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So, I had held up my end of the bargain. Together, we’d schemed and planned. I’d never met the man, but I knew he was a terrifyingly cunning strategist.
And when he urged that I send my daughter—my sole remaining heir—to the Korolevs, I had acted without hesitation.
Now, the Bogatyr had proved useful once again. He had warned me that my daughter was coming home—unexpected and unforeseen, but not altogether unwelcome.
His envoy now stood before me with his hands clasped before him. “Are you ready for what comes next, Don Tarallo?”
“I am.” I nodded, reached into the drawer, and retrieved two items: an envelope of money and a tiny pin that was all I had of my son. Such a small thing, yet it felt unbearably heavy in my hand. And for a moment, I was reluctant to let it go.
The man quickly thumbed through the money. Satisfied with the amount, he tucked it into his pocket and picked up the pin.
“Will this work?” I asked.
He smirked. “Has the Bogatyr ever been wrong?”
No…I admitted silently.Never.
The man took the pin and clutched it in his fist carelessly and for a moment, I fought the urge to wrest it out of his hand.
“I will let you know when it’s done.”
I stared at him. “See that you do.”
Without another word, he was gone. I slumped back in my chair, sighing. I was alone. Luca had been gone for years, and Elia…I clenched my fist at the thought of Aleksey Korolev putting his hands on my little girl. The same hands stained with the blood of my son.
It hadn’t been easy to sign her away. But it was part of the plan, the Bogatyr’s envoy had assured me. It would be how both of us got what we wanted.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Elia
The next morning
“You wanted to see me?” I asked tiredly at the doorway.
My father looked up and looked at me in the doorway. My face had bruised from where my father had slapped me last night, and no amount of concealer could hide it properly. I had also slept like shit all night, trying to put together just who was telling the truth and who was lying to me.
This must be exactly what Father wanted me to do. All my life, he’d been planting seeds of doubt in my own mind and gaslighting me until he was the only person that I could believe. I wished I could say that it didn’t work. But even now, I had my doubts about what Aleksey had told me.
He pushed up out of the chair and walked out from behind his desk. His face was arrayed in a way that looked almost like contrition.
“I want to apologize for my behavior last night,” he said, surprising me. “I was out of line.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. This wasn’t the father that I knew. “You never apologize, much less to me.”
“Perhaps I’m turning over a new leaf,” he shrugged. “You are carrying my grandchild, even if he or she will be a Korolev.”
My hand instinctively flew to my belly. Something in the way my father said those words sent a chill down my spine. He must have another plan in place, something that involved my child, and the only reason he was apologizing was to make me more compliant.
He wanted something out of me. Heneededsomething out of me.
“Don’t lie to me, Father.” I shook my head. “Just tell me the truth. What are you after?”
“I’ve never lied to you.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “All my life, you’ve lied to me. And now you sit there anddareto tell me otherwise?”
“You’re right,” Father said. “Thereissomething that I want from you.”
