She nodded reluctantly and slid off the sofa, taking her mug with her. Jake stood as she approached.
“I’ll walk you to the kitchen,” he offered quietly.
As the door closed behind them, I turned to Mikhail, not bothering to mask the fury in my eyes.
“Don’t you ever make promises to her that involve me without discussing it first,” I said, myvoice low and dangerous. “You don’t get to waltz back into our lives after eight years and start making decisions.”
Mikhail held up his hands. “Ella, I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t care what you meant,” I cut him off. “Let me be absolutely clear: I alone will decide who I end up with and what our future looks like. Not you. Not your father. Not anyone. Do you understand?”
He studied me for a long moment, something like respect kindling in his eyes. “You’ve changed, Eleanora.”
“Damn right I have.” I stood. “I’m not that scared girl you were engaged to anymore. I’ve spent eight years building a life, protecting our daughter, making my own choices.”
“I see that.” He rose as well, keeping a careful distance between us. “And I admire it. But Nora is my daughter, too. I have rights—”
“Rights?” I laughed bitterly. “You forfeited those when you let me believe I’d killed you. When you let me carry that guilt for eight years while you were out there somewhere, alive.”
Pain flashed across his face. “I never meant for you to suffer.”
“But I did suffer,” I said, my voice breaking slightly. “Every day, wondering if I’d done the right thing, if I could live with myself. Wondering what kind of mother I was, what kind of person.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and for once, I believed him. “Truly, Ella. If there had been any other way—”
“There’s always another way,” I insisted. “Always. But you chose the coward’s path that protected you, not us.”
He flinched as if I’d struck him. “That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” I repeated incredulously. “You want to talk about fair? Was it fair to let me think I’d murdered you? Was it fair to deprive Nora of her father for years? Was it fair to reappear in our lives only when it served your purposes?”
Mikhail ran a hand through his hair, a gesture of frustration I remembered from our brief relationship. “My father would have killed you if he’d thought for a moment I was still alive.”
“Your father wouldn’t be after us, after Nora, if he had known you were alive.” I challenged. “He would have had his heir!”
“But I have the evidence to destroy him,” Mikhail said. “Once he’s in prison, we’ll be free. All of us.”
I shook my head. “You still don’t get it. There is no ‘us’ anymore, Mikhail. Not when you used your own daughter as a pawn.”
Something shifted in his expression—realization, perhaps, or resignation.
“I understand,” he said finally. “But I’m still Nora’s father. I want to be part of her life.”
“And you can be,” I conceded. “But on my terms. We’ll figure out what that looks like after your father is dealt with.”
He nodded slowly. “And in the meantime?”
“In the meantime, we focus on keeping her safe.” I moved toward the door, then paused with my hand on the knob. “And Mikhail? Don’t ever try to make decisions for me again.”
I didn’t wait for his response; I left and walked to the kitchen, where Jake was waiting. One look at my face told him everything he needed to know.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
I nodded, though the emotional toll of the conversation had left me drained. “Just tired of men thinking they know what’s best for me.”
A small smile tugged at his lips. “Noted.”
From the kitchen, I could hear Nora’s laughter mixing with Kori’s coming from the dining room. The sound eased something tight in my chest. Despite everything, she sounded happy. Maybe she would be okay after all.
