Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Mackenzie
I speed down the road in my car, going way past the speed limit.
The highway stretches before me, blurry through the haze of my tears.
The distant glow of headlights reflects in my rearview mirror and the faint hum of my tires on the asphalt clashes with the storm in my chest.
I grip the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles ache, but it’s the only thing keeping my hands from shaking.
Maxim Valneko held a gun on Dmitri. His own father.
I’ve never felt such terror in my life. At least not that I can remember. I know the events of the past were terrifying, but since I can’t remember them, I have nothing to compare it to.
That monster held a gun to Dmitri’s then he threw me out like the slut he thinks I am.
I didn’t want to leave Dmitri in that situation, but I didn’t know what to do that wouldn’t make things worse.
Now I don’t know if he’s safe or not.
The only thing I could think of doing is calling Kade. When I told him what happened, he dropped what he was doing to head to the apartment.
I can only pray now that Dmitri is okay.
His father is truly monstrous.
I keep hearing those damning words that spewed from his lips like sewage: Get the fuck out, or I’ll make sure you and your family pay.
The monster meant every word he said. Every single one.
God. This is my fault. All of it.
I barely looked at Dmitri as I left.
It broke me to see him standing there wanting to defend me but being unable to.
Now I’m not sure what faces me with my parents. I didn’t even know they were already in Boston. They were supposed to be arriving tomorrow for the charity events.
When they’re in Boston, they stay at their cottage near Raventhorn.
The thought of seeing them makes my stomach churn and burn.
My secrets are out and in the worst hands possible. It was bad enough that Dmitri’s father found out, but mine too?
My father was the cause of this fucked-up incident because he got the contract dissolved.
Maybe the more important question I should be focusing on is why.
Why did he dissolve the contract?
It’s been nearly eight months. So, why now?
What made him do it now ?
I’ve never known of a blood oath contract being dissolved before. That’s why I thought my little plan could work. Dad would have had to move the earth to get Aleksander to terminate it.
And look what happened.
My tears soak into my sleeves as I swipe at my face, choking back the sobs that keep threatening to bubble over.
The memory of Dmitri’s face—raw with anger, with helplessness—burns in my mind, and it makes the ache in my chest unbearable.
My phone buzzes in the passenger seat with another message. I quickly glance at it and see it’s from my mother. Again.
Come home. We need to talk.
The first message asked me to call her. That was twenty minutes ago.
I couldn’t call. There’s no way I could speak to her on the phone with all of this happening.
I hate confrontation, but I hate hiding just as much, so I’d rather deal with a problem head on and see what I’m up against.
I suppose she thinks I’m not coming because I didn’t call.
She’ll just have to wait.
I don’t know if I should be worried or grateful that my father hasn’t tried to call me.
The arguments we had over the summer were terrible. What will it be like today?
I can just imagine I’ll see the same judgment in his eyes that Dmitri’s father showed me.
Except it will be worse because he’s my father.
He’ll probably consider me a traitor for being with Dmitri. He won’t understand.
After what Dmitri’s father put him through, why would he?
The image alone makes a fresh bout of tears flow down my cheeks. I wipe them away, but it’s fruitless. More come.
With a shaky breath, I grip the wheel even tighter and continue down the road.
Half an hour later, I’m pulling up in front of the cottage, where the inevitable reckoning waits for me.
I get out of the car, only just noticing how ridiculous I must look in Dmitri’s Raventhorn football jersey that swamps my tiny frame. It covers my shorts and hits my kneecaps; it looks like a poor attempt at a Halloween costume.
Or like what you’d find on a girl who’s just been thrown out of her boyfriend’s apartment by his father.
None of that matters now.
Trembling legs carry me up the garden path. The door is unlocked, so I walk inside the cottage and find my mother and father in the living room.
The two of them look like they’ve aged by a hundred years since I last saw them.
To my surprise, Mom flies out of her chair on seeing me and pulls me in for a hug.
She holds me like she thought something bad was going to happen to me. When she pulls away and a tear runs down her cheek, I feel like a jerk for not calling.
I’m guessing Maxim must have called them or something. Lord knows what must have gone on with when he spoke to them.
“Are you okay?” She looks me over, her eyes pausing on the jersey, on Dmitri’s number—42. She knows it’s his.
I’m further surprised to see that her eyes look sad for me.
“I’m here,” I mumble.
She brushes my cheek, then the softness leaves her eyes when my father stands.
She turns to face him and releases me. Usually, she stands beside him, but now she stays near me.
I stare at Dad. It hurts to look at him. The disappointment is evident in his eyes.
“I’m just going to skip past the parts where I ask you what you were thinking,” he begins.
“Don’t you want to know?”
“Mackenzie, don’t. I’m not going to argue with you today. We have bigger problems than finding out you’ve been seeing Dmitri Valneko behind my back and having his viperous father threatening me and my family.”
Panic twists in my chest, heavy and aching. It throws my heart out of cadence and stunts the flow of my blood. What could be bigger that it overpowers Dmitri and his father?
“What’s happening?” I look from him to my mother and notice just how bad they look. It was foolish of me to assume they’d had a run-in with Dmitri’s father when they’ve been dealing with him and his, as my father said, viperous ways for years.
Whatever is happening is outside of him and must have something to do with the thing I’ve been sensing and fearing for months.
“Daddy?” I prod. God knows when I last called him that. It was so long ago I can’t remember.
It seems like an endearment now and at least softens his expression.
“You asked me weeks ago if I was in trouble. I lied.”
Oh God. I was right. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Do you remember Keaton Chase, my business partner?”
“Yes.” I’ve only met him a few times, but he’s worked with my father since before I was born.”
“He set me up.”
My lips part as a silent gasp catches in my throat. “What do you mean, he set you up?”
“Last year, he got me involved in a partnership that was designed to screw me over. He sold private information to rivals, then I found out he embezzled over five hundred million dollars from the company, our clients, and our investors. He attached my name to it and left me high and dry.”
My heart kicks up a notch as my brain processes the gravity of the situation. “Oh my God. Where is he?”
“No one can find him, so I’ve been taking the shit and trying to pick up the pieces. I’ve been trying to save the company and pay people back. But I can’t do it anymore. The government is now investigating the company because of the substantial debt and findings that we’ve been dealing with illegal entitles.”
“What does this mean?”
“It means I could go to prison for a long time. Or the worst kind of people could come and kill us.”
I glance at Mom, who wipes away fresh tears.
“We seriously don’t have the money?” Dad is supposed to be a billionaire.
“No. Keaton has essentially ruined me. The only thing I could think of to get the rest of the money is marrying into a family who will be able to pay the investment. Your marriage also unlocks your inheritance from your grandfather, and I get a portion as your executor. ”
I stare back at him, my mind numb, my heart not beating.
It all makes sense now—everything that’s happened.
The pieces of the puzzle have aligned to create the full picture of our disaster. This was why Dad wanted me to marry Levi.
And it also explains why investors have been pulling out. They knew the company was in trouble and now under investigation.
“What’s going to happen now?” My voice trembles like someone is shaking every syllable.
“The Knights have washed their hands of me. They won’t get involved with government-related investigations. It goes against The Oath. The only thing Aleksander was willing to do to help me is dissolve the contract.”
“So, I’d be free to marry?” I fill in.
He steps forward, his eyes flat and listless. “Yes. Now that it’s dissolved, I’ve arranged for you to marry Ryan Konstantin. The wedding will be in one month.”
My body goes solid. As if my bones have been replaced with steel. Things were bad when I was supposed to marry Levi and faced saying goodbye to my career, but Ryan Konstantin is a psychopath.
He’s a senior at Raventhorn, and his family make the Lannisters in Game of Thrones look like a bunch of saints.
“Dad, no.”
“I’m sorry, Mackenzie.”
“Isn’t there another way?”
“I’ve been trying to find a way for the last nine months. If it exists, it’s not available to me. You have to understand that for me to mess with your career the way I did earlier in the year means I was desperate. Things are worse now than they were back then.” He pauses for a deep breath. “The Konstantins were the only people I could get to help me. The situation is above me now. We’re at the stage where we’ll lose everything and risk being in danger if we don’t do this. I can’t find that money on my own. I’ve already exhausted all my avenues.”
“Dad…I can’t marry someone else. Dmitri…”
He walks up to me and touches my cheek. “I’m sorry. Now you know what’s going on, you can make a choice.”
A choice?
What choice do I have when my family stand to lose everything and risk being in danger?
This is all in my hands.
I dip my head, realizing I’m going to have to say goodbye to Dmitri again.
When I do, there will be no next time for us.