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I expect Viktor to suddenly crash through the door in delight at hearing her confession. Luckily, he doesn’t.
“It was in his office and it was me, you hear me?” She steps away from the wall, walking toward me with one arm moving animatedly as she talks. “We were talking business and then arguing because he was talking about selling me. Not marrying me off this time, no. I was too much hassle for that. This time, he was going to sell me to the lowest bidder to get rid of me, so I did what I had to do! I grabbed something from his desk and I slit his throat!” She grows more animated the closer she gets to me. “I killed him. There was blood everywhere, and he looked as shocked as you look now. And then he died in that fucking chair of his, so I made it look like a break-in and everyone fell for it!”
“Anastasia!” I yell her name, grabbing her shoulders as she stumbles wildly into me. “Stop it!”
“What?” she yells back. “Can’t handle thetruth? Maybe you should run on back to your precious Viktor and see how much he’ll struggle to believe me.”
“Why?” Struggling to lower my voice, I search her swimming eyes for the truth. “Why would you do something so monstrous? Do our traditions and laws mean nothing to you? Did you reallyhave such little loyalty to your own father, the man who raised you? How could you?”
“How could I?” She wrenches herself out of my grip and stumbles away. “He was going to sell me, doesn’t that mean anything to you? Is that not a good enough reason to defend myself?”
It is.
Of course it is.
But my born-and-bred loyalty to the laws that gave me a new chance at life are woven tight into my soul and I’m struggling to connect how Anastasia could even do such a thing. “You could have told someone.”
“Who?” she screeches, spinning to face me. “Who on earth would I tell? For someone who was investigating me, you seem to have missed the very key fact that I am alone. Before Faina and before you, who did I have to tell, huh?”
“Other families?—”
“Other families!” She cuts me off. “Someone out there was helping him, working with him to expand the business, and do you know what it was going to be?” She strides forward and jabs one sharp finger into my chest. “Children. He was going to be trafficking children after he sold me off, and I couldn’t allow that to happen. What we did as a family was terrible, I know that. But we never harmed kids. Ever. And he was changing that because of how much money was involved. I couldn’t let either of those things happen, so I did what I had to do!”
She moves away from me again and a sob escapes her. Running one hand through her hair, she brings her trembling fingers to her lips and gasps softly. “I did what I had to do.”
Conflict clashes like swordsmen in my chest and a cramping pain radiates out from my breastbone with each breath.
Children.
Part of the reason I could overlook this family’s business was because when traffickers snatched my sister and Viktor saved me, he swore that was a line this family would never cross. As a teen, it made sense and as I got older, I could make my peace with it because adults as a whole are terrible, cold and cruel and calculating. But children?
Children are innocent.
Can I really judge her when my reaction might have been the same? My understanding of her actions fights against my loyalty to Viktor as I realize he was right all along. It was Anastasia. I fought against him for months, talked down to him and told him he was crazy for looking in the wrong place.
All this time, he was right.
Loyalty to Viktor clashes with my strong, overwhelming affection for Anastasia. I want to take her in my arms and soothe her, tell her I’d never let anything happen to her and that I understand now why she’s worked so hard to close down the old operations.
But when she looks at me, there’s nothing but cold hate in her eyes.
“So?” she snaps. “Are you going to arrest me, huh? Drag me in front of Viktor? I’m sure he’ll be over the moon to be provenright, to see that his little spy worked, and then to find out I’m pregnant? Well, I can only imagine what he’ll do.”
“It…” My attention drifts to her abdomen. “It’s mine, isn’t it?”
She hesitates and sniffles. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes narrow like blades. “Because I knew how it would make me look. People in our world don’t look at pregnancy as a strength, especially with the condition this family is in. I didn’t know if I could really trust you or if there was any kind of future for us where things would work out.”
A future.
In a blink, I see it. Anastasia’s beautiful, smiling face. The wind in her blonde hair and the sun making her eyes dazzle as she plays with our child out on the patio. Laughter rings in my ears and a new ache sweeps through my chest.
Longing.
“I… I never would have judged you,” I say quietly. “You have to believe me. While I started here working for Viktor, you showed me how decent you are. The things you’ve done for people, including the people we’ve rescued. That kind of decency and dedication is admirable. I’m sure if we explain to Viktor?—”