Page 101 of Sweet Deception

I wasn’t leaving her there.

I stormed straight to the master bedroom, only to find a note on my desk, written in her neat, slanted handwriting.

Gleb,

I know you will be angry.

I know you will curse me for leaving.

And I know you will come for me.

But this is something I have to do, not just for you, but for myself.

You once told me not to feel guilty for my family’s sins.

But how can I not, when I see what they’ve done to you? To your sister?

If I have a chance to fix even a fraction of that damage, I have to take it.

You will never forgive me for this. But I hope one day, you will understand.

Anna

I gripped the paper so tightly it crumpled in my fist. My whole body trembled, not just with rage, but something worse. Something raw. Something unbearable.

I pressed my forehead to my fist, breathing deeply. And then, in a voice that cracked slightly, I muttered, ‘You stupid, reckless woman.’

I yanked out my phone and called my pilot.

“Prepare the jet. We’re leaving for Italy in two hours.”

“Sir...”

I hung up before he could finish.

I didn’t care if this was reckless.

Anna was mine.

And I would burn Italy to the ground before I let them take her from me.

Chapter 21

ANNA

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The moment I stepped off the plane at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, The familiar scent of the Roman air, the distant hum of Italian voices, it should have felt like coming home. But all I felt was the weight of what I had to do.

A strange hollowness settled inside me. I had spent years in this country, twenty years of my life, but it no longer felt like home.

I wanted to believe my sister had not lied to me. That my parents weren’t the monsters Gleb and his family made them out to be. That I had been manipulated, not just by my husband but by both sides of this war.

But deep down, I knew better.

Maria’s arrogance in Moscow had made one thing painfully clear, she knew more than I did. If I had been kept in the dark all these years, it hadn’t been an accident. It had been intentional.

A flicker of movement caught my eye.