Chapter Sixteen #2
Viktor’s house waits across the street.
My feet won’t move.
Marco stands beside me, close enough to intervene but careful not to touch me.
Yevgeny watches from several steps away.
“Walk,” he says.
Marco looks at him.
“Speak to her like that again and this agreement ends here.”
Yevgeny’s smile disappears.
“What agreement?” I ask.
Neither man answers.
I look at Marco.
“What did you give him?”
His gaze holds mine.
“Nothing that belonged to you.”
“You gave him me.”
His jaw tightens.
“You remain in control of the trust.”
“Do I?”
“You do.”
“From inside a locked room?”
“He agreed you wouldn’t be confined.”
I laugh.
The sound is empty.
“And you believed him?”
Marco’s expression changes by a fraction.
No.
He doesn’t believe Viktor.
He simply needs to.
We cross the street.
Armando remains beside the SUV.
When I glance back, he looks away.
The distance to the townhouse is barely thirty feet.
It feels longer than the entire journey from Belmont.
Cars move at the far end of the block. Somewhere nearby, someone laughs as a restaurant door opens and closes. A woman walks a small dog along the opposite sidewalk without giving us more than a glance.
The world continues around me.
No one notices that I’m being returned to a cage.
At the foot of the steps, Marco stops.
Yevgeny continues to the door.
Viktor waits just inside the foyer.
He looks exactly as he did the night I escaped.
Immaculate suit. Silver at his temples. One hand resting over the other as though he has all the time in the world.
Behind him, the chandelier shines against marble and dark wood. Not one object appears to have moved during my absence.
His gaze passes over me.
Then he looks at Marco.
“You kept your word.”
Marco’s voice is cold.
“Now you keep yours.”
“Lucia will be treated as family.”
“Her bedroom remains unlocked. She has free access to the house.”
“Of course.”
“She keeps control of the Rossi trust.”
“Until she decides otherwise.”
“She doesn’t sign anything.”
Viktor’s smile is faint.
“You’re in no position to dictate what my niece signs.”
Marco steps forward.
Yevgeny moves between them.
The air changes.
For one wild moment, I think Marco might stop this.
That he’ll draw a gun. Take my hand. Put me back in the SUV.
Instead, he looks at me.
I see everything he refuses to say.
I’m sorry.
I had no choice
Please understand.
I give him nothing.
“You should go,” I say.
“Lucia.”
“You’ve delivered me.”
My voice trembles, but I force out the rest.
“Your part is finished.”
He stands there for another second.
Then he turns away.
Each step he takes down the stairs opens something raw inside me.
He reaches the sidewalk.
Armando opens the SUV door.
Marco pauses before getting in.
He looks back.
I look away.
I hear the door close.
Then the SUV pulls away from the curb.
Only after it disappears around the corner do I allow myself to breathe.
Viktor closes the front door.
The lock slides into place.
The familiar sound turns my stomach.
“Welcome home,” he says.
I face him.
“This isn’t my home.”
“No. I suppose we’ll have to correct that misunderstanding.”
Yevgeny takes my arm.
I jerk away.
“Don’t touch me.”
His hand closes around my upper arm again, firmer this time.
“Let go.”
Viktor watches without intervening.
I turn on him.
“Marco said I wouldn’t be confined.”
“I’m sure Marco said many things.”
“You agreed.”
“I agreed to receive you without bloodshed.”
“That isn’t what he said.”
“It was the only promise that matters.”
Yevgeny begins steering me toward the stairs.
I plant my feet.
“What did you threaten him with?”
Viktor’s expression changes.
Barely.
Enough.
My heart stops.
“Aniya.”
He says nothing.
“Where is she?”
“Your sister is safe.”
The word lands differently now.
Marco’s word.
Viktor’s word.
A cage disguised as a promise.
“What did you do?”
“She is with her father.”
“You’re lying.”
“She’ll remain unharmed now that you’ve returned.”
I stare at him.
The past two days arrange themselves in my mind.
The increased guards.
Marco’s meeting.
His refusal to tell me what Viktor threatened.
There was no other way.
“You used her.”
“I reminded Marco that his actions carried consequences.”
“Marco knew?”
Viktor smiles.
“He didn’t tell you?”
The betrayal opens wider.
Marco decided I couldn’t be trusted with the choice.
Just like Viktor.
Just like every man who has ever claimed to know what was best for me.
“Put her in her room,” Viktor says.
My gaze snaps to him.
“If she can’t be trusted not to run, she’ll remain under lock and key.”
“No.”
Yevgeny pulls me toward the stairs.
I twist my arm, but his grip tightens enough to make the struggle useless.
“Viktor, you promised—“
“Promises are made to be broken.”
“He’ll come back.”
The words burst out before I can stop them.
Viktor’s eyes settle on mine.
“No, Lucia. He won’t.”
Yevgeny takes me up the stairs.
I catch the banister with my free hand. The dark wood is smooth beneath my palm, polished by years of use.
He peels my fingers away and keeps me moving down the hallway.
The runner beneath my feet muffles our steps.
My bedroom door waits at the end.
The black evening gown is gone. The cream carpet remains. The pink pillows. The locked balcony doors.
Nothing has changed.
No.
That isn’t true.
I have.
I fight him again.
“No—“
Yevgeny opens the door and pushes me across the threshold.
I stumble over the carpet and catch myself against the bed.
By the time I turn, he is already in the hallway.
The door slams.
The electronic lock beeps.
The sound solidifies my fate.
For one moment, I can’t move.
Then I run to the door and wrench at the handle.
“Let me out!”
My fists strike the wood.
“Viktor!”
No one answers.
I pound until my hands ache.
Until my voice breaks.
Until the house falls silent around me.
Eventually, I press my forehead to the door.
The wood is cool against my skin.
Beyond it, footsteps retreat down the hall.
Marco promised he would open the gate when I asked.
Instead, he brought me back to the cage.