Chapter 78
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
Lily
I press the button to open the panic room panel, then place my thumb on the scanner. The door clicks open as I take a deep breath, pausing before I go in.
“Go. It’s just a precaution until the peace talk is over,” Dad whispers behind me.
I turn to look at him, seeing the gun now in his hand, and my eyes go wide. Precaution. The same word Drago used this morning.
Except nothing feels like one now.
A scream tears from me as I hear a gunshot go off, making my ears ring.
Dad jerks hard, like the sound has punched straight through him. His grip slips instantly, his gun clatters to the floor, skidding across the wood with a sharp metallic scrape.
His eyes go glassy with shock, and he clutches his stomach and stumbles forward, grabbing the panic room door and slamming it shut with everything he has left.
“Dad! No!!” I scream, banging my fists on the door.
The heavy steel doesn’t even shudder. It holds. It doesn’t care that my father is on the other side, bleeding.
The monitor flickers on. Black-and-white footage of the hallway outside my room. The angle catches the door, the corner of the landing, and the top of the stairs.
Dad is on his knees right outside the safe room. His hand slides down his stomach and comes away soaked.
Blood.
So much blood.
He tries to breathe, and it sounds wrong. Wet. Strangled. Like the air is tearing its way through him. “Lily,” he rasps, my name barely a sound.
“I’m here,” I sob, forehead pressed to the steel. “I’m right here. I’ll open it. I swear I’ll—”
“Don’t,” he forces out, and it’s not a request. It’s a command, cracked and brutal. “Do not open—”
Movement shifts behind him. A shadow slides into frame. And my whole body turns to ice because I know that silhouette.
Maria.
I will never call this bitch my mother again.
She steps into view like she belongs here. Like she’s just come upstairs to check on us. Not a single hair out of place.
Dad’s head lifts slowly.
Their eyes meet.
And something changes in his face.
Recognition.
“You,” he breathes, voice thick with hatred. “It was always you.”
Maria smiles. Not wide. Not cruel. Something softer. Just how I remember her as a kid.
“Shh,” she murmurs, crouching beside him like she’s checking on someone who’s fainted. “Don’t make her afraid.”
Then her gaze lifts straight into the camera, straight into me.
“Hello, Lily,” she whispers sweetly. “My sweet girl.”
“No,” I choke. “No… no, no…”
Dad’s gaze flicks down to the gun he dropped. It’s lying on the floor beside him, just out of reach. He tries to move his arm, his fingers scraping weakly, but his hand slips in his own blood.
Maria follows his eyes, and she laughs. Quietly. Like he’s funny.
“Oh,” she murmurs. “Looking for this?” She reaches down and picks it up, her fingers wrapping around the weapon like it was always meant to end up in her hand.
My stomach twists violently.
Maria lifts the gun, inspecting it, then looks back up at the camera—at me—with something almost delighted in her eyes.
“Do you want to know something funny?” she asks softly. “This will be the bullet I put in Drago.”
My heart stops. My breath vanishes.
“Because he stole you from me,” she continues, her voice turning intimate. “He took what was mine, and he thought he could keep you. Claim you. Protect you.”
Dad makes a broken sound through his teeth, rage and pain battling inside him as he tries to lift himself again.
Maria doesn’t even look at him. “He killed my husband,” she says calmly, her eyes glittering. “And I should hate him for that… shouldn’t I?”
A beat.
“But the truth?” she whispers. “The organization has never been stronger.”
Her voice drops lower, almost psychotic. “Not under him. Not under any man.”
Dad swallows, his jaw flexing like he’s trying to hold himself together through sheer will.
“With him gone…” Maria breathes, almost worshipping the words, “I ascended. I became the Preacher you all wanted to hunt down.”
The words make my skin crawl, my body shaking with fear. With anger. My mom is the person behind all of this pain. The one tearing through the only family who has ever truly loved me.
The evil that Drago is trying to put a stop to.
It’s her.
“I took the pulpit,” she says quietly. “And everything became cleaner. Sharper. More obedient.”
Dad’s eyes burn. He forces himself forward in one last attempt—his hand shoots out, grabbing for her ankle, trying to yank her down. Trying to take her with him.
Maria steps back like she expected it. Like she’s seen this exact move a thousand times.
Then she kicks him. A brutal blow to his ribs that makes him fold with a sound that splits my soul. He gasps, choking, his forehead hitting the floor, his whole body trembling as he fights for air.
“Dad!” I scream, my voice cracking. “Stop! PLEASE!”
Maria crouches again, close enough that her face fills the frame beside his.
Her expression shifts. Not warm. Not kind. She leans in and speaks like she’s reciting something sacred.
“Sacrifice…” she whispers. “Is the price of salvation.”
Dad goes still. Like those words are a chain he recognizes.
Like they’ve been carved into the backs of people in dark rooms, and he’s heard them whispered through screams.
His eyes flick to the camera. To me. And I see it in him then. Not fear for himself. It’s fear for me.
“You’re the Preacher,” he rasps.
Maria smiles slowly as if she’s proud of who she is.
“As if it could have been anyone else,” she whispers. “You men always think evil wears a man’s face.”
She stands and steps closer to the safe room door, her palm brushing the steel like she’s petting it. Like she’s touching me through it.
I recoil even though there’s nowhere to go.
Her voice softens again, turning gentle. Motherly. “I won’t hurt you, Lily,” she says. “I swear. This isn’t about hurting you.” A pause. “This is about saving you.”
My throat closes. My lungs burn. I can barely see through my tears.
Maria looks down at Dad, then back up at the camera. “And he’s not dead,” she says calmly. “Not yet.”
My heart jolts painfully.
Dad’s chest rises. Barely. His breathing is thin, broken, but it’s there.
He’s still here. Still holding on.
Maria watches him like he’s a clock she can stop whenever she wants. “But he will be,” she continues softly, “if you delay any longer.”
My whole body shakes. “No…” I whisper. “Dad…”
Maria’s voice turns coaxing now. Persuasive.
“You can save him, Lily,” she says. “You can save all of this. If you open the door.”
My hand lifts, trembling, hovering inches from the release panel.
Maria leans closer, her tone turns almost comforting. “If you work with me, I can get him out,” she murmurs. “I can get him medical help.”
A beat.
“I have men outside. My warriors.”
She says it like it’s a gift. Like its mercy.
“They’re surrounding this place right now,” she whispers. “You don’t have to be afraid of them. They’re here for you.”
She smiles.
“That means that when Drago rushes back here, he can get your father the help he needs.”
Dad makes a faint sound, barely audible, like he’s trying to speak. Like he’s trying to warn me. But he can’t.
Maria’s eyes glitter with satisfaction. “You see?” she says softly. “He’s still breathing. He’s still here.”
Her voice drops. “But I won’t be able to keep him that way if you make me wait.”
She places her palm fully on the steel, right where my hand was pounding moments ago.
“Open the door, Lily,” she whispers. “And we can fix everything.”
Maria’s gaze flicks away from the camera for the first time.
She checks her watch and I run a hand over my face, trying to breathe through the panic rising in my chest. If I stay here, that means I lose my father and Drago. My baby loses its dad and grandfather.
And I’ll lose myself, because I won’t be able to survive this. To survive whatever hell she will reign over me.
“We don’t have long,” she says softly. “Not long at all.”
My breath catches.
Maria looks back into the camera, her eyes shining with sick certainty. “Drago will be here soon,” she murmurs. “If he isn’t already on his way.”
My blood turns to ice.
“Because you’re in the panic room,” she adds, like she’s explaining something obvious. “And Drago…” Her mouth curves. “He built this place to keep you safe. That means he built it to tell him when you’re not.”
I shake my head, tears pouring. “No—”
“Yes,” she whispers, calm as death. “He’ll come running. Just like I knew he would.”
She looks down at Lev again, at the slow rise and fall of his chest almost with disgust. Then her eyes lift back to me. “If you want them both to live,” Maria says softly, “you join me. You join us.”
My whole body trembles. “I— I don’t understand—”
“You will,” she interrupts gently. “Because you were made for this.”
Her voice deepens, turning reverent again, like she’s stepping into a pulpit only she can see. “Your father kept you alive,” she says. “Drago kept you safe.” A pause. “But neither of them can give you what I can.”
My throat tightens painfully.
“A world that belongs to us,” Maria whispers. “A world where you’re not prey.” Her smile widens. “A world where you’re worshipped.”
My stomach turns.
She checks her watch again, impatient now, like she’s measuring seconds.
“Be smart, Lily,” she murmurs. “Because if Drago walks through that door and you’re still hiding…”
She lifts Lev’s gun slightly, just enough for the camera to catch it. “I will use your father’s gun, and I will put him on the floor beside Lev.”
A sob rips out of me.
Maria’s voice softens instantly, sweet again. “But if you open the door?” she whispers. “You come with me.” Her gaze sharpens, gleaming with purpose. “And I let him live.”
My heart pounds so violently it hurts.
Then she smiles like she’s giving me the truth of the universe. “You’ll become the Preacher one day,” she says.
I freeze.
The words hit me like a slap. “I—no—” I choke, my hands shaking so badly I can’t even wipe my tears. “I’m not—I can’t—”
“Yes, you can,” she says simply. “It’s your divine right. Make your sacrifice, Lily.”
Her eyes lock on mine through the camera, and I swear I can feel her inside my head, inside my skin.
“You were born into blood,” she whispers. “Raised in fear.” A slow inhale. “You survived what should have broken you.”
Her smile turns almost proud.
“That doesn’t happen by accident.” She leans closer to the door, voice dropping into something that feels like a vow.
“Come out, Lily,” she whispers. “Come to me.” A beat. “And I promise you… You won’t be afraid ever again.”
My fingers curl into a fist. My nails bite into my palm so hard I feel the sting. My father is bleeding out. My mother is offering me a deal. One that saves them both.
Dad drags himself closer to the door, leaving blood behind him like a trail. His forehead presses to the steel.
His voice is barely there now. But it’s still his.
“Be brave…” he rasps. “For me… solnyshko…”
A sob rips out of me so hard it hurts. I’m thrown back into that room as a kid when he gave me the box. That’s all he’s ever wanted for me, is to be safe. With her, I never will be.
My baby won’t be.
I can’t just sit back and let this unfold. Not when I have a chance to be brave for them all.
“I love you,” he breathes.
My entire body caves. I can’t breathe. I can’t move.
His eyes flutter, his head dropping, his body going terrifyingly still again. “Dad!” I scream, slamming my fists on the door. “Dad! PLEASE!”
Maria sighs like she’s disappointed in me, like I’m being difficult. “Now,” she murmurs softly, “open the door.”
I stare at the release panel. My hand shakes as it lifts again.
My whole body is trembling. But I don’t touch it. I don’t open it. Because I can feel it in my bones.
The moment I do…
I won’t get him back. I won’t get any of us back. So I pull my hand back and curl into myself.
I stay exactly where I am.
Locked inside.
Holding onto my father’s last words like they’re the only thing keeping me alive.
I never wanted to be a weakness for Drago. I want to be something powerful for him, just like he is for me. I can’t exist in a world where he doesn’t.