“What does that mean?”
“It means Father never intended the alliance with the Rossos to be permanent. It means I was always expendable in his larger strategy. It means that he would have eliminated me without hesitation when I became inconvenient to his plans.”
Nicolai goes very still. “That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? Tell me honestly—if Father decided I was a security risk, if he concluded that my feelings for Rafael made me unreliable, would he hesitate to order my death?”
The pause before his response tells me everything I need to know.
“He loves you,” Nicolai says finally.
“He loves the idea of me. The useful daughter. The brilliant tool. The asset he can deploy when needed.” I lean forward. “But the woman who chooses her own path? Who prioritizes her own happiness over family strategy? He’d kill that woman in a heartbeat.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know that he’s been planning to eliminate the Rossos since before my engagement was even announced. I know that my marriage was always meant to be temporary—just long enough to gain intelligence about their operations. I know that when thetime came to act on that intelligence, my survival was never part of the equation.”
Nicolai’s face has gone pale. “How do you know this?”
“Because I’ve been investigating. Because I found the communications, the financial transfers, and the timeline of planned operations. Because I discovered that our entire family has been lying to me for months about the true purpose of this alliance.”
“And your response is to... what? Join them instead?”
“My response is to choose the side that sees me as a partner rather than a pawn.”
“Even if it means destroying your own blood?”
The question I’ve been dreading, phrased with surgical precision. Because this is the heart of it—the choice between family loyalty and personal survival, between the daughter I was raised to be and the woman I’ve chosen to become.
“Even then,” I say quietly.
Nicolai is quiet for a long moment, studying my face with the same analytical precision he brings to balance sheets and risk assessments.
“You’re not asking me to help you,” he observes finally. “You’re warning me to stay away.”
“I’m asking you to trust me. To understand that what’s coming is necessary, even if it’s painful.”
“And Misha? Zoya? What about them?”
“Keep them away from the meeting. Make excuses, create emergencies, and manufacture reasons why they can’t attend. Whatever it takes.”
“And Alexei?”
My heart clenches at the mention of my brother—the one person in this family who’s never seen me as anything other than the little sister he swore to protect. The one person whose death will haunt me for the rest of my life, regardless of its necessity.
“Alexei will do what he always does. Follow Father’s orders without question, even if those orders lead to destruction.”
“You could warn him, too.”
“He wouldn’t listen. And if he did, he’d try to stop me. Or worse, he’d try to protect me by taking my place in whatever consequences follow.”
“So you let him walk into danger blind.”
“I let him make his own choices, just like Father taught us all to do.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It’s the only thing I can live with.”
