Page 26

The foyer swallowed the last light of dusk behind us, and it echoed when Roman closed the doors behind us. Winter came out from the kitchen to greet me, but I ignored her and Elena, who trailed behind me with reluctant steps.

I didn’t have to look back to feel her, or notice the way she lingered near the entrance, clutching her purse and messenger bag like it might shield her from me and the rest of the world.

As if sentiment or softness meant anything here.

The jacket came off my shoulders in a smooth motion, hung over my arm for all of three seconds before I dropped it onto the back of a chair.

I took out my phone and texted Fedor to meet me in my private office with printouts of Elena’s medical reports.

My mind was already moving—past the tension in her breath, past the lingering scent of her perfume, past the weight of whatever the hell was written all over her face.

Because I had more important things to think about, and until I confirmed it, everything else was noise.

Even her.

Especially her.

“Wait here,” I said, voice flat, not bothering to check if she would listen.

I was about to walk deeper into the house when I heard things clatter on the marble floor and, from my periphery, saw her sway.

Roman was at her side before I got to her, and though he still had that wary gaze that could make anyone think she was insufferable, he held her steady, releasing her when Winter took over.

Elena’s face drained of color, and she brought a hand to her stomach. I looked away from Elena and faced Winter instead.

“Show her to one of the guest rooms and assist her in any way you can. She needs a moment.”

Winter nodded, moving without hesitation, and so did Elena, because she had no choice. But before they disappeared up the stairs, her eyes met mine. They were teary and uncertain, but I stared her down, unflinching.

I didn’t have to say the words to communicate the truth between us; Elena was mine, and she knew it.

Once they were out of sight, I went up to the study and pressed down on a lever that opened another passageway to my private office. I didn’t sit. Fedor already stood by the desk with his arms folded over his chest.

“Did you get it?

He nodded, producing the printouts I requested. I knew he had used the exit door to come in, but I was more impressed by his speed in completing the assignment.

“Are you that eager to know if you’re going to be a godfather?”

“You have it in you to crack a joke?” I raised a brow, and he dragged a chair over, sitting down. “Have you taken a good look in the mirror? I’m not sure why, but you look like you want to kill someone.”

“You want me jumping and clapping my hands under these conditions?”

“Conditions you created?” I glared at him, and he didn’t bat an eye. Speaking harsh truths was another one of his specialties. “The signs were pretty clear to me from the day Katya got into the hospital. The men have eyes that see and mouths that talk. I believe that says enough.”

“You, of all people, should know that doesn’t bother me. They can talk. It doesn’t change anything.”

I stood over the desk to scan the medical chart Fedor had pulled from the clinic’s server a while ago. Going by the date on the records, she had only checked in at the hospital recently for a pregnancy test, and it showed the confirmation that she was six weeks in.

“So, you’re the father,” Fedor stated once we were out of the private room and back in the study.

Collapsing into the chair, I poured myself two glasses of whiskey neat and grabbed the cigar box and a Zippo lighter from the top drawer of the desk. The butt burned a light cherry red as I inhaled and leaned back to gaze at the ceiling.

The chair swirled beneath me.

“Twenty-two fucking years, Fedor.” Smoke curled from my lips and nostrils up in the air. “Twenty-two years since Katya, and now I’m going to be a father again. Reach out to her boss. I guess she’ll be working for me now.”

I wasn’t sure how to embrace the revelation.

A strange feeling stirred in me, deep and ancient, something I hadn’t felt in over two decades. Not since my daughter was born. Twenty-two years since I held something so small in my arms and felt its weight mark me in a way no blade ever could.

Back then, I was younger, reckless, and caught off guard by the gravity of fatherhood. I hadn’t been ready, and I had failed in ways I can never take back.

Thinking about it now, I realized I wasn’t super excited to be a father again. To be fair, I hadn’t planned for it. But I’d heard something about second chances; not to be better but to do right on my terms.

This could be it for me. This time, I knew what I was doing, and I had never felt more in control of anything else.

The thought didn’t scare me. If it were a boy, he would be my legacy.

I could almost see him, a replica of me: smart, blue-eyed, and sharp, molded by my hands. He wouldn’t be weak. He wouldn’t be lost to the world like I once was. I would build him from fire and steel. And Elena would stay. She’d have to. The life I was about to offer her now wasn’t a choice.

A rapt knock on the door had Fedor on his feet, striding to open it. Outside, Roman stood with a grimace, and with a freshly showered Elena by his side.

“I ended up puking, and it ruined my dress. So, Winter got some extra clothes from only God knows where, and insisted that I take a hot shower. It was…relaxing. So, I can’t complain. Thank you,” she said.

Roman managed a subtle eye roll. “She insisted on seeing you, Boss.”

“You can leave.” I waved him off and gestured for Elena to take the chair Fedor had occupied. “Come, sit down. It’s a good thing you wanted to see me. I have news to share with you.”

She wrinkled her nose at the cigar in my grasp, like it was the most disgusting thing she had seen, and gasped animatedly while taking a seat. “You’re pregnant, too?”

“You can be a comedian in your next life, but for now, you’re the mother of my unborn son.”

“Or daughter.” She glared. “And that is why I came to see you. I want to know why you brought me here. What do you want me to do? Get familiar with the surroundings? Because if that’s the plan, then I hate to break it to you, but Katya gave me a tour of this house the first time I ever came here.

So I won’t suddenly hit my foot in the kitchen or trip and fall on the stairs. ”

After she mentioned my daughter’s name, her face fell like she suddenly remembered the reality of things. And very softly, she reiterated, “Why am I here?”

Fedor stared at me from the door with keen interest, and they both waited to hear what I had to say. Although I knew Fedor already had a fair idea.

I blew out a thicker cloud of gray smoke, and when I remembered I shouldn’t be smoking in front of a pregnant woman, I put it out in the ashtray and leaned forward.

“You aren’t only going to be the mother of my son, Elena. You’ll be my wife, too.”

She laughed. “What? You’re joking, right?” When I didn’t respond, she peered intently into my eyes, and she stood up so fast that her chair nearly toppled over.

For a split second, I thought she might actually throw it at me. Her eyes, usually soft like rain-soaked green moss, blazed with wildfire, and her lips trembled as she protested with a voice laced with fury.

“First, you show up at my workplace unannounced, claiming to want to invest, and now, you want to kidnap me?”

A scoff came from the door where Fedor stood, but I quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Are you sure you understand how kidnapping works?”

“I don’t care. I won’t do it. I’m not sure how your life works; maybe you order people around, and they obey like mindless zombies, but I won’t do it! I won’t be one of your goddamn pawns.”

Her voice cracked at the end, the raw edge of desperation slicing through the room, and I could feel the storm inside her that let loose once in a while. The fight. The fear. The way she was teetering on the edge of her own convictions.

And I relished it.

My eyes narrowed as the smallest, amused smirk tugged at my lips. “But you will,” I said, my voice low, calm, sliding out like silk over steel. “And here’s why: I have an idea, or you could take it as me pitching a proposal, with a presentation.”

She stared at me like I’d slapped her. That defiance still flared in her chest, but now, it warred with the truth she didn’t want to admit. That she was already halfway to surrender.

I rested my elbows on the desk between us. “Now,” I said, businesslike, flicking ash into the tray, “your mother needs a liver transplant. I can arrange that. Find you a donor.”

I watched as her emotions shifted like a wave crashing against the shore. Hope. Fear. Desperation. All swirling in the span of seconds.

“I can get the best donor for her surgery,” I continued, savoring the way her eyes flickered with a glimmer of hope. But I knew, deep down, that it wasn’t just her mother she should worry about now.

“In return, I will ensure your family—your brother and grandmother—are well taken care of with full financial support. They can have whatever they need, whenever they need it; and your future, your life...it’s mine to control.”

She faltered, tears pooling in her eyes as her shoulders sagged. She didn’t sit back down. Not yet. But she didn’t walk away either. And that told me everything.

“So, now, it’s just business to you. This is a lifelong commitment you’re talking about.”

“A lifelong commitment with benefits you know very few people in this country, or on Earth, will ever have before they die. Take it like that promotion at work; this is an offer for you to level up. The only difference is, here, you don’t get to say no.”

“Oh, how convenient that you remembered I work, too. So, with this proposal, what am I supposed to do about that? How do I explain to Robert that I’m about to get married to my best friend’s father?”

“You don’t.”

She stuttered. “I don’t what ?”

“You don’t tell Robert anything because you no longer work there. He doesn’t mind, certainly not after the million-dollar investment I made in his business.”

“What? You…you bought me?”

“No, of course not. After I confirmed your pregnancy, I passed a message through to tell him I have bigger plans for you in my company. He will miss you, but he’s a businessman.”

I clamped down on my teeth, clenching hard when tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Damien, why are you doing this?” She wiped her eyes, but more streams flowed. “Why me?”

“You’re carrying my child, sweetheart. Not just anyone gets these kinds of privileges. Understand that.”

“And Katya? When she wakes up, because she certainly will, what do you think she’ll say?”

I was done having this conversation. It was clear Elena hadn’t fully grasped who she was dealing with.

My daughter was precious to me, but she’d never influenced the life decisions I made, and that wasn’t going to start now.

Pushing my chair back, I rose to my feet and walked around the desk to stand in front of her. I tipped her chin up, making sure she saw just how serious I was when I said, “She certainly will wake up, and when she does, she will have no choice but to accept it.”