“No. No… It tells them he’s human.”
I blink, taken aback. He can’t possibly be that far gone…
“It tells them…” he continues, “That he’s a simple man, just like them. And simple men don’t build up empires. Their blood is too warm—they have blind spots, weaknesses. But monsters? We don’t care who we step on. We keep our eye on the prize. As he should’ve done if he wanted the throne so badly.”
A smile spreads across his face, resembling Wolfgang and Mikhail’s, but not fully. Something is seriously wrong with this man.
“None of my sons deserves to be king, Victoria. One of them doesn’t even want the title. The other wants it, but he’s too weak. Do you know how hard that is for a parent to realize?”
The words roll off my tongue faster than I can control them. “You’re a fucking hypocrite.”
His eyes squint, but he keeps silent.
I wonder if anyone as insignificant as me has ever challenged him.
“You like to hide behind these stupid metaphors, but in the end, youarea simple man, just like the rest. You have a wife. You have sons. And you can lie to yourself all you want, but we both know the real reason you initially wanted Wolfgang to take the throne is that you still haven’t gotten over his mother’s death. She was the love of your life. He’s the only proof she ever existed. That she could love a monster like you.” His jaw clenches, but he still listens. I’m letting it all out, even if I don’t know how much of it is true. It’s just what I think. But based on the look on hisface, it seems my words resonate with him, that I’m telling him the truth.
“If you were really being honest with yourself,” I continue, “you’d realize the reason you’re so angry with him isn’t that he was showing the world he’s weak. It’s that he was happy, that he had everything he ever wanted—the kind of life that slipped between your fingers when your ex-wifedied, and you never found that love again. Because it’s rare!” I shout, tears lodged in my throat as I slap my chest with my palm. “That love is rare, but you still had it. And now your son has it, and instead of wishing him well and giving him his birthright… all you’re doing is showing the world what a sorry ass man you are.”
Silence stretches between us. So much so that I get the chance to take a few deep breaths and calm myself down a little. In the end, I point a finger in his direction, my voice finally low. Collected.
“He earned that throne. And you fucking know it.”
Yuri stares at me, frozen somewhere in time, with a tight jaw and the look of a man who’s bleeding for the first time. In front of a stranger. In front of the daughter of the man who betrayed him and started everything.
I walk out with my head held high, knowing he won’t do anything to attack me now. Only when I reach my room on the second floor… onlythenI close the door behind me… and break down.
34
VICTORIA
Ashooting star splits the sky in half, a trail of glitter fading in its wake.
I watch through the open windows as I lie in my bed, when a patch of light from the hallway stretches on the wall. The door opens, someone coming in quietly. I don’t have to turn to see who it is. I know the sound of Wolf’s steps, can feel the scent of his body wafting over to me, subtle and alluring like it’s always been.
The mattress dips behind me. He doesn’t lie next to me. He sits. And when his scarred hand brushes my side in a gentle caress, I close my eyes, holding on to that feeling.
“You really went to war for me, didn’t you, love?”
I let the question linger unanswered, my mind focusing on that last word. I wonder who told him.
“It’s not every day that someone tells my father off the way you did. The entire house heard it. Corinne told me.”
Right. Of course she did.
Squeezing my eyelids tight, I ask him, “Did you get it?”
“At the next meeting. He’ll step down and appoint me. I don’t think he wants to do it, but… Mikhail said no, anyway.”
I let out a sigh of relief, and I swear my body actually feels lighter. Like a huge stone has been taken off my chest, and I’m finally allowed to breathe. I can’t believe I got through to his father. Or maybe I didn’t. Maybe it was something else that did it. I don’t care—I’m just glad he finally did the right thing toward his son.
“I didn’t deserve it,” Wolf says. “What you did for me. And you shouldn’t have put yourself in danger like that. He knows better than to lay a hand on you, but still, he’s a dangerous man, Victoria. And you went in there all by yourself.”
I shake my head against the pillow. “I don’t care. I know this doesn’t fix things between us, and it’s not why I did it, but it had to be done. Whether it was me or someone else, someone had to tell him those things.”
“Why, then, love? If you didn’t do it so I’d forgive you, why did you?”
I shift, deciding against telling him. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad it worked out.”
