no matter how loyal I proved, I was still just a blade in his hand. Meant to strike. Meant to follow. Meant to be put away. Never a man he’d offer his daughter to.
And if I supported her now—if I let even a flicker of truth shine through, if I said a single word in her defense—everything I’d built would fall apart. The plan I’d bled for. The network I’d infiltrated. All of it would burn. One declaration of love, and I’d lose everything—her, too. Because if I failed, if I died, there’d be no one left to end this, to stop the rot at its core. So I let her see a monster instead of the man who worships her—because monsters survive, and men in love get killed.
I broke her.
“Malaya,” I said coolly, forcing a laugh. “Stop. You’re embarrassing yourself. And me.”
She turned to me, eyes wide. Hope flickering.
I killed it.
“I don’t fall for kids,” I continued, each word deliberate. “And that’s what you are. Spoiled. Naïve.Child.”
Her face drained of color.
I kept going, each word a knife I drove into my own chest. “And yeah, it figures you’d fall for one of your father’s soldiers. What did you think this was? Some twisted romance?”
Her breath hitched like I’d punched her.
“I don’t do feelings,” I said bluntly. “I fuck. I leave. That’s it.”
