Page 107 of Deceptive Vows

Now I see. I truly, truly do.

I stand and walk over to the window, resting my hands on the white wooden ledge.

“Mikhail.” Eric says my name tentatively.

It takes me a moment to return my focus to him, and when I do, I can tell he knows I’m going to lose my shit.

“Ivan actually teamed up with Raul and fuck knows who else to get rid of my mother, my sister, and me.” I speak the words more to myself than him. “All so he could take over the empire.”

Seeing I’m having a hard time grasping the truth, Eric simply nods.

“I might be wrong, but that hardly ever happens when I have strong suspicions.” He looks uneasy. “I know things are already tense between you and your brother. The last thing I want to do is cause more problems, but I wouldn’t be a friend to you if I didn’t call it like I see it, or think it is. I would do the same to anyone else. I’m basing my conclusions on how things look to me.”

When I think of it, things look that way to me, too.

We thought the problem had to do with someone big and powerful. Someone more powerful than Raul. Ivan is exactly that.

We thought someone inside the Brotherhood was helping Raul. Ivan is exactly that.

We knew the person had to be watching our every move and would know our whereabouts at all times. Ivan was exactly that. Except he didn’t need to watch anybody. All he had to do was ask, and we’d tell him.

It was easy to isolate everyone on the night of the attack because Father was sick. That was the opportunity to split us up.

Ivan knew Talia really wanted me at the performance because I hadn’t seen her dance all season. He also knew neither my mother nor father would have both wanted to miss her performance, so he would have been best placed to go to the office and do Father’s work. Also, that Sophia would have offered to take care of my father.

It would have been easy for him.

Father told me the investigation team came back with the all-clear on Raul, yet Eric found fault and hinted at the possibility that they missed things on purpose. If such was the case, it makes sense now because my father also said Ivan personally assisted them.

So, either he covered things up, or he has them eating out of the palm of his hand.

Fuck.I can’t believe this.

“I really can’t believe this.”

“I can’t either, and I have no hardcore evidence. Just suspicion that points toward him.”

I could deal with this possibility if this was just about me, but my mother and sister are dead. Killed in the worst ways possible because of him.

Because he wanted to be Pakhan and take over the company.

“Something doesn’t add up,” he adds.

“What else?”

“I feel like there must be more to it than just the leadership and the company. That’s more about you. He wouldn’t have needed your mother or sister dead if that’s all it was.”

“No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t have needed them dead at all. Just me. I’m the one standing in his way of the leadership for all.”

“Then we need to look at the reasons why he’d want the three of you dead. Do you know what is in your father’s will?”

I shake my head. “No. No one is supposed to know that. Not even my father’s lawyers. Not yet. He’s been secretive about it.”

“He must have told someone something. The ticking clock is all based around when he chooses to pass on the leadership and ownership. Maybe he told Ivan something, or Sophia, and Ivan found out. I guess that part is irrelevant. The part we need to worry about is you being a loose end. He’s still going to want you dead.”

God, this is shit. All of it.

“I wonder what stopped him from killing me while I was in the hospital.”