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Surprise flickered in his own blue gaze. “Sofia,” he murmured. “I thought…”
“I’d like to speak to Oleksandr, please,” I told him in an emotionally neutral voice.
He stepped back, allowing me entrance. “He’s in the dining room, having breakfast.”
“Thank you.” Without waiting for him to lead the way, I walked through the huge penthouse and into the dining room. A table that could seat twelve took up the center of the room and was laid out with enough food to feed at least twenty. It was a waste, but something I never would have considered before spending the summer in Creswell Springs. All that food could have filled tiny, hungry stomachs, and it made me sad that it wouldn’t, that the hotel staff would most likely just toss it into the trash at the end of the day.
As I entered the room, the old man lifted his graying brows, and I focused on him instead of the tragic reality of so many people going without food daily. “Thought you were in the hospital, girl.”
“I was, old man.” I matched his tone, cool and uncaring. His eyes were hard, perhaps even cruel, as they looked at me, and for a flash of a moment, I pictured holding the gun Theo had urged me to take. Pointing it at Oleksandr’s head and pulling the trigger, ridding the world of a man who wanted to rule it but would no doubt only crush it if given the chance.
Without being invited, I took a seat at the table. His place was at the head, and I took the chair to his left. Grabbing a carafe of fresh orange juice, I poured myself a glass and took a sip. Placing the glass on the table, I gave him an impartial appraisal. “I don’t see it.”
His eyes narrowed on me. “See what?”
“Everyone seems to think you’re so powerful. Scary. Your own daughter was even terrified for her life, thinking you might kill her if you had known she was pregnant with me.” I shook my head. “But I just don’t see the danger.”
He tilted his head slightly, slowly, like a predator inspecting his prey. Playing with me, trying to intimidate me. “What is it you do see, then, girl?”
I let my gaze drift over him for a long moment. With each tick of the clock in the distance, I could feel his tension rising. It was almost amusing, but given how much I hated this bastard, I couldn’t bring myself to laugh. “I see a sad, pathetic man who thinks he can control those around him with a flick of his wrist. You consider yourself untouchable, yet you feel as if you don’t have the power you deserve.” I leaned in toward him ever so slightly and lowered my voice, sharing the secret that he and I were all too aware of. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself. “But we both know you’re too weak to control that power even if you did, by some miracle, get your hands on it.”
“Weak!” he sputtered, pushing his cup of coffee away so roughly that some splashed onto the table. He was vibrating with anger, perhaps even shocked that I’d dared to speak to him so openly. As equals.
But we would never be equal on any level. I was better than him in every way. Deep down, he knew that. That was why he hated me and any other strong woman who dared cross his path.
“Ah, good. You agree with me.” I gave him a cold smile. “For a moment, I thought you were stupid as well as feeble.”
The spark of rage in his eyes only spiked my own. “You like to run your mouth, don’t you, girl? That’s an annoying little trait we will soon break you of.”
“And just how do you plan on breaking me?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
“Zakhar will teach you where your place is.”
The way he said it made it sound like a threat. As if he expected Zak to beat what Oleksandr considered my failings out of me. I might have been pissed at Zak, even questioned his love and my own trust in him, but there was one thing I knew for certain. Zak wouldn’t touch me with violence even if his own life were on the line. That Oleksandr didn’t understand that gave me pause. Did the mentor not know the prodigy as well as he thought after all?
Was the prodigy even as enthralled with the mentor as everyone—asI—thought?
But that was something to think about later. Right then, my focus was solely on Oleksandr.
“I’m not marrying Zakhar,” I informed the old man matter-of-factly. “Not now or any other day, for that matter. Your plans for gaining the political power you covet through our marriage will never come to fruition.”
He grunted and waved his hand dismissively. “I know you’re pregnant, girl. When the child is born and takes the Morozov name, that’s all I need. Zakhar will take custody, and we can play it off that you aren’t fit enough to be my great-grandchild’s mother. Zakhar will find another wife, someone who will take us even higher.”
The scary part was, I could see Oleksandr doing just that. Commanding Zak to steal my child away from me, marrying someone who could fulfill their political aspirations even more than I could. All they needed was my baby, not me.
But would Zak do that to me? Would he tear our child from my arms? Would he break me even more than he’d already attempted to?
Deep in my gut, I already knew the answer. No. Zak would never do that to me or our baby.
I placed my hand over my lower abdomen, caressing where my baby was growing. Strong. Healthy. Loved. Protected. “Ah. So, I’m not really needed after all. That’s such a relief. You don’t even know how stressed it was making me.” I rolled my eyes at his sneer, then grinned. A real grin that should have made the rat bastard nervous as fuck. “Well, that makes this so much easier. I know exactly what I have to do.”
“And what’s that, girl?”
“Her name is Sofia,” a voice snarled from behind me, but I didn’t bother to turn to look at Zak as I heard him stomp into the room. “Call her ‘girl’ one more time in that tone, Oleksandr, and you’ll be eating your meals through a straw for the rest of your short, miserable life.”
Pretending the father of my child hadn’t even spoken, I kept my gaze focused on my grandfather. “I just have to ensure that my baby stays a Volkov. They will never be a Morozov.”
