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Valery’s face is impassive, as always, but I can tell he’s just as confused as I am. Not Konstantin, though. Judging by his distracted expression and the way he’s glancing at his phone every couple of seconds, he’s heard all of this already.
“More specifically,” Nikolai says. “Imet her at your party, Valery.” He takes a deep breath and looks at each of us in turn. “I also fucked her that night.”
I suck in a breath. “What? You—”
“I didn’t know who she was at the time.” Nikolai’s tone sharpens. “I still wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t received a call from her friend two days ago. Turns out our one-night stand, forgettable as it was, had unintended consequences.”
Valery’s gaze sharpens. “Her son. He’s yours, isn’t he?”
I open my mouth, then close it, struck mute. Of course Valery would get there first, a split second ahead of the rest of us. Or rather just me, because once again, Konstantin doesn’t display any surprise, just frowns and types something on his phone.
“Yes,” Nikolai says, and this time, there’s no mistaking the tension in his voice. “According to the diary Ksenia’s friend found after her death, her son—Miroslav—is mine.”
I open and close my mouth again, like a guppy, then down the glass of cognac in my hand. The alcohol burns a fiery path down my esophagus as my mind races to process the implications.
A child that Nikolai knew nothing about.
A boy who’s both a Leonov and a Molotov.
It’s unbelievable, impossible.
It was our father’s dream, the reason for my betrothal to Alexei.
I begin to laugh, unable to help myself. I laugh so hard I have to set my empty glass on the table, and even then, I can’t stop. Because what are the odds? What are the fucking odds? For a decade, I’ve been dealing with the consequences of our father’s obsession with a union between our families, the “bridge over the rift” he wanted me to build with Alexei. And all along, all we had to do was get Nikolai into the same room as Ksenia. His overactive dick took care of the rest.
“No condom?” Valery asks, ignoring my hysterics, and Nikolai glares at him.
“Of course there was a fucking condom. I’m not an idiot. It was either defective or she tampered with it. I have no idea which.”
I laugh harder. This is precious. God, this is so fucking precious.
Nikolai turns his lethal glare on me. “You realize this is your nephew, right? A four-year-old who’s just lost his mom and now lives with his grandfather, Boris?”
The laughter dies in my throat. Boris Leonov—a man known for his cruelty. Fuck, I didn’t even think about that. Nor about the fact that the boy must be massively traumatized, having lost the only parent he’s ever known. “I’m sorry, I—” I cut myself off. It doesn’t matter why or how or what could have been. Nothing matters but figuring out what to do next. I sit forward. “Kolya, what are you going to do?”
“I’m working on the security schematics for the Leonovs’ compound,” Konstantin answers in place of Nikolai, and I realize why he’s been glued to his phone. “We need to figure out how to get the boy out, first and foremost.”
“And then hide him,” Valery says. Clearly, the three of them are on the same wavelength, even though Valery is just learning about this, same as I am.
I twist toward him. “You mean, kidnap him?”
“I doubt the Leonovs will simply hand him over,” Nikolai says.
“No, they won’t.” Valery cocks his head, studying Nikolai. “Do they know he’s yours?”
“No,” Konstantin says. “Nikolai and I took care of the friend before she could reach out to them about what she’d learned in the diary.”
My chest tightens. “Took care of her how?”
“She’s on her way to New Zealand with a new identity as we speak,” Nikolai says.
Whew. That could’ve gone so much worse. Not that what’s happening is good in any way. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of what our father hoped to achieve. I shift my gaze from one brother to the next. “Won’t this start a war with the Leonovs?”
“Not if they don’t find out about it,” Valery says, and it’s obvious he’s already thought this through. “If they don’t know the boy is Nikolai’s, they’ll have no reason to suspect him.”
“Especially if I’m not even in the country at the time of the kidnapping,” Nikolai says.
Valery looks mildly curious. “Where will you be?”
