Chapter 60
Yuliana
The SUV smelled like leather, gun oil, and old ghosts. The ghosts were definitely mine.
Snow slid across the windshield in lazy spirals.
It was the kind of night that looked peaceful and beautiful if you didn’t know any better.
Vlad drove with both hands steady on the wheel, eyes forward, and his jaw set.
Mylo sat beside him. They were both quiet in the way men got when they were prepared to kill for you without being asked.
We’d been doing this dance for too many years now.
I hated how they’d given up everything to protect me. They hardly dated. They never married or had children themselves. They’d cut off all contact with their families when they swore to protect me, and we went on the run.
My reflection in the window stared back at me.
Eyes that I hardly recognized anymore. I had seen too much, lived with too much pain and regret, and I was the kind of tired that went beyond needing sleep.
If it weren’t for Ren and Eddie, I would’ve gotten down on my knees years ago and told God to take me. They were what kept me going.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the picture I carried everywhere with me. It was the last time that Eddie, Ren, and I were all together. I’d vowed to protect Ren at all costs, even if that cost was my life, and I’d do it all over again. I let the ache settle deep in my bones.
My father was alive.
Not just alive, but sitting at Eddie’s table, with our daughter. I didn’t understand why Eddie hadn’t already killed him. Instead, Vadin was laughing, toasting, and breaking bread with the family he never wanted. The family he cast away. My father was existing in a world he had no right to occupy.
The thought burned hotter than any revenge fantasy I’d ever indulged.
How dare he come here?
How dare he be so weak that he chose to hide behind my child?
Vadin Mikhailov didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as Ren.
“You can still turn back,” Mylo said quietly, as if this were any other night. Any other sin.
I smiled without humor.
“If I turn back now, I’ll never stop running from the shadows that chase me.”
Vlad’s eyes flicked to the mirror and met mine.
“Once you step inside,” he said, voice low. “There will be no hiding anymore. Lilya and Mr. Genovese will know that you’ve been alive this whole time.”
“I know,” I agreed. “But it is time I faced the demons I’ve been side-stepping ever since I set these wheels in motion. My daughter deserves to know the truth, and she needs to hear it from me.”
The world believed I was dead. I’d allowed my daughter to grieve a ghost. I’d allowed men who deserved to choke on their own blood to sit comfortably in warm houses and call themselves patriarchs.
I’d told myself it was strategy. Protection.
Distance as a form of mercy. But now I questioned every decision I’d ever made.
The distance hadn’t protected Ren from anything. It had only protected me.
The tall gates were wide open when we turned into the community, and no guard was posted in the tiny booth. I smirked. A trap set as an invitation. Eddie would never allow this unless the place were teeming with guards.
Eddie’s house was at the far end of the street. Teens stood outside the nearby homes smoking and laughing.
“Are you seeing this?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty sly. Who do you think they are,” Vlad asked.
“I don’t know, but as long as they are here to protect my daughter, I really don’t care.”
“What if they are here to kill us,” Mylo asked, subtly pulling his gun out and checking it.
“Well, I guess today is as good a day as any to die,” I said.
Vlad glanced at me in the mirror once more.
“That was not your most comforting speech,” he teased.
The two other SUVs holding my men were right behind us, but I really hoped we didn’t end up in a shootout because of a twitchy finger.
The iron gates at the end of Eddie’s property rose out of the snow like something ancient and unforgiving. Eddie’s estate loomed beyond them, all warm lights and illusion. Little white lights still lined every tree, and I knew that he would’ve left them up for Ren.
She had always loved little twinkly lights, and Christmas was her favorite time of year.
The SUV slowed and then came to a stop. A guard dressed all in black stepped out of the shadows and walked over to the driver’s side window.
“Name?”
“Yulianna Mikhailov,” I said from the back seat.
He touched his ear and relayed the name. He looked at us and the other SUVs, assessing the danger.
“Please wait here a moment,” he said, and walked away. Vlad’s fingers tapped along the top of the steering wheel.
The gate opened slightly, and a man I would recognize anywhere stepped through.
“Stay in the vehicle,” I ordered and climbed out.
Cold air hit me in the face, sharp enough to sting, so I pulled the hood up on my coat.
Marcus. Eddie’s right hand and my old friend moved closer. Recognition replaced doubt, and he went very still.
“Yuli,” he said slowly, like he wasn’t sure the word would hold shape in his mouth. “You really are alive.”
He gave me a little smile and then held his arms open. A tiny bit of the worry I’d been holding inside my chest eased as I stepped into his embrace.
“God, you are a sight for sore eyes. I’d hoped it was true, but to see you in the flesh.” He pulled back, smiling. “The world feels right again.”
“How has Eddie been?”
“You know Eddie. He shares very little, but believing you died…it tore him apart.”
I looked down at the ground.
“I know. I never wanted to hurt him or Ren.”
Snow fell more heavily, blanketing the space between us. For a moment, neither of us moved.
“Yuli, I’m not sure this is the best time. There are…guests,” Marcus said finally.
“I know exactly who’s here,” I replied. “It’s why I’ve come.”
His jaw tightened.
“You can’t start a war inside the house.”
“I only intend to finish one,” I said.
“You know what I mean. I think it will be best if you leave and come back tomorrow,” Marcus said, though there was no conviction in it.
“I’m not asking permission, Marcus.” My voice stayed calm, but there was steel threaded through every word. “Open the gate, it’s time that I came home.”
Marcus hesitated.
“Marcus,” I said softly. “You’ve known me a long time. I will not do anything to hurt Eddie or endanger my daughter, but I’m not leaving. Do not make me turn this into an issue.”
I watched him calculate how many people would die if he made the wrong choice.
“Fuck my life,” he mumbled and slowly lifted his hand. The gates groaned open.
Leaning in, I kissed his cheek.
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Smirking, I opened my door to climb back inside.
“Yuli?”
I looked at Marcus.
“Please don’t make me regret this.”
I smiled widely.
“Would I do that to you?”
“Go, before I change my damn mind. Maybe it’s not too late for me to catch a plane out of this freezing hellscape.”
“Eddie would still find you,” I said.
“Yeah, but I’d rather die on a beach, working on my tan and sipping a fucking mai tai.”
I laughed as I got in and closed my door.
“That went better than I expected,” Vlad said as the SUV rolled forward.
As we passed through the gate, something inside me cracked wide open.
It wasn’t fear or doubt, but the final piece of separation I’d clung to for survival.
My hand shook with the knowledge that with every inch I came closer to facing the love of my life, my beautiful daughter, who I loved more than anything, and the man who tried to strip it all away from me and almost succeeded.
I dug my nails into my palm, grounding myself as memories surfaced without permission.
Ren’s childish laughter. The way she used to fall asleep with her hand wrapped around my finger like it was the only thing tethering her to the world.
How she sat at my bedside day and night while I went through grueling cancer treatments.
She was an angel sent from God. And even though she couldn’t save my soul, and I would end up in Hell for the things I’d done…
I would sacrifice myself all over again. Every time.
What would she see when she looked at me now? A ghost. A liar. A woman who chose to destroy a dynasty over honesty. I deserved whatever fury waited for me behind that door.
The SUV stopped near the front steps. Light spilled across the snow, golden and hopeful.
Shadows moved inside the large front window.
Men I recognized, men I hated, men who thought they were safe.
Including the one who had taught me that love was a transaction and daughters were collateral.
My chest tightened, rage coiling tight and vicious.
Mylo turned in the passenger seat and looked at me.
“Say the word,” he murmured. “And we will drag him out of there and do this for you if it’s too much.”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “This is between Vadin and me.”
For a heartbeat, I stayed seated, letting the weight of the moment settle. I was done burning houses from the outside. Tonight, I walked into the fire.
Vlad hopped out and opened my door. I stepped into the cold, and snow crunched beneath my boots as I straightened, lifted my chin, and rolled my shoulders back.
I wasn’t the girl who loved her father and thought the world of him anymore.
Gone were the days when I ran to him and hugged him tight.
I was the woman who had survived him, and the choices that proved his love had conditions.
I looked up at the massive, double doors and drew a slow breath, reining in the fury that coursed through my veins. I touched the gun tucked inside my jacket, and the feel of the cold steel steadied my nerves.
Then, I stepped forward and walked up the steps to a future that was as uncertain as the past I’d run from fourteen years ago.