Lila’s face drains. “You said it was handled.”
“It was contained,” Ivan corrects. “There’s a difference.”
She stares at him, shock widening her eyes. “You let them hurt him,” she whispers.
Ivan doesn’t deny it.
“He was a liability,” he says simply.
The bluntness of it hits the room like a dropped weight.
“You told me you were helping,” she says, and now the anger cracks, revealing the hurt beneath it. “You said you didn’t want me tied to men like them.”
Ivan’s eyes narrow slightly. “I don’t,” he replies.
“Youarethem!” she snaps.
For the first time, something changes in him. Not enough to break his composure, but enough that the accusation reaches somewhere personal.
“I’m not my father,” he says quietly.
The statement hits like glass shattering.
Lila goes completely still. “What did you just say?” she asks.
Ivan holds her gaze. “I’m not my father,” he repeats. “Ourfather.”
Her breathing slows, disbelief written across her face.
“Our father spent his life as an enforcer,” Ivan continues. “He killed whoever he was told to kill. Protected men who would never let him stand beside them.”
Lila doesn’t interrupt him now.
“No matter how loyal he was, or how many enemies he removed for them, he died exactly what they wanted him to be.”
Ivan pauses.
“A nobody they barely remembered.”
No one moves.
“I watched that,” he goes on. “And I decided very early that I wouldn’t spend my life bleeding for someone else’s empire.”
His eyes lift to Lila again. “I won’t die the way he did.”
The certainty in his voice is colder than anger.
“You were never meant to be pulled into this,” he says. “But once Kiren entered the equation, you became relevant.”
Lila lets out a sharp breath.
“Relevant?” she repeats. “You used me.”
Her hand lifts toward me without thinking, a protective movement that surprises even her.
“And you dragged her into it too,” Lila continues, anger sharpening her voice. “She had nothing to do with you, or Arkady, or any of this.”
Ivan doesn’t hesitate. “She was necessary.”
