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“You’re lying,” I slurred, knocking things from the nightstand in my confusion. “Let me call my father. I only want Kat back. I don’t care about the rest.”
Why would I set something so heinous up? My daughter was at the center of all the madness.
I fought against Aleksei’s hands on me, but before long, the door swung open, and Nikolai was there in an instant.
“Get lost, Aleksei! Your way of getting the truth isn’t working,” he snapped, slipping in between the two of us. He reached for my arms, but I swung before he could grab me.
The slap took everything I had left in me, stunning Nikolai for a moment before he grabbed me gentler than before.
I collapsed against him as the heavy tears streamed down my cheeks, sobbing through the heartbreak of it all. Nikolai held me there, arms secured around me as I wailed.
His comfort wasn’t enough to take the pain away.
“Why aren’t you looking for her? Why aren’t you keeping your promise to get our daughter back?” I muttered in between my cries, not strong enough to hold myself up anymore.
Nikolai helped ease me back into the bed, but I refused to lay back down.
I didn’t care how it happened—I needed her back.
Chapter 19 - Nikolai
I wanted nothing more than to gather Mila in my arms and hold her close, to comfort her and ease the discomfort inside her. But I didn’t know what to believe or what step to take next.
She was either sincere or the best actress I had ever seen.
Mila’s sobs made my chest ache.
Why aren’t you keeping your promise?
The pain in her voice stabbed at me, and I had never been more wracked with guilt before. I wanted to find Kat too—I needed to. My efforts so far had been for nothing, and she was still out there somewhere with the enemy.
But I still didn’t know if Mila was in on it. I had to choose my strategy carefully for not only my safety but for Kat’s. One thing I could guarantee was my daughter’s innocence.
Aiding Mila back onto the bed, I stood before her with my face set. I couldn’t make room for compassion yet.
“Tell me the truth. All of it.”
Mila’s face twisted with anger as it melted into her eyes. “I never lied to you! I wanted to ask my father when he was leaving so that I could breathe normally again. To know when he’d be out of our lives so we could find some kind of normalcy.” She pulled back, fighting between different emotions. “I also thought it would please you to have that information. If I had no choice in this marriage, then I thought I might as well try to make it work and be useful.”
Blinking back at her, I watched as defeat filled her features.
“My father has always been violent toward me, even as a child. If it suited him, he wasn’t afraid to hit me in front of others. But that violence never stopped with me. He’s ruthless, and no matter what he wants, he won’t stop until he gets it,” Mila explained, pained from the memories. “You saw what he did to me.”
The images of Mila soaked in blood, strapped to the stretcher, and being hauled away into the hospital flashed inside my mind. Anger flared within me, but I pushed it back down. I wasn’t finished yet.
“Why did you come back into Grigory’s life if you hate him as much as you say?” I questioned her, trying my best to put the pieces together in my mind. “You went through all that effort to stay hidden from him, so why? Was it because you found out who I was and wanted the power?”
It felt stupid of me to ask, especially as Mila held a hand against her bandaged head and laughed bitterly to herself. She winced but shook her head. Her eyes met mine sadly. “My aunt convinced me that my father was dying, and he wanted to make amends for threatening my unborn child. But, he killed my beloved aunt, manipulated me through her, and by then…”
She trailed off, but I could fill in the blanks then. I had been there for that part as a witness of how Mila fought bitterly against her father when she realized she was being handed over for the marriage pact. It had been against her will from the start.
I could still see how stunned Mila was when she realized it was me she’d be marrying. It was like she had seen a ghost.
Mila averted her eyes and spoke quietly. “If I wanted power, I never would’ve left Russia. But I had been plotting to leave that life since I was a teenager. I didn’t want it.” As more tears welled in her eyes, Mila tried to hit me again, but much weaker that time. “Now I’m not only back in that life, but so is Kat and she’s in danger. All because I got soft and sentimental, forgetting what it was like to be raised by someone without a heart. I trusted you.”
Leaning into her for support as Mila let the emotions wash over her, I put a hand against her back and sighed.
Fear trickled into my chest then, fully aware of how Mila’s childhood had affected her, and why she didn’t want Kat anywhere near our damning lifestyle. Having a family meant having a weakness, and anyone could exploit that for their own gain.
