Chapter 17 - Misha
“Say that again.” Iosif’s voice did not rise, but I could still feel the familiar edge of anger laced in it. That was how you knew it mattered.
I stood exactly where I had stopped the moment I stepped into the Chernykh estate, the familiar weight of the house pressing in around me in a way that felt both grounding and suffocating at the same time.
Nothing had changed. Everything from the marble floors to the tall windows and the quiet hum of power beneath everything felt like home and yet not like home at the same time.
It was nothing like Kliment’s safehouse, which had started feeling like a place of comfort during my time away.
And a part of me longed to return. However, when Iosif had been accepting of everything I had told him but had asked me to at least come back home, I had known denying him would not be a wise idea.
I had already disappointed him enough, and the Chernykh in me wanted to make amends.
But none of that meant I was going to compromise my mission or my identity or my feelings.
“I’m not repeating it,” I said calmly, taking a seat on the sofa in the main hall. Everyone was there, gathered around me.
“You will,” Avgust snapped from my right, already pacing. “Because I’m fairly certain I misheard you.”
“No, Avgust. I can assure you that you didn’t. I meant what I said.”
Timofey, sprawled halfway across one of the armchairs like this was entertainment instead of a confrontation, let out a low whistle. “No, no. I heard it too. I just want confirmation that we’ve collectively lost our minds.”
Zhenya, leaning against the far wall with her arms crossed, closed her eyes briefly.
“I told you something was wrong when she disappeared. She would have never left her phone in her room otherwise. I was constantly saying she had not been kidnapped and left of her own will, and now we have confirmation for that.”
“That is not helpful right now, Zhenya,” Avgust shot back.
“That is extremely helpful,” she countered. “I deserve credit for being right, especially now that Misha is back and all is right in the Chernykh household.”
“You don’t get credit for predicting disaster, and we can most definitely see how all is not right,” Avgust replied, looking annoyed. I sat there, highly amused by the exchange.
“I absolutely do.”
“Enough, you two. We have other problems to deal with right now, and we can continue with this verbal spar at a later time,” Iosif said.
Silence snapped back into place immediately, and Iosif’s gaze settled on me again, heavier this time. Sharper.
“Start explaining yourself, Misha.”
I exhaled slowly, steadying myself. It was not because I was unsure, but because I knew exactly what this conversation would become if I let it go on for much longer.
My family would never ever be accepting of my feelings towards Kliment, and I could not blame them.
After everything that had happened in the past, it was only understandable.
“There’s nothing to explain,” I said. “I told you the truth.”
“You said,” Lukyan cut in, turning toward me fully now, “that you are in love with Kliment Romanov.”
I held his gaze. “Yes. That is the truth.”
The room stilled completely, and not even Timofey moved this time. For a moment, no one spoke.
“That is,” Timofey said slowly, sitting up properly now, “deeply inconvenient for everyone in this household, I believe, considering our collective hatred for the man.”
“Deeply?” Avgust echoed. “That is your assessment of this situation?”
“I’m choosing optimism.”
“There is no version of this where something like this could be optimistic.”
“There’s always a version—”
“Timofey.”
“Fine,” he muttered. “This is catastrophic. Happy?”
“Thrilled.”
Zhenya pushed herself off the wall, running a hand through her hair. “I need a drink. It is way too late at night for this conversation, and nothing is making sense anymore.”
“That makes two of us,” Elisse added quietly from where she stood near the doorway.
I hadn’t even noticed her there. I raked my gaze over the corridor and saw Ilana and Clara standing beside Elisse as well.
All of them looked worried, their expressions rather troubled because of the situation.
Ilana’s gaze was fixed on me, with something unreadable sitting behind it.
It was not shock or anger but something a little more complicated than either of the two.
I could not blame her. Kliment had been completely against her marriage to Avgust and had wanted her to come home.
The two of them shared a rather turbulent relationship since then and hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while now.
“Elisse,” Fyodor said softly from beside her, his hand brushing lightly against hers.
She didn’t look at him because she, too, was watching me. If there was someone who should be able to understand my position, it had to be Elisse. She, too, loved a Romanov and had gone against her family to be with him.
“I didn’t plan this,” I said finally, breaking the silence before it could stretch any longer and make things doubly awkward.
“It wasn’t strategy. It wasn’t manipulation.
I didn’t plan for him to come rescue me on the day in the docks, and I hadn’t planned to spend all this time in his safehouse and end up falling in love with him.
These are just things that happened, and I had no control over them. ”
“What do you mean, rescue you?” Iosif asked, and I realized I still hadn’t told them about my failed mission.
“The day I left the house and disappeared, I actually went to the south docks to meet a mid-level agent, but I went alone, and things didn’t go as I had predicted. There were a lot of men, and there was a gun at my head, and I could have died if Kliment hadn’t been there to save me.”
“What was he even doing there?” Fyodor asked, stepping into the main hall.
“He was following me because he wanted to kill me to take revenge on our family,” I said, as everyone stared at me as if I had lost my mind.
“Oh boy,” Zhenya said, chuckling softly as she looked at me. “Are you serious right now?”
I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.
“So you knew this, and you still decided to go to his safehouse with him? Why?” Timofey asked, genuinely appearing at a loss for words.
“I had a fracture and multiple injuries. I also had a bullet graze wound. It was pretty bad, and I really needed some place safe to recover, and Kliment was right there.”
“You amaze me, Misha,” Avgust sighed. “And then you eventually fell in love with him, and he gave up the idea of killing you?”
“He gave up the idea of killing me the moment he rescued me because why else would he even save my life?” I replied, hoping everyone saw the sense in my logic. “We eventually got closer and fell in love.”
Avgust let out a short, disbelieving laugh, dragging a hand over his face. “So you chose him to tell about your secrets over all of us.”
“Yes, but that is because he trusted me enough to handle the situation by myself.”
“Do you understand who he is, Misha?” Iosif asked.
“Yes.”
“And you still—”
“Yes.” The repetition snapped something.
“Unbelievable,” Avgust muttered.
Timofey leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees, studying me with far too much interest. “I mean, objectively speaking, he does have a certain—”
“Finish that sentence,” Avgust said dangerously.
“I’m just saying, I can see the appeal in a very abstract, completely detached—”
“Timofey.”
“—purely observational way.”
Zhenya snorted. Despite everything, I felt the corner of my mouth twitch. God, I had missed this. At least being back home brought me back to my siblings. Iosif didn’t smile. He stepped closer instead, his presence filling the space between us in a way it always had.
“You disappeared,” he said. “You operated alone. You put yourself in direct conflict with a Russian pakhan. And now you’re standing here telling me you’ve aligned yourself with a Romanov.”
“I haven’t aligned myself with anyone,” I said. “I made a decision.”
“That decision has consequences.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
He studied me for a long moment, something shifting behind his eyes. I could see calculation, restraint, and something else I couldn’t quite name.
“Then explain it to me,” he said finally. “Explain why.”
I didn’t hesitate. “Because he sees me.”
The room went quiet again, but it was different this time. A little less explosive and more focused, as if all of them were waiting with bated breath for me to say something. For me to explain what it all meant.
“He doesn’t try to control me,” I continued. “He doesn’t make decisions for me. He doesn’t reduce me to something that needs to be protected instead of trusted.”
“That’s because he’s using you,” Avgust snapped.
“No,” I said calmly. “He isn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“How?”
“Because he had every opportunity to use me and kill me and make me suffer, but he didn’t.”
That shut him up for a second.
“Why?” Timofey asked, softer now. I didn’t answer immediately because, the truth be told, even now, it felt too big to put into something simple.
“Because he chose not to,” I said finally.
Zhenya watched me carefully, her expression shifting in a way that told me she understood more than she was saying.
“He stands beside me,” I added quietly. “Not in front of me.”
That changed something. I saw it and felt it, and the room didn’t explode this time. It shifted instead and grew a lot more subtle.
Ilana moved first, walking towards me. Her face was still expressionless, but her gaze never left mine.
“Does he treat you well?” she asked.
The question caught everyone off guard. Including me.
“Yes,” I said.
She nodded once. Just once. “He is my brother Misha, and I have never been very close with him, especially after everything that went down with Avgust. But one thing I know about Kliment is that he has loved me more than life itself all his life, and the only reason he was against Avgust was that he felt protective towards me.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“But Kliment held our family together when we had no one. He took care of everyone and brought us to where we are today. He established us from the bottom, and I know that when he loves someone, he loves with his whole heart.”
“You cannot seriously be considering that he loves her, too?” Avgust asked, looking at his wife.
“I’m considering the fact,” Ilana said calmly, “that she’s alive even though Kliment wanted to kill her initially, and that says something.”
Elisse nodded slightly beside her.
“She’s right,” she said softly. “We can argue about everything else later.”
“Yes,” Timofey cut in. “Later. Preferably after we’ve dealt with the Russian trafficker running operations through our ports.”
That redirected it exactly where it needed to go. I didn’t miss the way Iosif’s attention sharpened again. Focused and strategic.
“Volkov,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Everything you told us—”
“Is real.”
“And Sidorov?”
“He is still active. Still moving shipments.”
Timofey exhaled slowly. “Well. That’s… unpleasant.”
“Understatement,” Zhenya muttered. “After everything that happened with Ilana and god knows how many more women, we need these two men gone.”
Avgust stopped pacing, and his attention shifted towards me.
“If Volkov is behind this,” he said slowly, “then this isn’t just your problem anymore.”
“No,” I agreed. “It isn’t.”
Iosif stepped forward again, but this time it wasn’t a confrontation. It was a decision.
“We will obviously help you in this mission, Misha. That is, if you want us to,” he said.
The words landed quietly, but they carried everything.
Avgust nodded once, sharp but resolute. “We finish it together.”
Timofey leaned back again, stretching slightly. “And preferably make it extremely painful for everyone involved.”
“Of course you would say that,” Zhenya said.
“I’m consistent.”
Elisse let out a small breath, tension easing just slightly from her shoulders. “Good.”
I stood there for a moment, taking it in. All of it. The shift.
The incomplete acceptance of Kliment and how they were not trying to take the mission away from me anymore. They weren’t trying to control it themselves, but they were stepping into it. With me.
“I’m not stepping back or ending this. I might be home, but the mission stays, and so does Kliment,” I said.
Iosif’s gaze met mine. “I know.”
Something in my chest tightened. It was not painful, just unfamiliar.
“And we’re not asking you to surrender anything,” he added.
Avgust nodded once, more reluctantly but no less certain. “We’re asking you to let us stand with you.”
“I can work with that,” I said.
Timofey grinned slightly. “Look at that. Growth.”
“Don’t push it,” Avgust muttered.
Zhenya rolled her eyes. “You’re all impossible.”
“And yet,” Timofey said, “we remain deeply effective.”
I let out a quiet breath, something in me settling for the first time in weeks. Months. Maybe longer, because finally I wasn’t alone. Not anymore. And this time, I didn’t have to fight for that.