Chapter 1 - Anka
The doors of Matvei’s office felt heavier today, like they were sealing Anka’s fate before she even stepped through them.
Her heels clicked against the marble floor with each deliberate step, the sound echoing through the hallway like gunshots.
She knew this meeting wasn’t going to be about reassigning territories or discussing their latest shipment.
No, the tension radiating from every corner of this fucking house told her everything she needed to know.
This was about her.
“Anka.” Matvei’s voice was formal as she entered, not the warm tone he usually used with his baby sister. He sat behind his massive desk like a king on his throne, every inch the intimidating Bratva leader who’d built their empire from blood and bones. “Sit.”
She remained standing, crossing her arms over her chest. “I prefer to stand for whatever bullshit you’re about to drop on me.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t push. He knew better. Instead, he gestured to the other occupied chair, and her stomach dropped when she saw who was sitting there.
Adrian.
Her brother looked up at her with those cold, calculating eyes that had haunted her nightmares for years.
He was still handsome in that sharp, predatory way that made women stupid and enemies underestimate him, but all she could see when she looked at him was the man who’d destroyed the only real love she’d ever known.
“Hello, Anka.” His voice was smooth as silk and twice as deadly.
She didn’t acknowledge him. Couldn’t. The rage that lived in her chest, that festering wound that had never properly healed, flared to life at the mere sound of his voice. Instead, she kept her gaze fixed on Matvei.
“Get on with it.”
Matvei leaned back in his chair, studying her with those golden brown eyes that missed nothing. “The alliance with the Nikolais needs to be strengthened.”
Of course it fucking did. Ever since he’d married Irina Nikolai six months ago, their family had been walking on eggshells, trying to maintain the delicate peace between their organizations.
Two powerful Bratva families suddenly joined by marriage, with decades of mistrust and violence between them. It was a powder keg waiting to explode.
“And what does that have to do with me?” she asked, though she already knew. Deep in her gut, she fucking knew.
“Marriage.” The word fell from his lips like a death sentence. “You’re going to marry Viktor Nikolai.”
The world tilted sideways. Her knees threatened to buckle, but she forced herself to remain upright, to keep her face blank even as her heart tried to claw its way out of her chest. Viktor.
After all these years, after everything she’d done to forget him, to bury the memory of his ice blue eyes and the way he’d whispered her name like a prayer.
“Like hell I am.”
Matvei’s expression didn’t change. “It’s already decided. The contract has been signed.”
“Without asking me?” Her voice rose an octave, fury overriding the shock. “You signed away my life like I’m some fucking commodity?”
“You are a Volkov.” His tone was ice cold now, the voice he used on enemies right before he put bullets in their skulls. “Your duty is to this family. To our legacy.”
“My duty?” She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “My duty is to clean up the mess you and this piece of shit made?” She jerked her chin toward Adrian, who was watching the exchange with detached interest, like they were discussing the weather instead of destroying what was left of her soul.
“Careful, Anka.” Adrian’s voice was soft, dangerous. “You’re walking a very thin line.”
She whirled on him, every ounce of hatred she’d been carrying for four years blazing in her eyes. “Am I? And what are you going to do about it? Threaten to kill another man I care about? Oh, wait, you already played that card.”
The temperature in the room dropped about twenty degrees. Matvei’s eyes sharpened, confusion flickering across his features. “What the hell are you talking about?”
This was it. The secret she’d been carrying like a cancer in her chest, eating her alive from the inside out.
The reason she couldn’t look at Adrian without wanting to put a knife between his ribs.
The reason she’d spent four years feeling like half a person, like she’d left the best part of herself in some coffee shop with a man who probably hated her more than anyone else on earth.
“Ask your beloved brother,” she snarled. “Ask him about the threats he made four years ago. Ask him about Viktor fucking Nikolai.”
Matvei went very still. When he was angry, really angry, he didn’t shout or throw things like their father used to. He became a statue, cold and immovable and absolutely fucking terrifying. “Adrian. Explain. Now.”
Adrian had the audacity to shrug. “She was compromising family security. Getting involved with someone from a rival family without authorization. I handled it.”
“You handled it?” She was screaming now, all pretense of control shattered. “You threatened to torture and kill the man I loved! You made me choose between his life and my happiness, and you call that handling it?”
“Love?” Matvei’s voice was deadly quiet. “You were in love with Viktor Nikolai?”
The confession hung in the air like smoke from a gun barrel. There was no taking it back now, no pretending it had been some casual fling or meaningless rebellion. She’d loved Viktor with every fiber of her being, and losing him had nearly destroyed her.
“Yes.” The word came out as a whisper. “I loved him. More than I’ve ever loved anything or anyone in my pathetic excuse for a life.”
“And you knew about this?” Matvei turned to Adrian, and for the first time since she’d entered the room, her middle brother looked uncomfortable.
“She was nineteen, reckless, and putting our entire organization at risk. The Nikolais were—”
“Are one of the most powerful Bratva families on the East Coast,” Matvei finished, his voice cutting through Adrian’s excuse like a blade.
“A family we’ve now allied with. A family whose respect and partnership could have been ours four years ago if you hadn’t fucked with things that weren’t your concern. ”
Adrian’s face went pale. “You don’t understand. At the time—”
“At the time, you were a jealous, controlling asshole who couldn’t stand the thought of his baby sister being happy.
” She stepped closer to him, her hands clenched into fists.
“You told me they were small-time, insignificant. You made me believe that choosing Viktor would destroy our family. But that was bullshit, wasn’t it?
You just couldn’t handle losing control over me. ”
“Anka—”
“Don’t.” She held up a hand, her whole body shaking with rage.
“Don’t you dare try to justify what you did.
You stole four years from me. Four years I could have spent with the only man who ever made me feel alive, who ever saw past the Volkov name and the blood on my hands to the person I actually was underneath all of this. ”
The silence that followed was deafening. She could hear her heart hammering against her ribs, could feel the weight of Matvei’s stare as he processed everything she’d just confessed. When he finally spoke, his voice was measured, controlled.
“How long were you together?”
“Eight months.” The words tasted like ashes. “Eight perfect, beautiful months where I got to be just Anka. Not a Volkov, not a Bratva princess, just... me.”
“And he didn’t know who you were?”
She shook her head. “I used an alias. Anna Kozlov. I told him I was a grad student at Columbia, that my family was in import/export. Generic enough to be believable, vague enough to avoid details.”
“But he told you who he was.”
“Not at first. He said he was also in import/export. It wasn’t until Adrian’s people identified him that I learned the truth.” She laughed bitterly. “The irony is, I wasn’t even angry about the lie. I understood why he’d hidden it. I was planning to come clean, to tell him everything, until—”
“Until I intervened,” Adrian said quietly.
“Until you destroyed everything good in my life,” she corrected. “Until you made me ghost the only man I’ve ever loved, made me break his heart and mine in the process.”
Matvei was quiet for a long moment, his fingers steepled in front of him. When he looked up, there was something like regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Anka. If I had known—”
“But you didn’t know. Because Adrian made sure of that.
Just like he made sure I understood that Viktor would die slowly and painfully if I didn’t disappear from his life completely.
” The old wounds were bleeding again, four years of suppressed grief and rage pouring out of her like poison from a lanced wound.
“Do you know what it’s like to love someone so completely that you’d rather destroy yourself than see them hurt?
To walk away from the only happiness you’ve ever known because staying would get them killed? ”
“Anka.” Adrian’s voice was soft now, almost pleading. “I thought I was protecting you. Protecting our family.”
“You were protecting your ego.” She turned away from him, unable to look at his face anymore without wanting to put her fist through it.
“And now, four years later, when I’ve finally started to build some kind of life without him, you want to throw me back into his path.
You want to force me to marry the man whose heart I shattered on your orders. ”
That’s when it hit her. The real reason behind this marriage, the true purpose of this alliance. Viktor hadn’t just agreed to marry her out of family duty or political necessity. This was personal.
“Oh, fuck.” The realization knocked the air out of her lungs. “This is his revenge, isn’t it? He knows. He knows what I did to him, and this is how he’s going to make me pay.”
Matvei frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Think about it,” she said, starting to pace like a caged animal.
“Viktor Nikolai doesn’t need this marriage to cement the alliance.
Your marriage to Irina already did that.
But somehow, mysteriously, this additional union becomes necessary?
Somehow, the Nikolais decide that one marriage isn’t enough to secure the peace between our families? ”
Understanding dawned in Matvei’s eyes. “You think he orchestrated this.”
“I know he did.” Her laugh was wild, hysterical. “He’s spent four years planning this. Four years waiting for the perfect opportunity to get me exactly where he wants me. Trapped. Helpless. At his mercy.”
And the worst part, the part that made her want to scream until her throat was raw, was that she probably deserved it. She’d destroyed him just as thoroughly as Adrian had destroyed her, and now Viktor was going to return the favor.
“The wedding is in three weeks,” Matvei said quietly.
Three weeks. Twenty-one days to prepare herself for a lifetime of paying for the biggest mistake she’d ever made. Twenty-one days before she’d have to look into those ice blue eyes and pretend her heart wasn’t shattering all over again.
“I won’t do it.” The words came out automatically, a reflex born of desperation.
“Yes, you will.” Matvei’s voice was final. “Because if you don’t, the alliance falls apart. And if the alliance falls apart, we go back to war with the Nikolais. A war that will cost us everything we’ve built.”
He was right, and she hated him for it. Hated them both for putting her in this position, for making her choose between her own happiness and the survival of their family. Again.
“You’re both bastards,” she whispered.
“Perhaps,” Matvei acknowledged. “But we’re your bastards. And this is how our world works, Anka. You know that.”
She did know it. She’d been raised in this world of blood and loyalty, where personal desires came second to family obligations. Where love was a luxury they couldn’t afford, and happiness was something other people got to have.
But knowing it and accepting it were two very different things.
“I’ll do it,” she said finally, the words scraping her throat raw. “I’ll marry Viktor Nikolai. But don’t expect me to be grateful. Don’t expect me to smile and play the happy bride. And don’t expect me to forgive either of you for this.”
She turned to leave, but Adrian’s voice stopped her at the door.
“Anka. For what it’s worth... I am sorry.”
She looked back at him, this brother who’d once been her closest confidant, her partner in crime, her protector. Before he’d decided that controlling her life was more important than her happiness.
“Sorry doesn’t fix what you broke,” she said. “And it sure as hell doesn’t prepare me for what Viktor’s going to do to me once he has me exactly where he wants me.”
The door slammed behind her with a finality that echoed through her bones. In three weeks, she’d be Mrs. Viktor Nikolai, and then the real punishment would begin.