"Your visa expires in six weeks."
"I know."
"Your time fluttering around is at an end. I allowed you this dream in exchange for your agreement to accept your rightful place with our family. You'll return to Moscow at the end of the month."
My stomach drops, but I keep my face neutral. I knew this was coming, which is why tonight was my final curtain call. "I could stay a little longer. Renew my visa if you’d just allow the New York Ballet Company to renew my sponsorship visa. Besides, you don’t need me to take over the family name just yet. You’re doing a fine job on your own."
"A sponsored visa renewal with the Company will be denied." He says without bothering with the rest of what I said.
"You don't know that."
His gaze sharpens. "I do. Because I've ensured it. Don’t forget the pull our family has here."
The words hit me like a slap. My grandfather took an interest in New York show business before I was born. He had a business relationship with every theater owner and promotional company in New York, and now these influential acquaintances are my father's. If he tells them to ensure that the New York Ballet Company doesn’t sponsor my renewal visa… then that’s exactly what will happen.
As my grandmother always says, “Influence works faster than money.” My grandmother is also the only person my father won’t go up against. But I have a feeling she’s on my father’s side regarding my place in the family business.
"You—" I stop, force myself to breathe. "Why would you do that?"
"Because it's time for you to come home. I’ve been generous to allow you to have your little adventure, Katerina. Living your mother’s dream for you. You've proven you can dance. But this…" He waves a hand dismissively at the dressing room, at the theater, at my entire life here. "This is over."
“I’ve worked for this for eight years—”
“And now you will work for your family.” His tone is final. “I’ve arranged a marriage for you. One I believe will be mutually beneficial. A man you already know—Maxim Volkov. He is adeputy in the Duma, well-connected and ambitious. A union between you would be… advantageous.”
For a moment, all I hear is the roar of my own pulse.
I do know Maxim.
Before I left for New York, our families often moved in the same circles. He attended my mother’s funeral—stood beside the casket with a bouquet of white roses, murmuring condolences to me. I remember staring at the cathedral, drowning in roses and telling him quietly that I hated the flower. He reached for my hand in that moment, and I pulled away. We were both younger than, and even at that age, I understood enough:
Maxim Volkov is everything my father admires and nothing I want.
He’s eight years older than me. Handsome in an effortless, polished way of Moscow’s rising politicians. His career trajectory is steep enough that people whisper he might someday sit at the top of the government.
He is also very clearly cut from the same cloth as my father—ambition first, everything else second.
“You want me to marry Maxim Volkov,” I say, my voice thin with disbelief. “A politician. Eight years older.”
“I want you to fulfill your duty.”
“I’m a ballerina, not a bargaining chip—”
“You are a Popovich.” His voice slices through mine like a blade, in his usual sharp and cold tone. “And you will do what is required. This alliance will strengthen our family. The world is changing, Katerina. The government is preparing to eradicate families like ours—”
“Mobsters,” I bite out.
His eyes darken, the temperature in the room dropping ten degrees.
“Influential families,” he corrects, though we both know the truth. “And the ones who survive will be the ones who evolve. Amarriage to a man like Maxim positions us for that future, and he’s always seen the potential of a marriage to you—aligning our families. I suspect he’s had a crush on you for a while as well. You will do this.”
For a moment, I can't speak. Can't breathe.
All I can think about is my mother—the smile she once gave when she watched me dance, the way she whispered that I could be anything I wanted.
She lied.
“It’s years down the road, but I can see the future isn’t looking bright for our family. If we move now into a new business venture, we’ll be safe, and our family’s money and connections will be safe.”
