Page 49

By the time I’m back in my jeans and shirt, Tatiana is on the couch with a half-drunk glass of pink champagne in herhands. Faina sits across from her while Erik stands by the door, watching her like a hawk. Ever since I recognized my feelings for him, I see his protection in a different light.
It’s rather thrilling.
“Sorry about that.” I take a seat next to Faina and clasp my hands together with my elbows resting lightly on my knees. “What brings you here outside of a regular appointment?”
Tatiana smiles. “First, I’m so sorry I couldn’t attend Sergey’s funeral.”
Her words catch me off guard and the polite mask across my face slips. I barely remember my father's funeral. Lots of people in black, a sea of faces expressing confusion, and the pressure from my father’s generals to step down.
“I had just given birth and Ivan didn’t want me to stress myself.”
“Understandable,” I reply. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Tatiana’s face softens immensely. “They say you don’t know true joy until you hold your baby in your arms. While I don’t think that’s fully true, there is a unique happiness that comes from holding your child in your arms moments after they’ve been born.”
My thoughts turn to my own belly and the child secretly growing in there. Is that a happiness I’m destined for? Will I be hindered for not telling Erik?
I briefly glance at him. His focus is on Tatiana with his brows knit in suspicion as she talks.
“Anyway.” Tatiana sips her drink. “Since having a child, my focus has shifted and so has Ivan’s. I want us to be a proper, safefamily so that my children will grow up with security that I never had. Given some of the business ventures that we’ve dabbled in, I have some concerns, and we’ve been watching you closely.”
A sudden weight settles over my shoulders and I swallow hard, straightening my back like a board. Am I about to hear how I destroyed their life by affecting money flow with the changes I’ve made? Or perhaps some of the businesses I shut down were actually part of their money laundering. Sweat flushes against my upper lip and I fight to keep my gaze on her. It’s one thing to stare down men telling me I’m wrong, but quite another to face a mother who has come at me so gently.
“Is it true?” Tatiana asks. “You’ve been dismantling all human trafficking operations across the entire estate? Even the smaller businesses?”
I press my lips together and nod. “Yes, it’s true. It’s still a work in progress, but I have been ending everything my father had in place. Even the ones I don’t know about won’t be lasting long. We remain a strong family with a common goal.” I add the last part just in case Tatiana gets the impression that we’re weak because that certainly isn’t the case.
She doesn’t strike me as the kind of woman to be threatened by what I did to those generals.
There’s a tense moment of silence as we wait for her reaction.
“Good,” Tatiana says suddenly, and she smiles wider. “Good. I’m pleased to hear that. Indeed, I did wonder if it was just another show of power after your dinner party and that you would simply be reinstating those routes once the dust settled.”
“No,” I say firmly. “We’re headed for brighter pastures.”
“Indeed,” Tatiana says. She drains her glass and coughs slightly, then sets it down. “I’ll be frank with you, Anastasia. I’m not here for any kind of power grab or a threat. I’m here with an offer.”
“An offer?”
“Yes. Ivan would have brought it himself, but given how you’ve been running things, I thought you would respond better to me.”
It’s hard for me not to laugh. Tatiana, it seems, sees me for who I truly am. She sees me as a woman in power who has been taking a stand against the men preaching their archaic values, and it seems she agrees.
“Then I will gladly hear your offer.”
“Excellent.” Tatianna reaches into her purse and pulls out a small booklet that she hands to Faina. Faina glances it over, then passes it to me, and I look it over as Tatiana speaks.
“I heard about your intentions to send your construction companies after the huge, lucrative contracts for things like condos and mansions. A competitive business, but I also noticed that rather than compete, you simply bought up the companies that would bid against you for those projects.”
Nodding, I open the booklet. Inside looks like an advertisement for some kind of film premier with the number of pictures and names of everyone who currently walks a red carpet.
“As you know, my family already secures loans and money to the kind of people who would die for an exclusive condo built to their exact specifications. Even those who can’t afford it would do anything to get one, including taking out an obnoxious loan that I am also happy to provide.”
I think I get where she’s going with this.
“I’m proposing an alliance.” Tatiana threads her fingers together. “I can make sure that my clients only know the names of your construction companies when it comes to crafting their ideal holiday home, and in return, you can offer payment plans on the ones already constructed while making sure they are through my loan companies. It’s beneficial to both of us. You will get unfiltered access to the elite, those snobs with more money than sense, those who think owning thirteen homes is a sign of success. And since most of them can’t afford it without loans, I’ll be there to lend them a helping hand.”
“What’s the catch?” Closing the booklet, I look up at Tatiana. “I can see that this is an incredible deal on the surface, but there must be some kind of catch.”