“Yes, Katerina’s father was certain you’d take it. Certainly, you’d walk away the second you saw the number.” Her mouth twitches. “I admit, you surprised me a little, but I wasn’t surprised you were madly in love with her after everything she told me you’ve done for her.”
“You tried to bribe him with money?” Luka asks. “How much?”
“Enough that anyone else would have agreed,” she says, her eyes still on me.
“And then what happened when I told you no in that limo?” I ask.
“Then I needed to see how much my granddaughter would give up for you. It was obvious you loved her, but did she return the same level of love?”
My heartbeat stutters. “What did she give up? Because she told me she was going back to New York—”
“Is that what she told you?” A sharp, humorless smile ghosts across her lips. “My dear boy, she told me you would never let her go if you knew the truth, and I suppose she was right to think you wouldn’t let her go with the truth.”
“The truth?” I echo.
“She believed,” Grandmother says calmly, “that her only option to secure your father’s trial spot was to return to Moscow. Marry Maxim. Live under her father’s thumb again.”
My mouth goes dry. “You didn’t.”
“No.” She lifts a brow. “But she thinks I did.”
Luka curses in Russian so violently that nearby patrons stare.
“She gave up her freedom,” Grandmother continues, “to secure your father’s future. I wasn’t fully convinced she would.” She levels her gaze at me. “But she did. Without hesitation.”
I swallow hard, dizzy. “I don’t understand. She doesn’t have to go back to Moscow?”
“No,” she says simply. “Your marriage is under my protection now. She may stay in Seattle. She may dance. She may live her life.” A pause. “She just doesn’t know that yet. I gave the option to live without going back to Moscow, but I already knew your father was never going to get into the trial. Or she could give you up, and I would call in a favor and pay for it myself.”
“My father’s nerve trial. What happens with that?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says. “That was an olive branch. I wish to be in my granddaughter and grandson’s lives in the future.”
“Grandson?” Luka chokes.
She ignores him.
“Katerina is not engaged, nor will she be to Maxim,” her grandmother finishes. “And the divorce papers? Naturally, those were part of the test.”
My jaw drops. “A test?”
“Yes.” She smiles like a cat with cream. “To see which of you would sign. She didn’t. Neither did you.” Her voice softens just slightly. “Good. You love each other. I needed to see it for myself.”
I clutch her flowers a little tighter in my hand. “So we’re not getting divorced. And she’s not going to Russia?”
“Well,” her grandmother says, adjusting a glove. “That is up to the two of you. But your marriage has my blessing.”
“But she gave up her spot here under false pretenses.”
His grandmother brushes her hand through the air. “A simple, large donation to PNB put them on my side. They knew she wasn’t leaving. Her place is still safe. I’ve just been waiting for you to figure it out.”
Luka grabs my arm. “You need to go.”
I look toward the stage, the curtain fully lowered now.
Grandmother steps aside, nodding toward the backstage hallway.
“I suggest,” she says, “you get back there before someone else tries to whisk her away.”
