A woman steps to Arkady’s side and slips her arm through his.
Arkady grins and pulls her closer, wrapping his arm around her waist instead. “This is Tania. I’m sure you two have met, though,” he says.
“I don’t believe we have,” I shake my head in confusion.
Tania grins, holding her hand out to me, “Tania Krolik, your cousin.”
“Oh my goodness,Tania. Wow. I mean, obviously, I knew you existed, but it’s like you were ghosted from the family before we moved here.”
“Well,” she giggles, “I did marry an Andreev. So, yes, I was ghosted. One hundred percent.”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…” My cheeks flush red.
“No, sweetie, I have zero regrets. I’ve never been happier in my life.”
I bite my lip and glance at Yulian, who chuckles at me, seeing how I put my foot in my mouth. Luckily, Tania is lovely, and she brushes it off with grace.
I can’t believe I didn’t know she was married to Arkady. My brothers never told me about her. I only knew I had a cousin and that she’d been disowned for some reason. This is such a surprise to me.
“Does my brother know?” I ask, knitting my brows.
“Artur knows. I guess he’s embarrassed to admit he’s related to me, so it’s easier not to talk about me at all,” she shrugs.
“He’s a moron. He should have told me. Especially when we moved here.”
“I never got along with Boris. He and Artur were much closer than we ever were. Boris was a difficult man, and I wish he hadn’t been the one to feed Artur information about how this city works. It was tainted with his own agenda. But anyway, enough about that. Your dress looks amazing. Did I just hear Arkady say that you designed the suit? Then you designed the dress, as well?”
As we move through the party, my designs catch a lot of attention, and Yulian doesn’t miss an opportunity to brag about my brand to the people he knows without using my real name. I’m glowing with pride by the time he introduces me to one of the Dubrovs. At first, I’m shocked when I hear the name.
I’ve learned of the Dubrovs. They are incredibly powerful. A family you do not cross, under any circumstances. But here they are, friendly with the Andreevs, treating them like brothers.
How can that be?
The Dubrov empire is one of the more impressive ones I’ve ever heard of. And they’re good people. I know my brother was really eager to try and meet up with one of the Dubrov brothers to try and barter an alliance, even if it started out as something small. He was saying how they were the key to the city.
My uncle was going around telling everyone that the Andreevs are backstabbers and betrayers, that they play dirty and kill innocent people—if that were true, there is no way that the Dubrovs would interact with them at all. But they’re treating them like family. That speaks so much to their character.
Again, I see proof that my uncle was the liar in this whole mess.
My brothers have it all wrong.
They were fed bad information. They had no reason to question it because they trusted Boris. But they were lied to.
With Yulian’s arm around my waist, I watch him and two of the Dubrov brothers laugh together, talking about some incident that happened at one of their dinners. They look like old friends.
With a smile on my face, I glance around the rest of the gala, taking in the energy, the atmosphere, and feeling happy. Genuinely happy.
That is, until I catch a glimpse of my brother, Abram, pushing his way through the crowd.
My heart turns cold. My blood turns to ice. My mouth drops open as I stare in disbelief.
“Fuck,” I whisper under my breath. This is so bad. So bad.
Do they know I’m here? What are they doing here? I have to hide. I have to stay out of sight.
Shit.
“Yulian, I’m just going to get some fresh air for a second. I won’t be long. Do you want another drink from the bar?” I say, tugging his arm to get his attention.
