A disarmingly soft knock at the door tears me out of my thoughts, followed by the unmistakable click of the lock releasing.
Spinning around, I catch as Sergey walks in, kicking my anger into high gear.
He smirks again. Of course.
Dressed in a black button-down with the sleeves rolled up now, his expensive watch flashes while he takes a few steps in. He glances briefly at the broken vase across the room, then to the half-open drawers. Even so, he doesn’t look angry.
“I see you already got a head start on making the space yours,” he hums, not letting me think for even a moment that my outrage concerns him. “Nice personal touch.”
“Let me out of here,” I demand while stalking towards him, finger pointed at his chest with every scathing intention behind it. “Or I swear to god, I’ll ruin your life.”
“Sounds fun,” he murmurs, looking down at me like he’s completely unfazed. “I’m counting on it.”
His arrogance churns my rage further. “Don’t test me.”
Sergey chuckles to himself with his hands casually in his trouser pockets, letting that lazy grin linger. “This is only the beginning, Kat…I’m sure I’ll have plenty more tests ahead for you.”
His proximity almost burns, and I hate the way it feels almost magnetic.
I should back away. Hell, I want to. But I don’t, because if I do, then he wins.
Instead, I stand tall, focusing my effort on looking just as unfazed.
“You’re acting like I’ve done something to you. Like you have some kind of vendetta.”
“Oh, Kat…maybe you have done something without realizing it.”
My brows furrow at that, not catching his meaning.
I haven’t done anything. All I did was go on with my life and try my hardest to stay out of my brother’s way. I thought I was doing harmless work for Sergey, but now I know it was all a ploy. It was pointless.
He catches on to my confusion, and he only seems more thrilled by this. He tilts his head slightly, glancing at my lips before returning them to my eyes with a calmness that has me wanting to let go of my restraint.
“Tell me something,” Sergey murmurs, using up too much of the limited space between us and making it intimate. “Do you honestly think I’d let you go after all of this effort?”
“Effort? You mean a half-assed plan to throw back in Yuri’s face?”
He sighs, shaking his head with a dramatic touch. “Yuri this, Yuri that…do you ever think of anyone other than your brother?”
I narrow my gaze at him. “Actually, yes.”
He hums again, feigning thought. “Maybe that’s true. If you thought of your brother more, then I’m sure you’d be right by his side. Or at the very least, you’d be his puppet, following his commands like a good little sister. Really, you should thank me for taking you away from that fate.”
Gritting my teeth, it takes every ounce of willpower not to lunge at him. “I’m not thanking you for anything.”
“Of course not…but perhaps if things were different, we wouldn’t have this issue between our families,” Sergey muses, letting his eyes light up with satisfaction as if a revelation hit him. “Maybe in another scenario, your brother might’ve married you to one of us anyway as a means of forging some kind of peacebetween our families. If you think of it that way, you had one of two options—let your brother decide your fate, or let me.”
“You’re forgetting about the option where I decide for myself,” I return, not backing down from him. “And if you have a brain in your head, you’ll realize you’ve made a mistake. One that might cost you everything.”
“You’re giving yourself a lot of credit.”
With a subtle bold streak, I take a step closer. “I might have nothing to do with Yuri and his business, but that doesn’t mean I grew up oblivious to it all. We shared the same father, after all.”
Something shifts in his eyes, almost like he doesn’t entirely love that claim. As if he’s actually considering how much weight my words hold.
But, as that doesn’t please him, Sergey shrugs it off. Instead, he looks down at me and puts on an unreadable expression.
“If I truly made a mistake, then it’s the most fascinating one I’ve ever made.”
