I’ve never stopped knowing.
His eyes cut to mine, red-rimmed and furious now. “Don’t stand there acting like you’re calm. What the fuck is this? Some way to humiliate me? To prove you can take whatever you want?”
That hurts more than I expected. I curl my lip, not because he’s wrong, but because he knows he is.
“She deserves better than you,” he spits, grabbing the bottle and drinking straight from it.
The words land where I keep everything I don’t allow myself to feel. I nod once, slow. “Maybe she does.”
That’s the truth. I’ve never pretended to be good enough for her. I’ve just never believed anyone could love her more fiercely than I do.
“Fucking speak!” he roars. “Explain what the hell I just walked in on.”
I step forward, each movement measured. Controlled. “Lev,” I say, voice low. “I’m in love with Lily. And she loves me back. We’re together.”
The room goes still.
He flinches like I’ve struck him. His jaw tightens. His fist curls at his side. “You fucking cunt,” he snarls and swings.
I catch his wrist mid-air and shove him back against the counter, the impact sharp but contained. “I don’t want to hurt you,” I tell him, my voice steady even as my chest burns. “So calm the fuck down.”
Because hurting him would break something in me that I wouldn’t know how to put back together.
He shakes his head, disgust etched deep. “She’s my daughter. How could you do this to me?”
That’s when it hits hardest. Not the punch. Not the threats.
Themein that sentence.
I rake a hand down my face. “And she’s the fucking sun to me,” I say quietly. “The one thing that makes this life worth surviving. I don’t just want her, Lev. Iloveher.”
He scoffs, rolling his eyes, and I have to dig deep not to lose control. “There are billions of women in this world,” he spits. “You couldn’t pick one who wasn’t my daughter?”
“No,” I say, without hesitation. “I couldn’t.”
He laughs bitterly. “Leave her the fuck alone, Drago.”
The command is sharp. Absolute. And meaningless to me.
“No.”
His jaw ticks. He looks at me like I’ve become someone unrecognizable. “You think that was a request?” he growls. “You know who I am. What I can do. I’ll have you hunted for the rest of your life.”
I almost smile. I’m fighting for a future I can actually live in, and I won’t let him stand in my way of that.
He swings again. This time, his fist lands square in my jaw. I take it, and don’t hit back. Don’t even step away.
I rub my jaw once, then look at him with fury in my eyes. “You’re being a cunt, Lev,” I say softly. “And you know it.”
He breathes hard. “How long?”
“Since Monaco.”
“And how long have you been in love with her?”
I hesitate. Just a beat. “Longer than I realized.”
That answer costs me something.
