Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94678 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94678 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Zoya grimaces before nodding.
I take a deep breath, trying to process everything. The betrayal, the lies, the misguided attempt at protection. Then I think about how Mikhail would have felt standing at the end of the aisle, waiting for me, and for him to believe I never showed up.
A solemn tear rolls down my cheek as I murmur to myself, “I should have gone inside. I should have fought harder for us. I should have trusted him enough to know he would never hurt me like that.”
“No, honey,” Zoya denies, waddling closer like a duck. “You are not to blame. Mikhail is not to blame.” Andrik drags in a needed breath when she murmurs, “Andrik isn’t to blame, either. He did, at the time, what he thought was right, and when he learned otherwise, he endeavored to fix his mistake.”
I bounce my wet eyes between hers, lost.
She smiles as if she finds my daftness cute before she relieves it. “This”—her hand floats around Mikhail’s office as if she is highlighting the entirety of the Zelenolsk Manor—“was not Andrik Sr.’s doing.” Her eyes shift to her husband, hot and heavy. “Just a man who is slowly learning he is a mere mortal, like the rest of us.”
“So the five-hundred-million-dollar inheritance isn’t true?” I don’t care about the money. Truly, I don’t. I’m just lost as to what is happening and how I am involved in the cruel ruse Andrik is playing on his brother. Hasn’t Mikhail been through enough?
“The inheritance is valid,” Andrik announces. “It is just coming from me instead of Andrik Sr.”
His generosity is astonishing, but it doesn’t alter the facts. “Paying Mikhail off won’t fix this.”
“I know,” Andrik agrees, his head slightly bobbing. “That isn’t what this is about. Mikhail is wealthy in his own right. He wouldn’t have cared if he didn’t receive a cent from our grandfather’s estate.” Zoya’s cheeks flush when a glint passes through his eyes as he rakes them over her face a second before he shifts his focus back to me. “But you… he would do anything to help you. Especially if it would force you to become a part of his life again.”
Confusion echoes in my tone. “Then why not just encourage him to do that? Why force him to take part in an elaborately designed skit?” I answer my own questions. “Because you made him believe I had left him, so this is the only way you could make him face his heartbreak headfirst?”
When he nods, I want to hate him. I want to place the blame for a decade of hurt solely on his shoulders. But I also understand why he did what he did.
Ten years of heartache has nothing on a lifetime, and that is what Mikhail and I would have faced if the federation that once ruled this country had made the same mistake Andrik did.
There would have been no second chances then.
“During the first year of your separation, Mikhail tried many times to see you, but they always found a way to detour his thoughts.” The disdain in Andrik’s voice announces who he is referencing.
My name never left his grandfather’s “unworthy” list.
Shock rains down on me when my arrow veers toward the bullseye before it misses its target.
“The federation had used Mikhail to control me for years, but I had no clue they had gone that far.” My fists clench along with Andrik’s when he mutters, “They almost killed him when they forced him off the road on your birthday the first year you were apart, and although he didn’t fear dying, he believed in fate.” I can’t breathe through my shock, and he worsens it. “I don’t know if the numerous DUIs Mikhail collected over the years were poor judgment on Mikhail’s part or the federation’s doing, but I will find out. I promise you that.”
His word should mean nothing to me, but his love and respect for Mikhail are undeniable, so I absentmindedly nod instead of responding how I really want to—with violence.
After a deliberation nowhere near long enough to lift my confusion, I lock eyes with Andrik and say, “I understand why you did what you did, but it doesn’t make it right.”
“I know,” he repeats, his expression sorrowed, even though it is still somewhat firm.
It becomes unreadable when I add, “I don’t see Mikhail moving past this as easily as I have. I don’t know if he will be as forgiving. You are the only person he trusts, and you broke that. He may not forgive you.”
“I know,” Andrik parrots, his heartache undeniable despite his hard expression. “But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make to fix my mistakes.”
Mikhail and Andrik endured years of abuse together. They assisted each other through it, and it made their bond unbreakable. I don’t want this to tear them apart. Enough heartbreak has already occurred. I would give anything for it to end here, and I think I know a way to achieve that.