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What the hell was he thinking?

They must’ve taken away his weapons before they led him here, so he’s well and truly defenseless.

All focus turns to him, but his light eyes land on me, and he studies me from toe to head. When he reaches my face, a muscle clenches in his jaw, probably at seeing the red mark on my cheek.

I look back with what must appear to be terrorized fear, my mind reeling with endless questions. Are you here to get killed? How could you fall for this?

But the calm expression on his face manages to ease the agitation, even partially.

The men push him to his knees in front of the three. I wince when he hits the ground with a thud. His back is to me, but I can almost see his nonchalant expression as he looks up at them.

“Lower your damn head, devil.” Yulia slaps him across the face so hard, his head flies to the right.

He looks up at her again, probably with a more provocative expression, because her eyes blaze, and she slaps him harder. “I said lower your head.”

“Stop it!” I struggle against my bindings, wanting to claw her eyes out for daring to hit him after everything she’s made him go through.

“Don’t mind her, Sasha. Mother seems to have an overwhelming hatred toward me, so I’m letting her get the dissatisfaction off her chest.”

“You can be sarcastic all you want, you bastard, but today is the last day you breathe. I was willing to let you get higher and enjoy your married life a little more before I destroyed you, but you made a fatal mistake by locking up and torturing my son.”

Oh. So this is why she’s extra venomous today. I was wondering what she’d do if she heard about what Kirill did to his brother, but I didn’t think she’d already had this plan prepared.

Uncle Albert retrieves a gun and points it at Kirill’s head. “Any last wishes?”

“No…” My voice is brittle as I swing back and forth in my chair. Viktor does the same, his face too tight and red.

“Don’t do it, Uncle,” I plead. “He’s not the one behind the massacre. Please, Uncle, if I ever meant anything to you, don’t do this.”

“Shut up, you insolent child.” Babushka taps her cane on the ground. “Do your thing, Albert.”

“One second,” Kirill says with so much nonchalance, it’s baffling, considering the situation. “I assume your proof that I plotted the demise of your family is that Yulia told you so, no?”

Uncle Albert raises a brow. “Are you also going to say that she’s a liar like Sasha did?”

Kirill looks back at me, and a proud, heart-stopping smile lifts the corners of his lips. I return the smile even as tears burn my lids.

I believe in you, I say with my eyes. I’m sorry I wasn’t sure until now.

He stares back at my uncle. “I’m curious. Did you know that my dear mother had an affair with your brother?”

Babushka’s face pales. “What is this nonsense?”

“Shoot him already,” Yulia says.

Uncle Albert’s face doesn’t change as he starts to do just that.

I scream, “No,” but before he can do it, Babushka hits my uncle’s hand, sending the gun flying against the opposite wall. “I want to hear what he has to say.”

Yulia’s expression remains cold, but her whole body becomes eerily still.

“Much appreciated. I knew you were the voice of reason,” Kirill says in the same detached tone.

“So, the thing is, Yulia had an affair with your son Anatoly for years. As a result, he’s my brother’s biological father.

I thought the story ended there, but I found out through a recent letter left by my father that your son ended the affair after his wife got pregnant with their youngest child.

Of course, Yulia, who always gets what she wants, didn’t like that.

She’s a bit too possessive, my mother. Correction, a lot .

If she couldn’t have Anatoly, no one else could.

So what did she do? She deliberately let Roman know about the affair.

She thought he wasn’t aware of her manipulations, but she missed the fact that he always employed private investigators to make sure any allegations were true.

That’s how he knew Anatoly broke up with her exactly a year before the massacre.

He still didn’t like the idea of another man having his possession, so when the government approached him with a request to annihilate you, he agreed.

But here’s the most important piece of the puzzle, Mrs. Ivanova.

Yulia is the one who gave him that plan.

But that’s not the end of it. My father left me a memory card that has pictures of Yulia and Anatoly together as well as videos of Anatoly kicking Yulia out of his club when she went to Russia.

I invite you to listen to this little recording that will explain my next point better. ”

Kirill retrieves his phone, and both Uncle Albert and Yulia lunge at it. Babushka surprisingly hits them both with her cane, keeping them away as Kirill hits Play.

“You mean to tell me I’ll have an opening?” Roman says in Russian.

There’s a sound of skin against skin like someone is peppering kisses all over his face, before Yulia’s voice follows. “Yes, dear. I have an insider in that house who’ll make sure there’s little to no resistance.”

“Are you positive? I will kill your lover.”

“I’m proving that he’s not my lover. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved.”

“ Really ?”

“Really, dear.”

Gag. Even I can hear the fakery in her tone. Judging by the way he asked, Roman most likely knew, too. However, he probably decided to go with the flow because he wanted to use her anyway.

“Who’s your insider?” he asks.

“Albert. He never liked being under the dictatorial leadership of his mother and brother. Never liked his wife or even his children. They’re good to go, too, as long as he and the old lady stay alive since she’s the one who’ll be able to put him as the head of the family—”

Yulia’s voice comes to an end when Uncle Albert shoots the phone right out of Kirill’s hand.

Babushka's pale face must mirror mine.

The load of information I just heard makes my head spin, and my heart shrivels in my chest.

Uncle Albert and Yulia were the ones who planned the massacre.

My uncle .

My own uncle killed everyone I ever cared about.

My father’s brother plotted the inhumane butchering of his own family—children included.

“What…” Babushka is lost for words. Her thin, wrinkly lips open and close in a scene I’ve never witnessed before. When she speaks, her voice is barely audible. “What is the meaning of this, Albert?”

“Ahhh.” He laughs almost mockingly. “Fuck. It actually feels good that I can finally drop the annoying mask.”

“Albert!”

“What, Mother, what ?” he screams in her face.

“You always worshiped Akim and adored Anatoly, but I was the one missing from your list. You never thought I was capable of anything and pushed me back in favor of those other two fuckers all the damn time. You made me marry the least influential woman just to stop me from ever climbing to the top.”

“So you murdered your family?”

He raises a shoulder. “I never considered them my family. They were just a hurdle on my way to success. I would’ve preferred it if Sasha and Tosha hadn’t survived, so I wouldn’t have had anyone blocking my path, but oh well, I will just kill them now.”

“And Mike,” I snarl. “What about him?”

“I needed an heir.” He rolls his eyes. “His mother was alive with him in the closet, and she was so happy that I came to their rescue. I shot that bitch in the head and took him from her arms.”

“Albert…” Tears stream down Babushka’s cheeks for the first time ever. “What have you done?”

“Shut up, Mother. For once in your life, just shut up. I put up with your presence all these years for the power you hold over all the other families. I put up with Tosha and Sasha because they were my eyes in enemy camps. But all of you are unnecessary now.”

My vision is blurred with a waterfall of tears. It’s like I’m staring at a stranger. All these years, I thought we were fighting for the same cause, even if we had different methods, but he’s been the villain all along.

He didn’t only fool me, Anton, Babushka, and Mike, but he’s also been pretending that we’re a family.

My lips tremble. “You…did all of this for power?”

“And to get rid of the annoying people who didn’t allow me to reach my potential.

Especially your goddamn father. You and Tosha are so much like him, I want to stab you in the eyes every time I see you.

Fuck! It was hard to pretend I liked you when all I wanted to do was kill you.

It’s why I sent those mercenaries to attack you on that Spetsnaz mission.

Too bad both of you only suffered injuries and refused to die already.

And again, you refused to be killed when I sent people trailing after you in the forest after you came back here. ”

Oh. My. God.

No wonder that sniper was so focused on me. If Kirill hadn’t been there—in Russia and in the forest—I would’ve died for sure. Same for Anton—if Maksim and Viktor hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have been able to escape with a mere hand injury.

“So it was you.”

Everyone’s attention turns to the newcomers, Anton—the one who spoke just now—Maksim, and…Konstantin.

He’s standing there without a single bruise on his face. Their grim expressions indicate that they heard the entire thing.

Only Babushka is still gaping at her second-born as if he’s a ghost.

Or perhaps a demon in human form.

The guards glance at my uncle, probably waiting for an order, but if he tells them to go after the three who just arrived, that means they’ll have to let go of Kirill.

Given that, shouldn’t they have more guards around here?

“That’s also why you didn’t come to my rescue all this time,” Anton continues. “You hoped Kirill would kill me while you convinced Babushka that you were working on the logistics. An excuse you always use whenever you need more time.”

“Aren’t you the bright one?” my uncle says with a note of mockery. “You should’ve died with your parents, but you refused to, even after they put three bullets in your body.”

“You…” Babushka’s voice sounds raw, haunted, as she chokes on her tears and raises her cane in his direction. “You murdered my children…and my grandchildren… I will tear you limb from limb, you ungrateful bastard—”

Her cane hits the floor first as a bullet lodges in her forehead. I scream as she drops to the floor, her lifeless eyes staring at nothing.

“I told you to shut the fuck up.” My uncle sighs and shakes his head. “Now you’ll be silent forever.”

Anton runs to Babushka, followed closely by Maksim. “Babushka…”

“You’re next.” My uncle points the gun at him. “And then Sasha and her bothersome husband. That way, no one will be in my way to get to the throne.”

Anton glares up at him and brings out his own gun. “Put down your fucking weapon. This place is surrounded.”

“Nonsense,” Yulia says. “Didn’t your men make sure Kirill came alone, Albert?”

The man in question, Kirill, looks at the guys holding him. “Are we going to do this nicely or not so nicely?”

They exchange a look but hesitantly remain in place.

“Not so nicely, then.”

He effortlessly removes his shoulder from one guy’s hold and starts to kick the other away, but Yulia steals a gun from one of the guards and points it at Kirill.

“Not another move. I won’t allow you to keep living.”

“Mother, stop!” Konstantin rushes to her side.

“Don’t even try to change my mind, Kosta! He locked you up and tortured you.”

“He didn’t. He just wanted to prove something.”

“Prove something?” she echoes.

“The fact that you used Makar to try and kill my wife,” Kirill says with harshness that chills me to the bone.

“You made him tell me it was Konstantin and even forged evidence for it. You provoked me to hurt him so that you could save him and prove that I don’t care about him.

You wanted him to come crawling back to you because you’re the only one who loves him.

But what to do, Mother? I’m one step ahead of you.

I pretended to fall for your trick and made everyone in the house believe it so your spy would give you the right information.

I forced you to reveal your true colors to Konstantin. ”

“You can’t possibly believe this devil, Kosta,” she says with calm determination. “Everything I did, I did for you.”

“Then stop it, Mother,” he pleads. “Just stop it already. I never wanted anything you gave me. Never asked for it, either, so stop forcing it on me.”

“How…how can you say that?” She glares back at Kirill. “It’s all because of you! I knew you’d be a damn nightmare from day one, you fucking devil spawn. Just die!”

“Nooo!” I scream as she takes the shot.

Everything happens too fast.

Uncle shoots at the same time, and then a few more shots follow.

Blood spills.

And more blood.

And it splatters on me.

No, it’s coming from inside me.

My head gets dizzy as I look down and find my thighs soaked with blood.

Someone calls my name, but my head rolls back, and everything goes black.