Chapter Fifty-one #2
We reached the office, and Dmitri walked me to his chair. He guided me into it and settled against the edge of the desk beside me, arms crossed as he looked down at me.
“What do you think she wants?” I asked. “She won’t take Cole from me.”
“I will never let that happen,” he said.
“What if she comes in here and tells me the only way to fix things is to hand Cole to Iker? What if she—”
“Inna.” He pushed away from the desk and leaned down, gripping both armrests. The chair swiveled slightly beneath me until I was facing him directly. “Do you honestly think I would let her do any of that?”
Someone knocked at the door, and my whole body went still. Dmitri didn’t answer. “Hey.” His voice softened. “Look at me.”
“She’s here.” My eyes remained fixed on the door.
“Look at me,” he called again, and I dragged my gaze away from the door to him. “You and Cole are my priority.” His eyes held mine without wavering. “I will protect both of you with my life.”
“She will never touch him.” I wasn’t sure whether I was speaking to him or trying to convince myself.
“She’ll have to get through me first.”
The knock came again, but Dmitri ignored it. He kept eye contact, refusing to let me retreat into my own head. Slowly, the noise running through my thoughts began to lose volume. His words from last night started breaking through the panic instead.
“She may have given birth to you two,” he said, “but you’re mine. So calm down.”
“I trust you,” I whispered. “You could break me with this if you want. But right now, you’re all I have.”
My vision blurred at the edges. Dmitri leaned in and pressed a brief kiss to my lips.
“I’ve held territories, ended wars, and buried enemies without blinking. I’ve never fought to keep anyone the way I’ll fight to keep you. You are not something I acquired, Inna. You’re the woman I’ll choose every single time.”
For years, I lived without trusting anyone. But here I was, trusting this man. Cole was all I had. Dmitri was powerful enough to override me completely and hand him over if he chose to. But I believed him. I believed his words.
When the knock echoed through the room again, Dmitri finally straightened. This time, he answered it.
The door opened, and Akim stepped in first. My mother followed behind him.
She wore black palazzo trousers and a floral blouse, the kind of outfit that suggested she had dressed for a meeting she intended to control.
Her hair was pulled back neatly, exposing the familiar features.
She looked polished as I remembered her in New York.
Her eyes found me for exactly one second before shifting to Dmitri. He stood beside my chair with one hand resting on the backrest behind me, his posture relaxed enough to look casual. It wasn’t.
Akim slipped back out and closed the door behind him.
My mother remained where she was for a moment before approaching the desk. “I wanted to speak with you privately,” she said to Dmitri.
A quiet scoff escaped me. I turned my attention toward the window, suddenly fascinated by the view outside.
“She’s the reason I let you in at all,” Dmitri said. “Whatever you want to say to me, you can say here.”
I pushed back my chair and stood. “I can leave. Looks like I was wrong to think this would be different.”
Dmitri’s hand settled on my shoulder and guided me back into the chair before I could take a step. “She’s the one leaving if anyone is.”
My mother exhaled. She set her handbag on the desk, opened it, and removed a thick envelope. She slid it across towards Dmitri, but he didn’t reach for it. His hand stayed on my shoulder. My mother reached into the bag again and pulled out a flash drive, placing it beside the envelope.
“This flash drive contains a list of people who may come after my children.” The words landed in the room, pressing into my chest. “I’m not asking you to act on it now,” she continued. “But if something happens to me, I need to know they have someone.”
Breathing felt difficult at the moment. Years of absence and unanswered questions, this was what she chose to say about our situation. It was like she came to say goodbye and expect life to align.
“Those documents hold all of my father’s properties. Over the years, while managing the family business, I arranged for him to sign them without his knowledge. They’re in Grace’s name.” She paused. “She doesn’t have to worry about my father anymore. He is dead.”
Those words replayed in my head. Did she just say Iker was dead?
“I killed him.” My mother added it the way someone might mention they had taken someone for a walk.
What the fuck was this life? “But he had associates. People who have been working with him for years. They will come looking once they understand what happened. They don’t know yet that he is dead. When they find out, they will come.”
“Iker is dead?” Dmitri asked. I also wanted to confirm that.
My mother lowered her eyes to her handbag. “He found out that Reed and I have been lying to him about Cole. I won his most trusted man over. He has been reporting everything to me. The meeting Iker arranged with you was intended as cover. He was planning to attack this mansion and take Cole.”
Dmitri’s hand shifted on my shoulder. “What exactly were you lying to him about, Cole?”
My mother looked at me, then back at Dmitri.
“I left to keep my children safe. He planned to force me into a marriage so I could produce a male heir for the organization. When he found out about Cole, everything changed.” She exhaled.
“When he kidnapped Reed, he could have killed him immediately. He kept him alive because Reed lied to him that Cole wasn’t my son, that he had switched them at the hospital.
After all, he knew something like this would happen.
My father sent someone for a DNA test. By that time, I already had his man working for me, so the results that went back to my father were false.
My father spent years looking for a son that didn’t exist in the direction he was searching. ”
I listened. What I was hearing was that my father had been keeping in touch with my mother all along.
“He told me he wanted Cole. He sounded certain about it, like he already knew he was his grandson,” Dmitri said.
My mother shook her head. “No. He realized time was moving and that it was better to train an heir while they were young. He would have erased every record and raised Cole inside the family. That was his plan.”
This was a messed-up situation, and I hated Iker so much.
I watched my mother. She was looking down at her hands, deep in thought.
“I ran from my father because he murdered my mother. I didn’t want that world anywhere near my children.
” Her eyes finally found mine across the table and held there.
“They were safer with Reed. They would have been happy.” She looked back at Dmitri.
“Since she’s already in this world now, all I’m asking is that you do me this favor. ”
She picked up her handbag, ready to leave.
“Take care of her and Cole.” She didn’t look at me again. She waited a few seconds, then turned to leave.
That was all?
Was she leaving now?
That couldn’t be all.
She stopped in the middle of the room and stood there for almost a full minute before she turned back to us. Her eyes were wet. The composure she had walked in with had cracked.
“If you ever stop wanting her,” she said to Dmitri, her voice breaking on the last word, “don’t hurt her. Let her go. Don’t hurt my daughter. That’s all I’m asking.”
Tears rolled down her face, and she looked away quickly. Without another word, she walked out.
No. That couldn’t be all.
I got up and ran after her. In the hallway, I saw Akim escorting her out.
“Is that all?” I asked, and she stopped. “That’s all you had to say? What about me? Don’t you have something to say to me? You’ll just leave again?”
She stood with her back to me, and I told myself I didn’t care, that whatever she did next didn’t change anything, that I was done waiting for people to turn around.
But the truth was, I cared. That was why I was crying.
“It’s not fair.” My voice broke. “Tell me you’ll call. Tell me we’ll see each other again. Just tell me something, anything. I don’t...”
Her handbag slipped and hit the floor. She turned and walked back to me.
Within a blink, she pulled me into her arms, holding me the way I remembered being held before she disappeared.
The embrace was tighter now, desperate almost, pressing me against her hard enough for me to feel that warmth again.
“You aren’t supposed to cry,” she whispered into my hair. “Don’t cry.”
She didn’t know how many nights I cried when she was gone. She had no idea what those nights looked like, what her absence felt like.
I didn’t hug her back. My arms stayed at my sides while she held me. I didn’t want to hug her back because, deep down, I wanted this to happen again. She had to come back, and next time I would be the one who hugged her first. Because what if I hugged her and it became the last hug?
She pulled back enough to look at my face, her hands coming up to hold it. She wiped my tears the way Dad always did.
“I should go,” she mumbled. “But Mum loves you so much.” She leaned and pressed her lips to my cheek, a kiss that seemed to carry years of things left unsaid. “I have to go,” she whispered. “I have to protect you both with everything I have.”
Her hands slipped from my face. She stepped back, took the handbag Akim had picked up for her, and walked toward the exit.
I followed her along the hallway. “I’ll wait for you.” My voice echoed through the corridor. “Come back. If not for me, then for Cole. Okay?” She stopped for a second, then she continued toward the door. “I love you too, Mum.”
The door opened, and she disappeared. My legs gave up, and I slid against the wall. Before I reached the floor, Dmitri pulled me into his arms.