The roses he’d brought her that night were still sitting on his kitchen counter, brown and withered now. He swept them into the trash with violent satisfaction, but it didn’t ease the rage burning in his chest.
“Viktor.” Ilya’s voice was careful, like he was talking to a wild animal. “What do you want to do?”
Viktor stared at the photographs, memorizing every line of her face. The way she’d looked at him in that café, like he was the only man in the world. The way she’d kissed him, like she was drowning and he was her salvation. All of it had been an act.
“Nothing,” he said finally. “Yet.”
“Yet?”
Viktor closed the file and locked it in his desk drawer. “I’m going to make her pay. But not today. Not tomorrow.” He looked up at his cousin, letting him see the cold fury in his eyes. “Someday, when she least expects it, when she thinks she’s safe and happy, I’m going to destroy everything she loves. Just like she did to me.”
“Viktor, maybe we should consider that she might have had her reasons. Maybe her family forced her—”
“Don’t.” The word came out like a whip crack. “Don’t make excuses for her. She made her choice.”
Ilya nodded reluctantly. “What if you never get the chance? What if your paths never cross again?”
Viktor smiled, and even Ilya could see how cold and cruel it was. “Oh, they will. I’ll make sure of it. And when that day comes, Anka Volkov will learn exactly what happens when you break a Nikolai’s heart.”
The file stayed in Viktor’s drawer for years, but he never forgot. Every deal they made, every alliance they formed, every move they planned, part of him was thinking about her. Waiting for the perfect opportunity. The perfect revenge.
And finally, after four long years, it had come.
His sister had fallen in love with Anka’s brother. The irony was almost too perfect to believe. Matvei Volkov, the head of the family that had used his sister as a weapon against him, was now begging for an alliance. And he was willing to offer anything to get it.
Including his sister.
Viktor had made sure of that. A few carefully placed suggestions, some strategic pressure applied in just the right places, and suddenly marriage was the only way to cement the deal. A marriage between him and the woman who’d ripped his heart out and left him bleeding.
She thought she’d gotten away with it. Thought she’d walked away clean while he nursed his wounds in private. But he’d been planning this for years, and now it was finally time.
Anka Volkov was going to be his wife.
And then she was going to learn what real heartbreak felt like.
Chapter 1 - Anka
The doors of Matvei’s office felt heavier today, like they were sealing Anka’s fate before she even stepped through them. Her heels clicked against the marble floor with each deliberate step, the sound echoing through the hallway like gunshots. She knew this meeting wasn’t going to be about reassigning territories or discussing their latest shipment. No, the tension radiating from every corner of this fucking house told her everything she needed to know.
This was about her.
“Anka.” Matvei’s voice was formal as she entered, not the warm tone he usually used with his baby sister. He sat behind his massive desk like a king on his throne, every inch the intimidating Bratva leader who’d built their empire from blood and bones. “Sit.”
She remained standing, crossing her arms over her chest. “I prefer to stand for whatever bullshit you’re about to drop on me.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t push. He knew better. Instead, he gestured to the other occupied chair, and her stomach dropped when she saw who was sitting there.
Adrian.
Her brother looked up at her with those cold, calculating eyes that had haunted her nightmares for years. He was still handsome in that sharp, predatory way that made women stupid and enemies underestimate him, but all she could see when she looked at him was the man who’d destroyed the only real love she’d ever known.
“Hello, Anka.” His voice was smooth as silk and twice as deadly.
She didn’t acknowledge him. Couldn’t. The rage that lived in her chest, that festering wound that had never properly healed, flared to life at the mere sound of his voice. Instead, she kept her gaze fixed on Matvei.
“Get on with it.”
Matvei leaned back in his chair, studying her with those golden brown eyes that missed nothing. “The alliance with the Nikolais needs to be strengthened.”
