"Don't you dare." Lena grabs her mother's hand, her knuckles white. "Don't you fucking dare touch them."
Stepan steps forward, his voice quiet but firm. "Lena. It's alright."
"It's not alright." But her father's hand on her shoulder stops her protest.
"We'll be fine." He looks at me, and there's something in his eyes I can't quite read. Understanding, maybe. Or resignation. "We'll answer his questions."
Mary is crying silently as my guards move forward. Stepan keeps his arm around her, keeps his head high. They walk out with dignity, but I see the way Mary looks back at her daughter. The way Lena's face crumples as they disappear through the doorway.
The door closes.
Danil and my remaining men watch, waiting to see how I handle this. Waiting to see if their Pakhan will crack.
"Leave us," I tell them.
Danil hesitates. "Pakhan…"
"Out."
They file out slowly, reluctantly. The door clicks shut behind them, and suddenly, it's just me and Lena in this room that feels too small and too large all at once.
She turns on me with a fury I've never seen before.
"What are you going to do to them?" Her voice shakes with rage. "Tell me right now what you're planning."
"I'm going to question them about the money. The debt that started all of this."
Her face goes pale. "What?"
"Your family has never paid for what they did," I say. "People understand I canceled the hit on you since you're my fiancée, and since you didn't have anything to do with what happened. But if I don't at least talk to your parents, it will set the wrong example for other people who might want to cross me."
"Bullshit." She moves closer, her blue eyes so dark they're almost black with fury. "Was this your plan all along? Bring them here, make me think they're safe, then lock them in your basement and interrogate them? Use them against me?"
"Lena."
"Don't." She holds up a hand. "Don't you dare try to explain this away. Don't tell me it's for their protection or for my safety or any of the other lies you're so good at."
"The basement is the most secure location in the estate," I say, keeping my voice level.
"So you lock them up like prisoners."
"I keep them safe while I settle accounts that should have been settled years ago."
"They're not a threat." Her voice cracks. "They're my parents."
"Your father stole from me, Lena. No one does that and gets away with it."
Lena stares at me like she's seeing me for the first time. Like the man standing in front of her is a stranger wearing Aleksandr's face.
"I was a fool," she says quietly. "I actually thought the man from the cabin was real. I thought maybe, underneath all this, you were still Sasha."
The words slice through me, sharp and precise.
"But he's gone, isn't he?" She's crying now, angry tears that she swipes away with the back of her hand. "That man is completely gone. And you're exactly what everyone says you are. A monster in an expensive suit."
"Lena."
"I'll never forgive you if you hurt them." Her voice drops to something cold and hard. "I don't care what you do to me. I don't care if you lock me in that basement too. But if you hurt myparents, if you lay one finger on them, I will find a way to make you pay for it."
