Page 154 of Sweet Deception

“You kidnapped and physically abused my sister for years, you crippled my wife for half a decade, and now you’ve stolen my son. No death could ever be cruel enough to match what you deserve.”

He chuckled darkly. “You won’t kill me, Gleb Romanov.”

“You sound sure of that.” My grip on the phone tightened.

“Ninety percent of the people working in our embassies and international airports are on our payroll. It’s not an empty threat when I say you’ll be shot on sight if you set foot in Italy. I know your grandmother set the same security in place for Russia. That’s why we wouldn’t dare step into your territory.”

His voice turned colder. “Enough has been said. You have my number now. If you want to negotiate, call me. But your son will grow up strong and healthy under my care. We’ll talk some other time.”

Then he hung up.

The silence that followed was deafening. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, a steady, brutal rhythm of failure. I had failed my wife.

I thought I had planned for everything. I had anticipated war, retaliation after the birth. I never imagined they’d strike before. I never thought they’d own the hospital from the very first moment Anna walked in for her check-ups.

And my grandmother...

She had kidnapped Anna once. I let it go.

She did it again. I let it go because she was family.

And now, she had taken our child.

A slow, creeping rage spread through my veins, thick and suffocating. I wanted to burn everything she had ever touched.

But first, I had to face Anna.

My son was alive.

But stolen.

Taken to a place where I was already marked for death.

Knowing Anna, she won’t care. She’ll go to Italy anyway. She’ll risk her life without a second thought.

And then her father will have an easy way to kill her.

Losing my daughter had already shattered me.

Losing her?

I wouldn’t survive it.

What do I tell her when she wakes? That our daughter is dead? Or that our son is alive, but stolen?

The moment she opens her eyes, I will have to choose between her knowing the truth... or keeping her alive.

Anna stirred.

Her lashes fluttered. Her lips parted.

And then... “Where’s my baby?”

Her voice was hoarse, fragile, full of sleep and unawareness. It shattered something inside me.

She didn’t even seem to notice that the room had changed. “Gleb, where’s my daughter?”

I moved closer, intertwining my fingers with hers. “Anna...”