“Rafael Rosso isn’t worth dying for.”
“Maybe not. But the chance to be something other than what this family made me? That might be.”
I leave him sitting in his perfect office, surrounded by his careful order and justified lies, and walk out into the chaos of Manhattan night.
The city feels different now—less like a prison and more like a battlefield. Every choice ahead of me carries consequences I can’t fully calculate, risks I can’t entirely mitigate.
But for the first time since this engagement began, I know exactly where I stand.
Not with my family, who’ve proven that their love comes with conditions and their protection comes with lies.
And not against them, because despite everything, they’re still my blood.
Somewhere in between. Somewhere new. Somewhere that might actually be mine to choose.
Even if that choice destroys everything I’ve ever known.
Kira
The financial records spread across my laptop screen like a digital autopsy, each transaction a cut that reveals something rotten beneath the surface. I’ve been at this for six hours straight, cross-referencing shell companies and tracking money flows that should be invisible to anyone without my particular skill set.
I wish I’d never started looking. The phraseBe careful what you wish foris living rent-free in my mind.
The coffee in my mug has gone cold hours ago, but I keep sipping it anyway—a nervous habit that’s kept me functional through the worst discoveries of my life. Because what I’mseeing isn’t just evidence of financial impropriety or even standard criminal activity.
It’s proof that my family has been systematically planning the destruction of the Rossos since before my engagement was even announced.
“Shell company registered in Cyprus,” I mutter, highlighting another suspicious transaction. “Payment routing through three different banks to obscure the source. Classic money laundering, but the amounts are too specific to be random.”
I pull up the communication logs I’ve been decrypting from Father’s secure servers—the ones he thinks are impenetrable but that yielded to my intrusion algorithms after only moderate effort. The conversations with Yegor Durov paint a picture that makes my stomach churn.
“The girl’s engagement provides perfect cover for intelligence gathering. She has no idea she’s feeding us everything we need to eliminate them entirely.” Yegor says.
“How long until we have sufficient operational details?” My father asks.
“Six months, maybe eight. Then we move decisively. No survivors, no loose ends.”
No survivors. No loose ends. I shake my head in disbelief. How stupid have I been?
I lean back in my chair, staring at words written in my father’s distinctive style about eliminating the family I’m supposed to marry into. About using me as an unwitting weapon against people who’ve shown me nothing but respect and genuine affection.
About treating me like a tool rather than a daughter.Hisdaughter.
My phone buzzes with a text from Rafa:Dinner tonight? I found a new restaurant that serves actual Italian food, not the American interpretation.
The normalcy of the message feels surreal against the backdrop of what I’ve just discovered. He has no idea that while he’s planning romantic dinners, my family is planning his funeral.
I should tell him immediately. What I have found. We are supposed to be a team, at least it’s what he said. But trust isn’t something I’m keen on. I mean look at what flesh and blood are doing to me. They’ve betrayed me.
Because this isn’t just about the Rossos. This is about me—about the daughter who’s been fed lies for months while believing she was contributing to a legitimate alliance. About the woman who’s been falling in love with a man her family intends to destroy.
About the realization that everything I thought I knew about my place in this world has been carefully constructed fiction.
I scroll through more communications, looking for some explanation that might make this less devastating. Maybe Father has reasons I don’t understand. Maybe there’s context that justifies this level of deception.
What I find instead is worse.
“If the girl becomes problematic, if her attachment to the Italian grows beyond manageable levels, we eliminate her with the rest of them. Blood means nothing if it threatens operational security.”
