Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VIKTOR
I’d barely made it back to my office after my usual morning meetings, ready to review the stack of supplier contracts before a vendor negotiation at noon, when the intercom buzzed.
“Mr. Korolyov on line one,” my assistant said.
Setting down the contract, I picked up. Whatever Yann wanted, it wouldn’t be quick.
“How’s your married life going?” He sounded cheerful.
“Yann.” I ignored the teasing in his voice. “What’s the matter?”
“Can’t I call my little cousin without a reason?”
I chortled. “Not in your character.”
“Ahh… I heard you started leaving home earlier. Every day. And even declined a few business lunches on weekends.”
“I see your spies abroad don’t sleep. Should I be worried?”
A soft chuckle came through the line. “I’m just taking care of your well-being.”
One could call me na?ve for trusting a man who kept tabs on me. But Yann had proved otherwise. When I was at my lowest, tangled in an inheritance war, he could have taken everything. Instead, he made sure I rose. So I let this slide.
“Wouldn’t you benefit the most if I was found dead?” I asked.
“Yeah, considering you still have no heir, the timing is tight. Good thing Mom loves you. Wouldn’t care though if Alexander was in your place.”
“He was as much your cousin as I am. And he’s dead. You don’t judge a dead person.”
“Still doesn’t change the fact that he was a mama’s boy.”
“Yann…” I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the guilt twisting in my chest.
I’d started it all—the ‘mama’s boy’ jokes about my half-brother.
It wasn’t even the worst thing I’d said.
Yet after a while, before the accident, our relationship was shifting.
In a positive way. And while Alexander still followed Cecilia’s judgments, I couldn’t blame him.
Not when I myself didn’t know what it was to have one.
“So,” Yann broke the silence, “you didn’t say. Is there any upcoming heir in the picture?”
I massaged my temples. “Let me guess, Aunt Anita is taunting you five times a day?”
“Bingo!” he laughed. “And she still asks when you’ll finally bring her here.”
“Can’t promise.”
“Hm.” A pause hung in the air. “So? What about an heir?”
“Are we done with the jokes?”
“Just making sure Mom needs to wait.” He chuckled. “You know me and Nessa can’t have one. And all her prayers are on you.”
I wound the telephone cord around my finger, unsure what to say. I knew how much Yann wanted a child. A man who pulled Kosvenia’s strings from the shadows needed an heir. But two years into his marriage to Nessa, they’d learned it wouldn’t happen.
I knew even Nessa had urged him to have one on the side. But Yann refused every suggestion. They were nearing forty, married more than fifteen years, and still—he held his ground.
“There will not be any soon,” I said.
“Don’t tell me you’re still sleeping in different rooms.”
“How did that come to your knowledge?”
“Oh…”
“Are there spies in my home as well?” My voice lowered a few octaves.
“No. I heard it from Nessa.”
“Nessa?”
“Yes.”
“And how exactly did that information reach her in Kosvenia?” I took a deep breath. “You know what—forget it. You didn’t call just to discuss my sleeping arrangements. What happened?”
Yann cleared his throat before speaking again. “MoRen is trying to expand here.”
Ah, so that’s the reason. I pressed my temples, trying to force away the rising pain. “Are they bothering you?”
“I am a Monopoly enthusiast.”
“Weren’t you fined last year for that?”
“Fined?” He chuckled. “Viktor… Viktor.” The sound of glass touching something came through the phone before he sighed, his voice turning cold.
“I wouldn’t even bother to ask you. No foreign stray can start a business on my territory without consulting me first. And since this particular dog has the Renier name—even more so. ”
“Rafael is also an owner. That’s why you hesitated?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can’t you just let them be?”
“I didn’t call to ask your permission. This is my reputation on the line. But since your in-laws are also in this, I’ll give them a chance. Let them know they have a week to do this properly, and if they do, I might let them operate.”
I scoffed. This would be a headache.
“A week. I’m giving them that because of you.”
The situation was turning into a headache. All because of the stupid shit Rafael was pulling.
I’d tried to build a decent relationship with him. Starting small conversations during the Moreaus’ monthly dinners. But he kept stubbornly ignoring me.
“I’ll say this once,” he had said on the day I visited the Moreaus with the engagement ring. “You better make sure she has her own room. And stay miles away from that room.”
He came nose to nose, trying to intimidate me, to scare me. But he failed. I was still taller.
“Right, because I need your advice on my marriage.” I smirked. Not that I wasn’t going to do so. But that was not because of him saying it.
“Touch her–you die. Make her cry–you die. And don’t forget that it was you who ruined her life.”
Which was fair, unlike his conviction that I was there to destroy his family, to grab what the Moreaus owned.
Why would I need that? Because he still believed I’d taken everything from the Reniers?
I hadn’t stolen anything from that family either.
The Rowks fortune was never theirs. And considering what Cecilia did, I’d acted much more generously than anyone else would have in my place.
Yet I was the bad one.
I exhaled, looking at the phone. I’d tried to reach Rafael a few times, but the man’s secretary informed me of his absence. Even with warnings about the urgency of the business matter, he still hadn’t called back in the past six hours.
“Maybe I should call Antonio?” I muttered under my breath.
I could already imagine the hateful speeches from Rafael about how I always meddled in his business, spied on him, and reported to his father.
Like he had a few months ago when I’d eliminated a problematic investor.
That idiot was sure I was doing everything to piss him off.
As if I had nothing else to do. As if we were still in college, competing for some stupid score.
The second option was to do nothing. I’d already tried to contact him and was ignored. Not my problem anymore.
Only… In a week Yann would wipe anything connected to MoRen from Kosvenia. And instead of blaming the idiots who thought they were too important to follow another country’s unwritten protocols, they’d blame me when it all went to shit. Because of course I was the one giving Yann instructions.
Again, not that I cared. If not for Sophie.
The irritation dissolved the moment the image of her three small dimples, appearing whenever she smiled in excitement, flashed behind my eyelids.
I leaned back in my seat, unable to brush the image away. I’d first noticed them at her family dinners when she’d smiled at something Anne said.
I wasn’t sure if her family had noticed, or if I was the only one who’d seen them. But earning them had become one of the best parts of these past weeks. And all I could think about was how to make those tiny marks appear on her face more often.
That being said, I needed to go directly to Rafael.
“You know it’s rude to ignore your brother-in-law when he’s desperately trying to reach you.” I could try to sound more polite, but I couldn’t resist the mocking tone.
“What’s your business?” Edmond asked without standing from the sofa.
I went to Rafael, offering a handshake. Got refused, as always, and didn’t bother to offer one to Renier. Just made myself comfortable directly on the opposite sofa, enjoying the sound of leather protesting under my weight.
“When’s the baby due?” I couldn’t resist the question. Not my concern that it sparked anger in Edmond’s eyes.
Maybe I was being a bit disingenuous. But who could blame me? I refused to pretend to like the man.
“That one is none of your business.”
“Oh, I’m only trying to be polite. Though I can’t blame you. It’s not something taught in your family. Neither is standing by a woman after you’ve taken liberties with her.”
Edmond clenched his teeth and was about to say something when Rafael cut him off. “Unlike you, we are busy. What do you want?”
Ignoring a hiss from Edmond that sounded suspiciously like “junkie,” I gestured toward the company logo on the wall: MoRen Systems. “You’re lucky we’re in-laws. Otherwise, Yann wouldn’t even bother to send a notice.”
“Korolyov. Who would’ve thought.” Edmond relaxed in his seat. “Jealous that we got the expansion deal before you?”
Idiots. I exhaled through my nose, fighting the urge to laugh.
Yes, we were operating in similar sectors, but it wasn’t as if my Atlas Telecom division mattered.
One of hundreds. Promising on paper, perhaps—but it hadn’t shown a profit in years.
Too much investment, too little return. Closing it was always on my mind during quarterly reviews, yet somehow I kept giving it another chance.
With dozens of far more profitable ventures demanding my attention, it never made the priority list.
Perhaps shutting it down for good would be the wiser move. But I’d deal with that later. For now, my only concern was dealing with these two who could never see past their own noses.
“I came here to inform you. Don’t say later I didn’t.”
“Inform us? That you went crying to your cousin about how the bad wolves here are pressing you?”
“I guess whatever I say, you’ll be convinced it’s my doing.
But let me remind you, from the kindness of my heart: Kosvenia is not Montvarra.
They have their rules. Their traditions.
Paying respect before starting a business should be your priority.
And Yann, whether you like it or not, runs the country. ”
Edmond leaned closer. “He’s just a filthy mob. We have everything done legally. Let me see what he can do.”
“How many times do I need to say it? There is no legally there.”
“We’ll see.” Edmond didn’t stop.
“What will you see? They’re not even in the European Union for you to have power.”
Edmond opened his mouth to protest, but I shut him up with a hand gesture, turning to Rafael. “Is your father aware of this?”
The expression on his face was enough of an answer. Edmond tried to speak once again, but this time Rafael didn’t let him. “This is my business. Unlike some, we did not inherit a ready-made empire and then sit on our asses while others did the work.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it. Breathe. Nothing I said would change a thing. At least I tried.
“Let Yann know that he can try, but he’ll regret it. And don’t even think of involving my father. You stand in my way, and you’ll regret it too.”
I raised my eyebrows. Empty threats didn’t scare me.
But Rafael’s smile tightened. “I, surely, don’t need to remind you what happened to your lovely friends.”