Marina
The cab driver hasn't said a word since I gave him the address, and I'm grateful for that because I'm not interested in conversation right now, anyway.
I woke alone and Sorin brought me breakfast, but sitting around waiting for news has never been my strong suit.
When Stepan told me last night he'd be back soon, I believed him so fully, I went right to sleep, but I slept alone and woke up alone.
I've been chewing my nails now for two hours, waiting for anyone to update me about what's going on, but no one has bothered.
When Sorin brought me some clean clothes from Mila, the most I got out of her was that the woman was sleeping in after a long night with a fussy baby.
Which was no help to me, considering I don't know any of these people at all.
And I have to talk to my father.
I know what Stepan thinks he can do, but I know my father too well.
Stepan's offer is going to fall on deaf ears, and even before I went to sleep I knew I had to get to him before Stepan does.
I'm not sure where either of them are right now, but if I don't at least try to bridge the gap, there will be violence when they meet.
A clash I'm sure will end up with one or both of them dead.
And I don't want to lose either of them.
So I left a note on the pillow telling Stepan where I was going and not to follow me, and I told him I'd call when it was done.
He's going to be furious, but if I'd asked for permission, he'd have said no.
I can't sit around not doing anything while the people I care about destroy each other.
This was all my fault to begin with. If only I had just accepted the marriage and gone through with it years ago when they first wanted me to move, none of this would've happened.
When the cab turns onto the street and I see my father’s guards out front, I realize he's definitely at work, not out doing horrible things like I feared.
The closer I get, the more comes into focus, and I realize one of those guards isn't a guard at all.
It's Uncle Filipp, watching over the front of the building with Danyel.
My heart sinks as the car pulls to a stop in front and I know I have to get out and face this music.
"This the place?" the cab driver asks, and I grunt my response as I open the door. The old sewing machine factory is the front my father uses to keep his businesses a secret.
Filipp starts moving toward me while Danyel stays put, watching cautiously. But my uncle's footsteps slow, then he stops as I shut the cab door and the car pulls away.
I stand there staring at him, feeling guilt tighten in my belly until I feel like throwing up.
His eyes narrow on me and his lips purse in disappointment.
I don't actually care if he's disappointed in me, but I do care if he uses his negative reactions to try to control or manipulate me into doing what he wants.
"Marina," he says in a gravelly tone, "we've been looking for you."
Ignoring his comment, I push past him and walk toward the building, but he snags my elbow and forces me to stop and look at his face. "Let go of me."
"Your father is very unhappy. You know Maksim is dead? Did you do that?" I glare at him and jerk my arm away, then rub the spot he was holding because it hurts.
"Do I look like a killer?" Narrowing my eyes at him, I glare and let him understand just how unhappy I am right now.
"I'm here to talk to my father. Stay out of my way.
" Filipp thinks he has some sort of control, but really, he's nothing in this family.
The only reason I respect him at all is fear, and that fear is lifting every day with Stepan on my side.
"He's in his office, and he's furious."
"Good," I spit, whipping back around.
I'm not happy that my father's angry, but I'm not surprised, either. With everything that's happened, it was inevitable. Besides, he's always angry about something, anyway.
I walk past Danyel who barely acknowledges my presence and then into the building.
It feels hollow now, like the life has been sucked right out of the walls while I was away.
But maybe it was always this way, and I never knew it until I visited a place where there was real life and light.
Now places I used to call my home don't feel like home. Stepan feels like my home.
The door to my father's office swings open with a nudge and my father stands behind his desk with his phone in his hand. He looks up at me with his eyes narrowed and his jaw set. He doesn’t even look shocked to see me.
It's like his attacks on Stepan's family were simply his way of calling me home and he fully expected me to show up here.
"Sit down," he orders, but I stand there waiting for a moment. If the only rebellion I can offer in this situation is to resist his direct orders, I feel like I have to. I'm an adult now. I've been one for years, but I've let him control me. And that ends today.
Still, I sit in the chair across from his desk as he leans over it and glares at me. I'm transported to a time when I was just a child and he was angry over something I’d done wrong. It's the same posture, same facial expression, and he still thinks it's gonna work on me.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he asks, glaring at me.
"Papa, I need to talk to you."
"You need to talk to me..." He repeats it back, scoffing as he rolls his eyes.
"You have ruined a deal that was in the making for ten years, Marina.
Ten years!" His hand slams down on the desk, making me jump, but I quickly school my expression and sit straight again.
I'm here to make sure he doesn't try to kill Stepan and for no other reason.
"I didn't ruin the deal," I say plainly, but telling him who did isn't my place. I won't ever give Stepan up, and I won't celebrate Maksim's death, either. But I'm glad he's dead. I hated him.
"Then tell me how it happened, Marina." His nostrils flare and he shakes his head. "You betrayed everything I stand for. Everything I taught you."
I cross my arms over my chest and force myself to hold his gaze.
"I haven't betrayed anything you taught me, and I didn't end this alliance.
" I don't tell him I know Maksim is dead, but I'm sure he already knows I'm aware.
"I wanted life, Papa. I wanted to know what it feels like to be in love, and I made a bad choice. But Stepan is a good man who—"
My father snorts and rolls his eyes again, then angrily stamps his hand on his desk, interrupting me. "A good man? He got you pregnant knowing you were betrothed." He plants his hands on the desk and leans forward. "Do you hear yourself?"
Everything inside me wants to shout and defend Stepan, but I know it won't work. He has too many reasons to hate them. But he also has reasons to need them, and if this is going to work, it’s going to be a business thing, not a personal thing.
He has to understand what's at stake for the organization.
"I hear myself clearly. And you should listen to me too. If you align with the Kuzin name, you will have the force of the Radin operation behind you. It benefits everyone—"
"Benefits everyone." He straightens abruptly, and the rage under the surface is so crisp in his eyes.
"They want my territory. They want my contacts.
They want my daughter as a trophy and my grandchild as leverage and they'll strip this family down to the bones and leave me with nothing.
That's what a Kuzin alliance is, Marina. "
"You're wrong." I'm shaking now, lip quivering as I protest because I don't know what he'll do next. He might order Danyel or Filipp to lock me in my room or tie me to a chair. I'm here to try to save the man I love, but my father doesn’t seem to want to listen to me.
"I'm not wrong." He shouts so loud, I feel it rumble in my chest. "I've spent thirty years building this organization. Sacrifice and discipline and blood, and you want to hand it to the one family that's been trying to take it from me since before you were born."
"Stepan doesn't want to take anything from you. He wants to help."
"No!" My father comes around the desk and stands in front of me, and I have to tilt my head back to look at him. "You're a child, Marina. You aren't even thinking straight. All you see are blue eyes and muscles. You're a stupid, foolish girl."
My cheeks are burning with rage as tears well up in my eyes.
I'm not stupid and I'm not foolish, except that I care about this man standing in front of me who doesn't give a single fuck about me or what's right.
"You're wrong!" I stand up abruptly, hugging my belly.
"I'm not stupid. You're a monster, and I never knew it until I knew how a man who isn't like you treats me.
" I'm not even making sense, but I know what I'm trying to say.
"I'll kill them all... Every last one of them." He turns, heading toward the door, and I cling to his arm, pleading with him.
"Papa, stop. Please. You have to stop this."
"I don't have to do anything." Then he turns on me, grabbing my arm harder than Filipp did. "You need to learn what happens when you disrespect me."
"Papa, no," I plead, resisting him, but he drags me into the hallway. My shoulder slams into the doorjamb as I pass, making me wince, and I see Filipp standing there watching this whole thing.
"You're an insolent and rebellious girl, Marina, and you have to be taught a lesson. They've poisoned you against me." He continues dragging me toward the back of the building near the break room, and I'm scared of what he might do.
"Papa, you're hurting me," I whimper, now with tears freely flowing down my cheeks. I should’ve listened to Stepan and stayed put, but I really thought I could get through to them.
When we get to the break room, he pulls open the closet door and barks, "Get in."
"Papa. Don't do this."
"You don't understand what's happening here.
" His voice has calmed a little, but he’ll never change his mind.
"I'm doing this for your own good. When this is over and you've had time to think clearly, you'll understand why I couldn't let you walk back out that door and hand yourself to the people who want to destroy us. "
"They don't want to destroy us."
"Get in the room, Marina."
I look at his face and search for the father who taught me to ride a bicycle and braided my hair when my mother was too sick and sat with me at the kitchen table helping me with schoolwork.
But I don’t see him. That man's in there somewhere, buried under decades of paranoia, and I can't reach him right now.
I can see it in his eyes—no amount of pleading is going to open his mind.
"Papa," I protest one more time, but he shoves me into the closet and slams the door shut, then I hear the heavy break room table scraping across the floor, probably with Filipp's help, and the door shakes.
"Papa, please!" I scream, slamming my fists on the thick wood, but it's no use.
There's no way out, no window or vent, and the table is too heavy for me to move on my own.
I'm trapped by my own father, and Stepan has no clue where I am.
What do I do now?