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Real estate? Is she mad? Where has she been for the last six months?
Paige wants to deprive me of everything I have. My Bratva, my money, and my power. I’m not the average man, or she wouldn’t be attracted to me. She wants my protection but criticizes me for how I achieve it.
“I just want to feel safe.”
“And have I not protected you?” I ask. “Do you think you can do it better?”
She narrows her gaze. “Emma is gone.”
“Emma is still under my protection,” I reply. “Viktor is with her, and he still answers to me. My crest is tattooed on his skin. I’d have burned it off him if he had defied me.”
“So, you gave them permission to leave?” I see a spark of hope in her eyes.
“No,” I reply honestly. “Your sister was too willful to stay. But Viktor is determined to rise in the ranks. Emma may end up in the Bratva after all.”
My voice is as cold as hers as I push the knife in a little farther. She’s taken her swipe, and now it’s my turn to give it back.
Paige scoffs. “Emma isn’t so easy to shape and bend. I’m the malleable one.”
I flinch at her words and then narrow my hard gaze. “You may not have noticed, but you have become one of us. You are my wife, and your duty is …”
“Stop it!” she shouts. “Just stop it, Andrei! I’ll hate you if you tell me again. I love you like a fool. I did what I did for love, Andrei. And now I’m doing this for love. I’m going away with the baby. I’ll go to the inn, where I’ll be safe. I’ll even take some men with me for safety, but I don’t want you there. I love you, but our baby needs me more.” Paige stands up to face me. “You have a responsibility to your Bratva, and I have a responsibility to my child.”
“Will you contact me when the child is born?” I ask.
Paige’s surprise is plain to see on her face. She expects me to argue, fight, and beg. Maybe it’s better that she goes. The irony of her timing doesn’t escape me. In a short while, I will have won the war. Never mind, she can return to me then, after it is over. Paige will see I’m right when she returns.
Paige nods. “I’ll tell the men to keep you informed.” She doesn’t look at me as she leaves the room.
***
I sit and wait for Dmitri, who enters as soon as Paige leaves. I stare at his masked expression, trying to figure out what is going on in his head. He’s never been on Paige’s side, but he must hate what I’m doing. Hate it so much that he’s willing to back her.
I give him instructions as if it’s my plan. “They will go with Paige to the inn. They are to listen to her and keep her and the baby safe.”
“What she is doing is very brave,” replies Dmitri kindly. He stands in front of my desk to show he still respects me. “And it’s diffused a delicate situation.”
Dmitri allows me to stretch the truth into something that doesn’t resemble failure. It’s not unusual for a wife to live in another house. I think back to Talia and the day I broke off our engagement. That is what she had expected. She didn’t want to live with me. No one will think it’s unusual if Paige leaves. No one will think my marriage is a failure.
And yet …
It’s become real to me.
I let my guard down. I let Paige into my heart when I should’ve kept her under my thumb.
Money. Maybe somewhere in her head, this marriage will always be fake. Maybe she always planned to leave me the moment she found the chance. Maybe this is it.
Maybe it’s possible to change for her.I shake my head at the thought.
Paige can’t change me and get what she wants. If I change, then we all die.
I step out of the office, and my tight expression eases as I watch Paige descend.
She stands at the top of the stairs in a long black wool coat with faux fur on the hood and the cuffs. Her black leggings fit neatly into her tall riding boots. Her long hair is braided and pulled to one side. She is beautiful. Confident. Her face is arrayed in an unreadable mask like the tsarina that she is.
“She’ll be okay, Andrei Vasilyevich,” Dmitri whispers. “The men are loyal to her.”
I nod. “I know, Dima.” If they weren’t, I would never allow her to leave this house.
