“If you harm one hair on my sister’s head—”
“I won’t harm her. But whether or not I marry her remains to be seen. But I will have my child, Onyx, and I will not let anyone or anything interfere with it. Until the child is born, Emerald stays with me. I will not have another man claim my son or daughter. Do you understand me?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. “If you were here, I would cut off the offending member myself. I hope that I’ve made myself clear.”
“You have. And I wouldn’t blame you for it. In your position I would do the same. At least, I would if I had family. I don’t. This child is the only family that I have. The only one I will ever have. She tried to take that from me. She knew that she was pregnant. She was going to allow Lucian to claim my child as his heir.”
He knew Onyx enough to know that he was struggling with that. To know that he would find that as much of an affront as Andrei did. To know that he would not let that stand.
Whatever he said.
“You would claim your heir. Whatever the cost, you would claim your heir, and we both know that.”
“You’re a bastard who should never have gotten my sister pregnant in the first place.”
“What happened between she and I is our business, but I will not allow you to labor under any sort of delusion that she was taken advantage of. I would never have touched her.” That tasted like a lie. Because as they had gotten closer to Alabria, he had been tested to his breaking point. Emerald had pushed, and he had given in, but what would he have done if that hadn’t happened? He couldn’t say for sure, not now, not given what had happened in her room at the palace in Alabria, that he would’ve kept his hands to himself.
“I don’t think that you would force yourself on her,” Onyx said finally.
“Of course I wouldn’t.”
“Are you in love with her?”
“Whatever I felt for Emerald is clouded at the moment.”
There was another long pause. “Where are you?”
“I cannot tell you that.”
“For God’s sake, Andrei, is there no trust between us?”
“No,” Andrei said. “I can trust no one and nothing. Where we are is none of your concern.”
He’d thought he could trust Emerald. He’d given her more of him than he had ever given to anyone. He’d sacrificed his honor at her altar to discover she’d betrayed him in a way he hadn’t even fathomed.
“I can have your phone traced.”
“You can’t, actually, because it is blocked, because I am the head of your security, and not even you will be able to get the permissions to do that.”
“Emerald is my world,” Onyx said. “You would keep my sister from me, even now? She is pregnant with your baby and if she wants you, and doesn’t want Lucian, then of course we can discuss this.”
“I cannot. I won’t.”
“You are dead to me,” Onyx said. “There is nothing complex about that.”
“Then you can forget that either Emerald or I exist.”
He hung the phone up and threw it down onto the floor, crushing it beneath the heel of his shoe. He did not think that Onyx would be able to track it. It was a completely blocked and protected phone. But if he was able to somehow break that, and find a location for it, Andrei wasn’t going to assist him.
He buttoned up his black jacket and walked out of the bedroom, heading down to dinner.
His mood was black. And he almost felt sorry for Emerald that she had to deal with him. Except, she had created the situation.
He walked down the stairs, surprised at how much memory of this house was inside him. He hadn’t realized. He didn’t think about his home in Romania, at least he hadn’t done so until he had needed it. Until he had needed to call upon the strength and ruthlessness of his father to save them both, and he’d thought that she would be happy.
He’d thought he would be, but the baby made it a betrayal in a way it hadn’t been before.
And now… He knew it had been there all along. He had suppressed it, for honor. For the sake of duty. Because he felt that he owed Onyx fealty. Now? He would owe no one but himself. It was a devil’s bargain, this. Embracing the poison of the Ardelean blood. Yes, it was a trap. And now that he had snared himself in it there was no going back. He had chosen this road. This path.
