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Alexei releases my arm and takes the cups to the sink. “Rudenko doesn’t need them to believe Misha can inherit my position. He wants them asking why I kept a son inside the estate.”

“And what does that prove?”

“If Maksim knows Misha is my son, Rudenko will say he allowed me to build my own line of power under his roof. If Maksim doesn’t know, he’ll say Maksim has lost control of his own house.” Alexei washes the cups. “Either story makes the captains question Maksim and watch me.”

“And Misha becomes evidence for whichever story they choose.”

“Yes.”

“And Belov?”

“He wants this conversation. The breach was a warning.” Alexei dries his hands and turns toward me. “He used our own systems to get inside.”

“He watched your surgery,” I say. “Then he brought Blacklist papers to take us.”

“Yes. The false debt against your father’s company gave Belov the excuse he needed to put your name on the Blacklist.” Alexei leans against the kitchen counter and crosses one ankle over the other.

I should tell him to sit before his legs give out, but I need to hear the rest.

“The false malpractice case gave him the rest. Once a patient died, he could make you disappear and tell everyone you ran.” His face hardens. “Then he put Misha beneath your name on the transfer order. If he took you, he took our son with you.”

My stomach turns.

“Belov knew those rules were forbidden,” Alexei says. “He used them anyway.”

“To prove those rules still work.” I push a tall chair toward him.

Alexei sits down. “To prove Maksim made the Bratva weaker when he ended them.”

“How?”

“Maksim and Elena stopped the captains from using the Blacklist to take women, claim children, and force families to pay private debts,” he says. “Belov wants that power back.”

“So he put my name on the Blacklist, added my son to the order, and broke into Maksim’s estate to show them they could do it again.”

Alexei looks straight at me. “Yes. Belov wants Maksim’s place, and he needs the captains behind him. He’s offering them the women, children, money, and control they lost when Maksim ended the old Blacklist.”

“And captains clap because it feels familiar.”

“Some will.”

Misha runs out wearing the green dinosaur over one shoulder. “Papa, it has a broken leg.”

Alexei takes the toy when Misha holds it out. “What happened?”

“He jumped from bed.”

“That was reckless.”

“He needs hospital.”

Alexei looks at me. “Do we have authorization?”

“Emergency treatment only.”

Misha puts the dinosaur on Alexei’s thighs and watches while he straightens the dinosaur’s bent fabric leg. Alexei’s hand covers half the toy, but he works carefully.

“Bandage,” Misha orders.