“Finishing this,” I reply, though my carefully constructed plan is collapsing around me like a house of cards.
“By offering yourself as payment?” Rafa moves closer, weapon trained on Yegor, but his attention is split between the threat and me. “By negotiating with a psychopath who’s been stalking you for five years?”
“By cleaning up my family’s mistakes,” I snap back. “By taking responsibility for?—”
“For what? For being the target of a madman’s obsession?” Rafa’s voice carries a raw edge I’ve never heard before. “For trying to save everyone by sacrificing yourself?”
“How touching,” Yegor interjects, seeming more amused than threatened by the armed standoff. “But I’m afraid you’re too late, Rafael. Kyrilla has already agreed to come with me.”
“Like hell she has.”
“Ask her yourself. She made the offer voluntarily.”
All eyes turn to me, and I realize this is the moment where everything I’ve tried to control spirals beyond my influence. Where the careful balance I’ve maintained between competing loyalties finally collapses.
“I offered him a trade,” I admit quietly. “My cooperation for both families’ safety.”
The betrayal in Rafa’s eyes hits me like a physical blow. “Without consulting me. Without trusting me enough to help you find another way.”
“There is no other way?—”
“There’s always another way!” His shout echoes across the water, raw with frustration and hurt. “But it requires trusting your partner instead of trying to handle everything alone.”
“Partner?” Yegor’s voice carries mocking delight. “Is that what you think you are? Poor Rosso. You still don’t understand what she really is, do you?”
“Shut up,” Rafa snarls.
“She’s not your partner. She’s not your ally. She’s a Petrov, which means family comes first, always. And when the choice comes down to protecting her blood or protecting you...” Yegor shrugs eloquently. “Well, here we are.”
“That’s not—” I start to object, but the words die in my throat.
Because looking at Rafa’s face and seeing the pain, anger, and betrayal written there, I realize Yegor might be right.
When it mattered most, when the stakes were highest, I chose to handle this alone rather than trust the man I’ve grown to care about more than my own safety. The man who seeped into my every pore.
Ultimately, I stayed true to the Petrov name—family before anything. Rafa was collateral before everything even started.
CHAPTER 28
Kira
The standoffon the pier stretches taut as a wire, three separate factions armed and ready while accusations hang in the salt air like smoke. Rafa’s eyes burn with betrayal, Yegor watches with predatory amusement, and I stand caught between them, feeling like the epicenter of an earthquake I never meant to trigger.
“You want to know what I think?” Rafa’s voice cuts through the tension like a blade. “I think Yegor’s right. I think when it came down to choosing between trusting me and protecting your precious family, you chose blood over everything else.”
“That’s not?—”
“Isn’t it?” He takes a step closer, weapon still trained on Yegor, but fury focused entirely on me. “You had evidence of a conspiracy against both our families, and instead of sharing it with your supposed partner, you decided to handle it alone. Because deep down, you’ll always be a Petrov first.”
“I was trying to protect you!”
“By lying to me? By cutting me out of decisions that affect both our lives?” His laugh is bitter, raw. “That’s not protection, Kira. That’s manipulation.”
“I was trying to clean up my family’s mess without dragging you deeper into it!” I plea.
“And I was trying to build something real with someone who apparently doesn’t believe in real partnerships!”
“Real?” The word explodes from me with months of suppressed frustration. “You want to talk about real? Nothing about this has been real from the beginning! We were forced together by circumstances neither of us chose. We’ve been playing roles written by others since we met!”
