Lukin’s mouth twists into something like a smile—not kind. “Then you only have one more choice. You’ll have to choose.”
I narrow my eyes. “What?”
“You marry her.”
Another round of arguments breaks out almost instantly.
Lev shakes his head. “It’s impossible. Sasha won’t like this.”
Niko lets out a sharp laugh. “Come on, Roman won’t marry her. He’d rather kill her. The man would rather die than be tied to a woman.”
Kaz nods, smirking. “He’s right. Elara would be miserable with Roman. She’d probably prefer death.”
The table erupts again, voices overlapping, tempers flaring. Roman sits still, jaw tight, heat crawling up his spine. The noise blurs into one long taunt.
Lukin finally raises a hand. “Enough.” His voice cuts through the argument like a blade. “Let Roman speak.”
The room falls silent. All eyes turn to me.
“I’ll marry her,” I say flatly.
For a moment, no one breathes. The words taste like ash in my mouth, but I keep my expression unreadable. Inside, fury coils and burns—I hate being cornered, hate that they’ve pushed me to this point.
Lev is the first to react. He frowns, eyebrows pulling together. “What the fuck, man? You can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious.”
Kaz shakes his head slowly, like he’s trying to process it. “You’d marry David Chang’s daughter? You?”
Niko lets out a short, disbelieving laugh. “Holy shit. Never thought I’d live to see the day Roman Rusnak volunteers for a leash.”
My jaw tightens. “Watch it.”
They go quiet again. The tension in the air is thick enough to choke on.
I lean forward, keeping my voice low. “You all think this is a joke? That I’m crawling into marriage like some desperate fool?” I let the pause hang between us, then go on. “If we kill her, we don’t solve anything. We make noise. Headlines. The Rusnaks become the monsters David Chang will paint us to be. The government starts sniffing. And Kaz is right about the PR nightmare.”
Kaz folds his arms but offers no response.
My gaze sweeps the table. “Marrying her is cleaner. She disappears under my name. No questions. No story. David can’t run to the press about his missing daughter if she’s my wife.”
Lev frowns. “So this is about control?”
I give him a cold, humorless smile. “It’s always about control.”
“That’s enough,” Lukin says. “It’s settled,” he says finally. “You marry her. And you make sure she stays silent—for good.”
I nod once, the decision already sealing itself like a blade pressed into my palm.
If I have to cage her to keep her, so be it.
Chapter 7 – Elara
I pace the room, every step sharp with irritation. Roman Rusnak pisses me off more than anyone ever has. How the hell do I go from being locked in his safe house to being locked in his mansion? I’ve basically exchanged one gilded cage for another—my father’s house for a Rusnak’s.
The annoying part? The room is beautiful. Like that’ll make up for anything.
Huge windows overlook the city skyline, the breeze from the vent stirring the sheer curtains. The walls are a soft cream, the furniture sleek and modern, the bed big enough to swallow me whole. The closet is filled with designer clothes Luka must have moved here from the safe house.
