“The sisters are fine,” he answered. “A couple of maids sustained minor injuries. Nothing serious.”
She let out a heavy sigh of relief.
“Check for survivors,” I said, glancing at the bodies around us. “Make sure every wounded man gets immediate medical attention.”
Sergei nodded.
I walked away, heading toward the living room.
“Where’re you going?” Emiko followed up behind me.
“To make sure my face is the last thing Richard sees before he takes his last breath.”
The living room downstairs was a mess. Dead bodies everywhere—on the floor, tables, and couches. There were bullet holes in the TV, the walls, and the ceiling. The chandelier was shattered on the broken coffee table, its shards spread out across the space.
The once polished marble floor was now stained with pools of blood, thick and slippery.
Richard was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He had a hand over the wound on his abdomen and was bleeding uncontrollably. When he coughed, blood spilled from his mouth, his breathing strained and hollow.
I halted in front of him, fingers curled into a fist on my right hand. “It’s over, Richard. You lost.”
His eyes shifted toward his granddaughter. “You think he’s better than me?” He coughed, then laughed weakly. “You have no idea.”
She reached out and held my hand, ignoring his words.
He faced me. “She’s still here only because she doesn’t know the truth.” His lips curved into a mischievous grin. “She doesn’t know what you did.”
I locked my jaw, brows furrowing to form deep creases between them.
“Don’t worry,” he murmured, too weak to speak. “I won’t say a word. It’s not…it’s not my secret to tell.”
We both watched as his hand slid off to the floor and his body went limp. He died with his eyes open and what looked like a mocking grin on his bloodied mouth.
Emika stepped forward and crouched before him, then slowly reached out to close his eyelids.
I might have won this battle, but another battle still remained to be fought. He hadn’t told Emika the truth, but he’d planted a seed of curiosity in her. She’d start asking questions, and sooner or later, I’d have to come clean with her.
And that was when the second battle would begin. It wouldn’t be bloody or physical. But it just might hurt me in ways I wasn’t ready for.
Nothing is hidden under the sun, they say.
That couldn’t have been more apt because now, my past had caught up with me. It had found a way to bleed into my life without warning.
Chapter 23 – Emika
At this point, it was safe to say that I was gradually getting used to my life being in danger every now and then. The more assassins and near-death experiences I survived, the stronger I grew.
To make matters worse, I’d killed a man today. He was an enemy, sure. He was going to kill us if I had hesitated; it was self-defense. Yet that didn’t change the fact that I took a life. That man’s blood was on my hands, and no amount of scrubbing could ever wash it off.
I was becoming a version of myself that I couldn’t recognize in the mirror. Bold. Fierce. Unafraid. Watching Adrik take on those armed men all by himself broke something in me. It reminded me that being the wife of a Mafia boss meant that I must show no sign of weakness.
It was his duty to protect me. Yes. But it was also my responsibility not be a liability to him all the time. I didn’t want to be the woman who would always need saving. I should at least learn to defend myself.
I hated my new reality and all the death and destruction that came with it. But if I was going to survive in this world, I must learn to stand up for myself. It was a necessity that would save my life at any given time.
It had been a few hours since the attack, and I was still trembling. He’d asked me to try and get some rest. However, I couldn’t do that. Not while everyone else in the mansion was working on cleaning up the mess.
Together with Hannah and Natalya, I helped treat the injured maids. It was the only way that I could get my mind off the myriad of thoughts that plagued me.
