Page 160 of Cruel Juliet

Just so she could be the wife of the fuckingpakhan?

“Kira, think it through.” It’s taking every ounce of restraint not to pounce on her, but I force myself to be cold. Logical. Right now, Sima’s in danger, and until I’ve neutralized Kira, I need to keep her talking. Split her focus for long enough to wrestle that knife out of her hands. “Even if Dimitri had died, I still would have been married to Sima. Your plan couldn’t work.”

“It could if she was dead, too.”

It’s Sima who answers from behind me. “You poisoned my food,” she blurts. “It was you.”

“Took you long enough to figure it out,” Kira scoffs.

“And the baby crying—that was you, too?” Sima sounds stricken. “You pushed me down the stairs? You… you tried to make me lose Lilia?”

“I just put a recording on a loop. You did the rest.” Kira doesn’t seem the least bit sorry.

“But you did it,” Sima presses. “You pushed me.”

“So what if I did?” Kira snaps. “You were in my way.”

“Lilia was innocent.” I’ve never heard Sima sound like this, broken and furious all at once. “She never did anything to you. She wasn’t even born yet!”

“She was Petyr’s!” Kira yells. “And he never would have let me give him a baby as long as he had her! Or you!”

Cold rage settles in my gut. This lunatic—she was behind everything. A snake in my house, and I didn’t even fucking know. If not for Sima, I never would have found out. I would have brought Dimitri home.

And Kira would have killed him. Just like she planned to kill my wife and daughter.

My knuckles pop. Every precaution flies out the window as I take a step towards Kira.

She stumbles back, but doesn’t loosen her grip.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” I growl. “Ineverwould have married you. Even if you’d managed to kill every last person in this house, I wouldn’t have agreed to marry you. Not in a million fucking years.”

It’s the wrong thing to say, but I don’t give a shit. Because it’s right, too.It’s the truth. The only truth that matters.

I love Sima. Whatever happens, I will always love Sima. She’s it for me.

If I’m not married to her, then I don’t want to be married at all.

Kira trembles with rage. Her knuckles go white around the knife’s handle.

Then she lets out a high-pitched scream and lunges at me.

I raise my arm to block her. Pain blooms sharp along my tendons, but I manage to knock her back. Blood trickles to the floor from where she slashed at me.

“Petyr!” Sima screams.

“Stay back!” I open my arms wide, put myself in the way again. “Run! Get the guards!”

We lock eyes for a split-second. I can tell she doesn’t want to leave me. That she’d literally do anything else.

But then she sprints into a run.

Kira tries to go after her. I block her again, but it’s the same arm, and this time, her knife cuts deeper.

Shit.I try to reach for my gun, but my grip is too shaky.I can’t fire like this.

“You don’t want me?!” Kira screams, now fully deranged. “Fine! You can join your little wife in hell!”

She holds the knife with both hands and plunges forward.