Page 24 of Forced By the Obsessed Bratva

I didn’t turn. I didn’t have to. I could tell who it was from the scent of her perfume and the soft, measured footsteps that betrayed her. Lillian.

She glided slowly through the bridal suite, the pale satin of her dress flowing gently with each movement. I caught a glimpse of her in the mirror—not the typical stepmother who was happy for her stepdaughter’s wedding. She looked almost sad.

She came behind me like a shadow, smoothing the edge of my veil between her fingers.

“You are beautiful,” she whispered. Her voice was gentle, the same way it sounded the day Yulia married Rurik.

I did not respond.

Not at first.

Because there was nothing to say to someone who helped me get to the edge of a cliff and pushed me off with a smile on her face.

Her gaze met mine in the mirror. She hesitated. Then, quietly, she spoke the words I’d been dreading since the engagement was announced.

“Yulia went into that household,” she said, her fingers tightening slightly on my veil, “and only came back in a coffin.”

My breath left my lungs, and my nails dug into the armrests of the chair.

Lillian’s voice shook, but she didn’t stop. “There is no divorce, Zoella. No exit. Not from them.” She paused. “You must survive.”

I turned my head slowly, finally meeting her gaze. “They will kill me,” I said in a whisper. “The same way they killed Yulia.”

Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “Only if you let them.”

I stood up, the hem of my gown drifting behind me like smoke. “You knew what they did to her. You saw her become a shadow of who she used to be and the way she disappeared behind her smile.” My voice trembled. “And you let it happen anyway. You knew he was never going to treat her with any respect; he was cheating on her.”

“I tried—”

“You chose silence,” I cut in. “You chose safety. Your sons. The empire. Anything but her. You could have convinced Dad not to let her marry him, but you didn’t.”

Tears streamed down her face, blurring the edge of her mascara.

“I’m choosing survival,” she said. “For you. For all of us.”

I stared at her for seconds and scoffed. “For me? For all of us?”

We both knew she was doing all of this for herself and her sons. Those were the only things that mattered to her.

“Forget it,” I said, my voice almost inaudible. Then I returned to facing the mirror.

The girl in the glass was a stranger.

Perfect. Porcelain. Powerless. Just like Matvey wanted me to be. His pretty little bride, who would use her womb more than she used her voice. That was all I would be to him.

“You don’t understand everything, Zoella. You shouldn’t judge me when you don’t understand me.”

Liliana walked away and slammed the door behind her on her way out. Her words haunted the room long after she’d left. They clung to the walls, the ceiling, my skin.

“There’s no divorce. No exit. You must survive.”

I stood there for an eternity after the door slammed shut behind her, staring at my own face. My hands trembled at my sides. My heart was no longer a slow rhythm. It was chaos in my ears, and the sound of it was choking.

Was this all I was to them? A pawn to move on a board already soaked in my sister’s blood?

First Yulia.

Then me.