Before I can reply, my father walks into the hospital room.
“You’re alive,” Lev says, looking Maksim over with a disapproving glare. “Good. Now, Natasha, come with me. It’s time to go back to Chicago.”
“She’s my wife,” Maksim says. “She’s not leaving New York.”
“You failed to protect her. She got kidnapped by one of your enemies. That Enzo fucker was never my enemy. This was because of you. So my daughter is safer with me. Natasha, come along.”
“Is she really safer with you?”
Lev frowns. “Of course she is. I’m her father.”
“And yet, Natasha is terrified of you. That doesn’t make you a good father.”
“Why in the world would my daughter be terrified of me? I have done nothing but raise her.”
Maksim grits his teeth. He promised he wouldn’t tell my father about my theory that he killed my mother. It makes my heart warm up to Maksim even more. He’s still trying to protect me.
Lev scoffs after Maksim can’t give him an answer. “Natasha, come along. Now.”
I still don’t move. The last thing I want is to go with my dad. And I know in my gut that I don’t want to leave Maksim. Not after almost losing him.
“She’s not going with you,” Maksim says, placing himself in front of me. “She is my wife, Lev. You gave her over to me to make peace. If you take her away now, you’re asking for a war because I will fight to get her back. I mean it. Do you want a war with the New York Bratva on your doorstep?”
For a moment, my father hesitates. I’ve never seen him look so worried before. But then his usual icy coldness covers his features. “You don’t scare me, Maksim. You and your father andNikolai Volkov came to me because you were afraid of going to war with me. Which means I have power. I am taking my daughter back and I will be protecting her like you could not do.”
“Is Natasha hurt? I’m the one who took a bullet for her. That should tell you everything. You’re nothing, Lev. Go back to Chicago and be happy that you’re going to make millions off the work me and my father do here in New York. You’re not taking Natasha from me.”
My father stands to his full height, making the room seem even smaller. Making me feel even smaller. “Get out of my way.”
“No.”
Lev storms over to Maksim and pushes him to the side and grabs my arm. “Natasha, come along.”
Maksim shoves Lev back. “Don’t touch her. She is not going with you. She is not safe with you.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Of course she’s safe with me.”
Maksim looks at me, questioning whether he should say anything. He promised he wouldn’t but now I’m seeing that the truth should come out.
“You and mom,” I whisper.
That makes Lev’s body go stiff all over. “What about your mother?”
“She disappeared.”
“Because she left you and never came back. What kind of mother does that? She wasn’t a good one. She isn’t worth mourning over.”
“She was my mother!” I scream. The shock on my father’s face is palpable. He’s never heard me scream at him in my entire life.
“And she left you.”
“Because you killed her.” There. I finally said it.
Lev stumbles back like he was hit in the chest. “Why… why would you say that?”
“Just tell me. Please. I need to know for a fact. I’ve always wondered. Did you kill her?”
“How can you ask me that?”
