“He wanted eyes on Roman,” she says. “That was all at first. He knew I’d help because he knew how much I loved Lev. Men like him always know where to push. He said Roman was dangerous, unstable, still dragging old blood around behind him. He said if Roman came near this family again, someone should be paying attention.”
I can barely get the words out. “And you agreed?”
She shrugs one shoulder. “It wasn’t hard.”
I feel sick. Not just because she did it. Because suddenly all the little things rearrange themselves. Her interest in Roman at the party. The dress. The dance. The way she kept orbiting him like it was vanity and appetite and nothing more. It was all a ruse.
She laughs again, softer this time. “At first, he barely looked at me. That should have been insulting, but then I realized why. He wasn’t interested in me.”
Her eyes glitter. “He was interested in you.”
I close my eyes for one second.
Of course she saw it. Of course she hated it.
“When Andrei realized that too,” she says, “everything changed. Then the rumors became interesting.”
My skin goes cold. “What rumors?”
But I already know.
Her smile widens. “Oh, Katya.”
The gun presses harder into my back.
“The children.”
For one terrible second, I can’t hear anything except the blood beating in my ears.
She says it almost lazily, like she’s discussing weather. “There were whispers already. About the twins. About Lev. About timing. About how strange it all was. Andrei wanted to see them.”
That makes no sense to me at first. My mind catches on the wrong part.
“See them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He wondered,” she says. “That’s the word he used. Wondered. Such a tidy little word for such ugly curiosity.”
My throat tightens. “He knows?”
“No,” she says. “Not for sure. But he wondered enough to care.”
I can feel my whole body going colder with every word.
Vika watches it happen and seems to enjoy it. “At first, that was all it was,” she says. “Curiosity. He wanted to see them. I didn’t understand why he cared so much. They were only children. Yours. Lev’s. A scandal, yes, but still just children.” Her mouth curls. “I thought he was indulging some old man’s obsession with bloodlines. Men like him love to count who belongs to whom.”
Her finger stays steady on the trigger. “So I got them to him.”
For a second, I can’t breathe. “You what?”
She smiles. “Don’t look so shocked. You were making it almost embarrassingly easy. The house was in chaos already. Everyone running around, everyone whispering, everyone too busy with their own fear to see what was right in front of them.”
I stare at her.
Mikhail is motionless a few feet away, gun raised, face like stone. He knows as well as I do that one wrong move and she could pull the trigger.
