The words hit like a fist to the throat.
I don’t answer.
I end the call.
And stand there in the hallway staring at nothing, feeling like the whole fucking world just tilted under my feet.
Chapter 41
Ayla
Idon’t try to get free.
At first, I did.
Twisted my wrists. Tested the rope. Pulled until the raw skin burned hotter and the pipe behind me gave me nothing back except cold iron and the hard truth that Maksim doesn’t do anything halfway.
Now I just sit here.
The apartment is too quiet without him in it.
Too still.
The kind of stillness that makes every tiny sound feel like a warning—the hum of the refrigerator, pipes knocking somewhere deep in the walls, a car passing outside with bass thudding low enough to rattle the window for half a second before it fades.
My cheek throbs in time with my pulse. My lip tastes like old blood. My wrists feel flayed open where the rope bites every time I shift, so I stop shifting.
There’s no point.
Gabriel is going to kill me.
Or Maksim is.
Either way, this is the end.
I tip my head back against the radiator and stare at the ceiling, at the crack in the paint above the window, at the weak afternoon light sliding across the floor inch by inch like time is still moving for everyone except me.
I should be afraid.
I was.
I think I burned through it somewhere between Gabriel’s hands in my hair and Maksim’s face when I told him the truth.
My brother.
The ledgers.
I love you.
The words feel sick in my head now. Heavy. Useless. Like they belonged to some other girl stupid enough to think saying them would save anything.
I close my eyes.
Maybe if I stay still enough, when it comes, it’ll be quick. The lock turns. My eyes snap open. The front door opens and shuts with a soft, final click.
Footsteps.
Not Maksim’s.
