“I know.”
“And if he retaliates?”
“He already is,” I say. “He will go after what he believes influenced me.”
Mikhail’s eyes flicker. “The biker.”
“Yes.”
Papa absorbs that without visible reaction. “You are asking me,” he says slowly, “to dismantle a pact decades in the making because you cannot bind yourself to him.”
“I am asking you to acknowledge that binding me to him may already have destabilized more than it secured.”
Silence stretches as Papa looks at Dmitri, then at Mikhail, then finally back at me. “This is not a small decision,” he says.
“I know.”
“You understand what fractures from this.”
“Yes.”
He studies me again, searching for hesitation and finds none. “You are certain.”
“I cannot marry him,” I repeat quietly. “Not after this. Not knowing what he is capable of.”
The room is silent except for the faint hum of the city beyond the glass. Mikhail is the one who breaks it. “And the biker?” he asks.
Papa’s eyes flick briefly to him, then back to me.
“He will go after him,” I say. “Konstantin already believes he influenced me.”
Mikhail’s jaw tightens. “He would be foolish.”
“He would be offended,” Dmitri corrects quietly.
Papa inhales slowly, considering. “If Konstantin moves against the Reapers,” Papa says, “this becomes something else entirely.”
“Yes,” I agree.
“And you intend to warn them.”
“I intend to coordinate with them,” I correct.
Mikhail studies me carefully. “You’ve thought this through.”
“I have.”
Papa watches me for a long moment, and I can feel the weight of legacy, of history, of promises made long before I understood what they meant. Finally, he nods once. “Then we speak to the Reapers,” he says. “Formally. Not as an emotional reaction. As strategic alignment.”
Mikhail glances at me again, a faint smirk returning despite the gravity of the conversation. “Next time, sister,” he says dryly, “if you plan to overthrow a future husband, perhaps close the door.”
My cheeks burn hotter. “Next time,” I reply evenly, “I will overthrow him louder.”
Dmitri huffs a quiet breath. Papa does not smile but he does not stop me and that is progress.
TWELVE
ANYA
