Page 82 of Deceptive Vows

“Thanks for doing this.”

I take the brochure to humor her. Looking at wedding shoes is the last thing I want to be doing right now, although it’s giving me something to do.

She’s been here since lunchtime. She came with the seamstress for the final fitting on the dress and to discuss accessories like my veil and shoes. I picked the veil. The shoes were the last thing left.

The seamstress left several hours ago, but I think Sophia detected my worry and decided to stay a little longer to keep me company.

“I’m going to pack up and head out,” she says. “I’ve asked Aleksander to come back and sit with you for an hour.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I’ll be fine.” I really don’t want him sitting with me.

“It’s totally fine. I’ve asked him to come and make you a late supper. Mikhail might be back by then.”

Although I really shouldn’t I think of asking her what might be going on, she’s the only one here so far who’s talked to me like a person.

“Sophia, do you know if something is still going on in relation to my father?” It’s so hard to call that devil my father. “I don’t know anything. I apologize for asking. I know I shouldn’t, but it’s hard to be kept in the dark.”

Her face softens, and a look of concern fills her eyes.

“Oh, of course. And no apologies necessary. It’s a messy situation. I don’t know anything myself, but there’s bound to be repercussions in a situation like this.” She drags in a deep breath. “I’m sure Mikhail is just making sure any threat Raul posed and anyone else who was working with him are completely eliminated.”

“Do you think someone else was working with my father?”

She nods. “Yes. It would make sense. But what’s worse is the destruction of trust. It’s hard to accept that an ally you’ve known for over twenty years could switch sides on you and you have no concept of what happened or why.”

Over twenty years?

My God, that’s older than me. I never knew Raul had an alliance with them for so long, or at all. I just thought they were enemies.

Although… I have seen Russians at the house in Mexico and heard them talking. They wouldn’t have seen me. I guess they would have come from Mikhail’s family.

It is very strange Raul would kill the way he did and break a strong alliance with people who are obviously powerful. Unless he had assistance from someone just as powerful.

It would be just like him.

“You don’t know why he did what he did?”

She shakes her head. “We have no clue. He’s just ambushed us.”

“When did it happen?” I chance asking.

“Weeks before Christmas.”

“Christmas?” But it’s now March. “Didn’t you know my father was responsible?”

“We didn’t. This has only come to light since Mikhail got out of hospital. The assassination attempt left him in a coma.”

“Mikhail was in a coma?” I thought the attack was on his mother and sister.

“My dear, the attack was supposed to have been on the whole family. It was chance that half of us weren’t there, and he survived. The goal was to kill us all. That’s what this is about.” She gets tearful. “That awful night of the attack, his sister was taken, and we hoped she’d survived, too, but it was not meant to be. Your father sold her to men who tortured and killed her. God knows what else they did to her.”

A shiver runs down my spine as understanding blooms in my mind. I remember how he sounded when Mikhail spoke about sister last night.

She was sold and tortured. The same plan Raul had for me. To be sold means death. Those men do whatever they want to you and torture you until you beg for death, or they kill you. How do I know this?

I’ve seen it happen.

I’ve seen Raul buy girls for himself and kill them when he’s done with them.