Chapter Forty-Two
Stella
I need to get out of this room.
The walls of my comfortable cage close in after another day of mindless routines and isolation. The manor’s oppressive silence drives me outside for my nightly walk, desperate for fresh air and a change of scenery.
It’s early evening, and moonlight bathes the perfectly manicured grounds in silver as my feet carry me along familiar paths. As I pass the road that leads to the front gates, I catch the familiar sight of one of the security guards doing his nightly patrol.
“Like you need another reminder that you’re a prisoner here,” Boyana mutters.
As I reach the pool area, movement catches my eye. Diana sits there, elegant as always, in a royal-blue silk robe.
Shit.
I freeze, unsure whether to retreat or acknowledge her presence. But she spots me before I can decide.
“Join me, dorogaya .” Her accent thickens around the endearment, hand patting the space beside her. “I could use some company now that my brother’s run off on business. I hate it when he’s gone for so long.”
“Business?” Boyana scoffs. “Hah! Probably drugs or weapons or something shady.”
I don’t want to think about it, so I stare at Diana’s hand.
She pats the lounger again. “Come.”
My feet hesitate. I’m still wary around the woman who now manages my meals like some sort of scientific experiment. Yet something in her relaxed posture, so different from her usual rigid control, draws me forward.
“I won’t bite.” A lazy smile plays across her lips. “And what my brother doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
I climb the steps cautiously. She watches me, amused, smoke curling from what definitely isn’t a cigarette.
Is that… weed?
The sweet, distinctive scent confirms my suspicion.
“Holy shit! The chick’s a stoner!” Boyana is laughing.
I settle onto the lounger next to Diana, watching her take another long drag. The smoke drifts up into the night air, carrying that unmistakable fragrance. Her usual perfect posture has melted into something softer, more human.
“Here.” She passes me the joint, her movements languid. “You look like you’re about to snap from tension.”
I stare at her for a moment before shaking my head. “Um… no. Pregnant, remember?”
Diana laughs — actually laughs — the sound so unexpected it startles me. “ Da. Of course. How could I forget? Pity, though. This is good stuff.”
Her accent has thickened, losing that careful precision she usually maintains. Her hair, typically arranged in an elegant chignon, falls loose around her shoulders. Even her silk robe seems less formal somehow, draped carelessly rather than perfectly arranged.
“I’ve never seen you like this,” I admit, watching as she lifts the joint to her lips.
“What? Human?” She takes another hit, holding the smoke before releasing it in a perfect ring. “We all have our ways of coping with this life, dorogaya . Some are just more… socially acceptable than others.”
I shrug, not sure how to respond. But Diana’s presence beside me feels less threatening, more companionable.
“It must be exhausting,” she muses, “being trapped here with all our secrets and rules. At least I chose this life.” She waves her hand vaguely at the manor. “You just got… caught up in it.”
The casual admission of my captivity, so different from her usual stern deflections, catches me off guard. I turn to study her profile in the moonlight, seeing past the perfect facade to something more vulnerable.
Diana takes another long drag, her usual perfect posture melting further into the lounger. “I suppose I owe you an explanation about Sofia’s… intensity earlier.”
My ears perk up at the mention of the woman who’d taken an instant dislike to me.
“Did something happen between her and Aleksei?” I venture carefully.
Diana’s laugh holds no humor. “You could say that. My dear brother left her at the altar.”
I nearly choke on air. “He what??”
“Mmhmm.” Diana’s fingers play with the joint. “Right in front of the entire Bratva leadership. When the priest asked if he would take her as his wife, Aleksei just said ‘No.’ Simple as that.”
The image of Aleksei — cold, controlled Aleksei — causing such public drama seems impossible to reconcile.
“But… why?”
Diana’s gaze slides to me, surprisingly sharp despite her relaxed state. “Why do you think, Stella?” Her eyes drop to my belly. “The timing is interesting, isn’t it? Right after he learned about your… condition.”
My hand instinctively moves to my stomach. “Are you saying…?”
“I’m saying my brother has never done anything this impulsive in his life. The Novikov alliance was years in the making. To throw it away…” She shakes her head. “Sofia was naturally… displeased.”
“Displeased seems like an understatement,” I mutter, remembering Sofia’s venom.
“You have to understand — in our world, such a public rejection is…” Diana waves her hand, searching for words. “It’s beyond humiliating. Sofia’s entire family lost face. Her father…” She shivers slightly. “Well, let’s just say there will be consequences.”
The weight of what Aleksei did — what he apparently did because of me and this baby — settles heavy in my chest.
“I have to admit, I was pretty pissed too.” Diana looks at me. “I worked hard to broker that alliance.”
“Broker that alliance?” I raise an eyebrow. “You make it sound like a business partnership.”
Diana huffs a breath and flicks ash onto the grass alongside the pool paving. “It was.” She gives a wry smile. “I should have known that my brother would never go through with it. And… I was probably wrong for trying to force him into it.”
“Force him into it?” I give a light laugh. “It’s hard to imagine Aleksei being forced to do anything he doesn’t want to do.”
She grins at me. “You’re not wrong. Pretty stupid, huh?” She takes another hit, then tilts her head back and releases a stream of blue smoke into the night air. “It’s not too bad though. I think I prefer you.”
I make a choking sound. “What?”
“Yeah. Crazy, huh?” She gives an elegant shrug. “Sofia is a stuck-up bitch with too much botox. And those tits… Fuck! You could bounce a ball off them.”
I snort out a laugh. “Okay, yeah, they were out there.”
“Out there!” She starts to laugh. “They were out there alright. Way out there!” Her laughter turns into a fit of giggles as she waves her hands in the air. “Her tits were out there! That’s so funny!”
I find myself laughing too, though I can’t figure out why.
“Like they’re in outer space,” she goes on. “Intergalactic tits.” She slaps her thigh. “One could be Mercury and the other could be Venus!”
“Um… Okay.” I chuckle. The woman’s clearly as high as a kite, but who am I to judge?
“Jesus, I could do with a plate of vareniki right now.” She exhales another plume of smoke. “You know what this is?”
“Vareniki? Like pelmeni but with potatoes?” My mind reels back to another time.
“Yes. Or mushrooms. Or cabbage…” Her brows pull together. “How do you know this?”
“Uh… I watch a lot of the Food Network,” I improvise.
She nods, as if satisfied. “I tried to teach that idiot Imelda to make them but she never could.” Her mouth turns down at the corners. “ Glupaya suka. ”
“What happened to her? Why did she leave so suddenly?” It’s something that’s been bugging me. The woman seemed to be a fixture, and then she was gone.
“Probably got a nice pair of cement shoes,” says Boyana.
“It’s not important.” Diana takes a quick puff, then coughs a little. “You just be sure to remember what I told you.”
“About not eating food unless you give it to me?” I cock my head.
She nods. “It is better this way.”
“But why?”
“Just trust me.” Smoke wafts from her lips. “You never know when someone else lets themselves be used like a weapon.”
“A weapon? What do you mean.”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head. “Nothing to concern yourself about. You just concentrate on growing that baby for my brother.”
I feel my cheeks flush a little and I’m grateful for the cover of darkness to hide them. “Sure,” I say.
“I think you’re a better match for him, anyway,” she says again. “Better than Sophia.”
“Yeah right,” I mutter. “I can think of better things I’d rather do. Like date a grizzly.”
“He’s not the easiest man, my brother,” she acknowledges.
“Ya think?” I roll my eyes.
“But he has a good heart, Stella.” Diana takes another long drag, her eyes growing distant. “You know, Aleksei wasn’t always like this — so cold, so controlled. Our mother…” She trails off, then laughs bitterly. “Well, let’s just say her disappearance changed him.”
“Disappearance?” The word catches in my throat.
“Mmhmm.” Diana’s fingers play with the joint. “One day she was there, making breakfast, singing those silly Russian lullabies. The next…” She shrugs, the elegant movement at odds with the darkness in her eyes. “Gone. Just like that. Our father claimed she left us, but Aleksei never believed it.”
My heart clenches. “How old were you?”
“Ten. Both of us — we’re twins, you know.” She glances at me. “Identical timing, opposite genders. Rare, but it happens.”
“Yes.” I nod. I knew about them being twins, but I don’t point this out because I don’t want to discourage her from speaking.
“After that, Aleksei became… different. Started working out obsessively, studying constantly. Like if he could just control everything perfectly enough…” She takes another hit. “And then there was Olga.”
“Olga?”
Diana’s expression softens. “Bobik’s mother. Sweet girl, really. Too sweet for this life.” Her gaze drifts to the left wing. “She gave Aleksei his greatest joy and his deepest pain all at once.”
“Bobik?” I frown at her. “Who’s Bobik?”
Diana stops abruptly. “It’s… forget I mentioned that.”
“It’s a bit late now, Diana,” I press.
She looks at me, assessing. “I suppose I’ve opened the door, haven’t I?”
“Pretty much.” I nod, growing increasingly anxious to know where this is going.
“Bobik is… He’s Aleksei’s son,” she says, knocking the wind from my lungs. “Yes. I know it’s a surprise. He never tells anyone.”
My mind spins, connecting countless dots. “I think I saw them together,” I tell her, remembering the boy in the garden. “He has… problems?”
She takes another drag from the joint, staring off into the distance for a moment. She seems lost in memory. “The birth was… complicated. That doctor…” Her face hardens. “Well, suffice to say, mistakes were made. Permanent ones.”
Understanding dawns — the wheelchair equipment, the hidden staircase, Aleksei’s obsession with controlling my pregnancy. It all connects to this child, this Bobik.
“He’s paraplegic,” I half-whisper, my heart breaking a little.
“Yes.” She nods, then her expression brightens a little. “But he’s the most amazing kid in so many ways. Funny, smart… he’s a total science geek.” Her lips curl into a smile.
I perk up. “A science geek?”
“Yeah. He’ll talk your ear off if you get him started on quantum physics.” Diana laughs. “God knows I don’t know what the fuck he’s saying half the time.”
“Can I meet him?” I say impulsively.
“What?” She stares at me.
“I… I won’t tell Aleksei, I promise. And you can tell the boy that I’m a close friend or something.” I’m taking a chance here — the woman seems to be warming to me, but we’re hardly besties. “Please?” I press.
“Why?” Diana tilts her head.
“I…” I pause because I don’t really know what’s behind this sudden compulsion. “Because I’m about to give him a brother… or sister. I think I should get to know him, don’t you?”
Diana’s lips purse, appearing to mull this over. Abruptly she stubs out the joint on the paving beside the lounger and stands. “Okay,” she says, surprising me because I really didn’t think she’d go for it. “Come.” She holds out a hand.
I take it and let her pull me to my feet, wondering if this is something I’m going to regret, but not caring.
“Not a word about this to my brother, you hear?” She’s guiding me back to the Left Wing, her footsteps almost hurried.
“My lips are sealed, I swear it!” I’m getting increasingly nervous as we move quickly through the house and up the stairs.
“And you don’t come back here without me, do you understand?
” Diana glances at me. We’ve reached the room with the secret doorway and she’s tapping along a join that releases with a faint click.
The door swings open on silent hinges and I stare up at the stairs I stood beneath just a couple of days ago.
Things ended very differently that day — with me getting my ass spanked and-
Stop it, Stella!
“I promise I won’t come back without you,” I say dutifully.
We’re walking up the stairs, our footsteps muffled by plush carpet. A short hallway leads to a door, which she pushes open, then peers around cautiously.
She looks back at me with a little nod. “He’s sleeping,” she whispers, then gives me a little nudge. I step forward and crane my neck to get a better view. My breath catches. Propped up against plump pillows is the little boy I saw in the garden.
My heart catches at how small he looks in the massive bed, surrounded by pristine white linens and medical equipment. His dark hair falls across his forehead in a way that’s achingly familiar — just like his father’s.
The resemblance to Aleksei hits me hard. Those same sharp, beautiful features softened by youth and innocence. Long dark lashes rest against pale cheeks, and his mouth holds that same slight downward turn at the corners that I’ve noticed on Aleksei during unguarded moments.
Science books line the shelves, their spines well-worn from frequent use.
One lies open on the nightstand, its pages thumbed through.
My fingers itch to brush that dark hair from his forehead, but I hold back, not wanting to disturb his peaceful sleep.
Instead, I stand quietly, taking in every detail of this moment — the gentle whir of medical monitors, the moonlight playing across his features, the stack of physics books by his bedside.
This brilliant, vulnerable child represents everything Aleksei keeps hidden — his capacity for love, his deepest fears, his carefully guarded heart.
My hand drifts to my belly, where Bobik’s sibling grows. Tears prick at my eyes as I watch his narrow chest rise and fall with each breath. The medical equipment surrounding him speaks of constant care and vigilance, of a father’s desperate need to protect.
A surge of protectiveness washes over me, so intense it almost takes my breath away. This precious, fragile boy — kept hidden away like a rare treasure — suddenly means everything. I want to shield him from harm, to share in his thoughts, to see him smile.
Suddenly, I have a new reason to stay here.