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Even if Daniil had seemed completely serious in his intentions to follow through with the marriage pact, I had been holding out hope that he was only doing it for the bravado—that he’d change his mind at the last minute and spare us both.

At that point, after seeing how ridiculously he had been treating me and his refusal to follow any sort of ethical agreement between us, I would’ve preferred for him to let me go and instead spend the rest of his days taunting me, demanding I pay his family back and then some.

It seemed like a merciful option compared to the continuous, slow torture of keeping me holed up in his house and completely isolated from my people.

But regardless of my silent hopes, it seemed I was fresh out of luck.

By the end of my second day there, he had an assistant of some kind bring in a handful of bags. When I tried to speak to her, whether as a bid to find a loophole out of here, or just for the sake of interacting with someone who wasn’t Daniil, she didn’t say a word to me and shuffled out.

I should’ve known his staff were likely far too scared of him to ever step out of line and offer me the kindness I was beginning to crave more and more by the fourth day.

While I didn’t need to stay stashed away in the spare bedroom, it became a sort of retreat for me. It was a place where Daniil wasn’t, and going there made me feel like I could relax enough to let my guard down.

But I eventually ran out of ways to entertain myself, and I couldn’t stay in there for too long at a time. Not that I had much entertainment in the first place.

Getting up that morning, I found a maid in the bedroom when I came out of the ensuite in just a towel, and she nearly scared the life out of me.

In broken English, she murmured to me about ‘today being the day,’ and I paused in the doorway, brows pinched together.

“What day?”

The older woman paused stripping the bedding down and gestured vaguely. “The day…wedding.”

My heart dropped immediately, and for a moment, I completely tuned out the sounds of the maid rustling around with the blankets and sheets.

I stared down at the floor while several drops of water still ran down my skin, some hitting the floor around my bare feet.

The maid shook her head after a moment when I didn’t move from where I stood, grabbing the bundle of blankets before shuffling out of the room and continuing with her work. Even when she left, I still felt like I couldn’t catch my breath, pulse roaring in my ears.

The thought of actually being married to Daniil, realizing that this was all very real, sent my mind into a greater state of panic than I had ever felt before. Knowing that I’d have to face him day in and day out, regardless of him being busy with work. That he’d rather take me out of the game completely instead of allowing me to lead like I should’ve been doing ever since I caught wind of the rat in my ranks.

Whether he believed me about someone near me working behind my back or not, Daniil didn’t care. He didn’t care about getting to the bottom of things like I did.

Instead, he just wanted to torture me. Instead of handling things like a normal, sane person would, he was taking a completely different route. Knowing that was the beast I would be marrying within the next twenty-four hours made me feel nothing short of panic.

The arrangement was supposed to save me and my family’s empire; it was supposed to give me the chance to get back into the swing of things and flush out that traitor before they could cause any more damage to my reputation and everything I worked so hard to build.

But it seemed my genius plan only made things worse. Perhaps I wasn’t as good at thinking on the fly as I originally thought.

Without my phone or any way to contact Gabriel or my cousins, things felt bleaker than I cared to admit. Daniil managed to find the perfect way to break me down, whether he was aware of it or not.

And while my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, I still felt the need to face my decision. To not back down, as much as I wanted to more than anything.

I was a boss—a leader. I wouldn’t let Daniil think he had me beat, even if it very much felt that way.

Whether it was for myself, for my cousins who looked up to me so deeply, or for my father, who would’ve done anything in his power to keep fighting tooth and nail regardless of the outcome, I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other.

Numbly, I got dressed in a simple ensemble, not putting too much thought into it.

If Daniil felt like dressing me up like a doll and taking me to a chapel, then so be it. But I wasn’t going to do him the honors of doing it myself unprompted.

As tempting as it seemed to beg and plead for him to let me back out of the deal, I couldn’t. I had to muster whatever courage I had left to see it through.

Making my way downstairs, I tried to not dwell on every little thing I’d be losing. I tried to focus on what few positives I could think of.

But the moment I reached the main floor and heard his voice calling for me, my heart froze over.

Letting out a deep breath, I followed the sound and realized he wasn’t alone. More so, it became incredibly clear that there wouldn’t be a chapel; no dress, no sham wedding. Just him, an officiant, the man I knew to be Alexander Novikov, and paperwork spread out on the dining room table.

There was no way to describe just how off-kilter I felt at the moment—how blindsided I was despite the whole thing being my idea in the first place. I was completely out of my element, and every part of me was screaming to get out of there.

But I couldn’t.

Even if Daniil proved he could be sneaky and opportunistic, I prided myself on my ethics. On my morals. I gave him my word, and I meant to keep it.

He could call me many things, but a flake was not one of them.

“Good, you’re ready,” Daniil said with the faintest hint of smugness in his tone.

I didn’t care about the fact that I wasn’t dressed up, given how he hardly was himself, dressed in a black compression tee and what seemed to be his usual cargos. He looked more prepared to shake someone down than get married. But wearing something so casual while being moments away from signing away my freedom felt wrong.

It was all wrong, in fairness, but who was I to complain when I had bigger things to worry about? Bigger things I couldn’t even address while stuck under Daniil’s control.

“I never thought I’d be meeting my brother’s soon-to-be-wife the day of the wedding, but here we are,” Alexander said, offering me a nod. “I assume you didn’t expect your olive branch to result in this, either.”

His comment made me bristle, but he had a point. I certainly didn’t expect this to be the turn everything would take.

Before I could say anything, Daniil sighed. “How about we get right to the point? There’s no need to drag this out.”

Though I still didn’t say anything, they all seemed to agree, and without wasting time, the ceremony—or lack thereof—began. As the officiant droned on, going over details and this and that, it sounded more like listing terms rather than vows, and I could hardly find it within myself to listen fully.

With everything laid out, the two of us signed everything that required our signature, followed by Alexander’s as the witness, and it was done.

Just like that, we were husband and wife, and I kissed my freedom goodbye as Daniil looked far too pleased with himself.

While the paperwork was gathered up and the ring was carelessly handed to me, I huffed. My words dripped with sarcasm as I muttered, “What, you didn’t care enough to give me a real wedding?”

Daniil scoffed dismissively. “Don’t be ridiculous—this was a business arrangement. Nothing more.”

Standing there before him, forced to see his infuriatingly built body in that compression tee, his words sent a fresh wave of anger through me, but I forced myself to hold my tongue.

He was so careless in the way he spoke to me. Even if he wasn’t wrong, and it technically was just a business deal, nothing was stopping him from being decent. From at least trying to make the situation a little more bearable for me. I knew that wasn’t exactly his MO, but at that point, even a shred of courtesy would’ve gone a long way.

His attitude was horrendous, even if he’d promised me exactly that, and I didn’t know how I was going to survive living with him moving forward.

As ruthless and cold as he was, I hated the fact that he was gorgeous above all else. Everything would’ve been so much easier if he had been slightly less attractive. If he wasn’t the exact vision of what I looked for in a man.

That fact only made the reality of it all that much harder to swallow.

Even if he was right about our marriage being transactional, I couldn’t deny how the rushed signing of paperwork and the few glances he threw in my direction the entire time rubbed me the wrong way and seemed very unlike the image I once had of a prospective wedding.

Maybe it was ridiculous for me to ever assume I’d have that kind of fantasy brought to life, but in a way, the pact made me feel like I had been robbed of something that could’ve been special.

Instead, my husband was conniving, brutal, and far too appealing for his own good—potentially for my own good.

As much as the whole ordeal was completely lackluster at best, a small part of me couldn’t help but see how doing everything that way was likely the lesser of two evils, the better choice to spare me the absolute humiliation of being married to Daniil in front of anyone else.

In all honesty, I was surprised he didn’t try to take it that far just to throw it all in my face. I wouldn’t put it past him to make sure my cousins were in the crowd, too.

When it was all said and done and the officiant went on his way, Alex rolled up his sleeves and threw me a somewhat smug look. “Welcome to the family.”

Something in me wanted to naively think he meant it genuinely, but given the circumstances and the faint glimmer in his eyes, I knew the opposite was true. Mocking me was low-hanging fruit, and I was sure Daniil was far too pleased with himself over everything.

Daniil glanced at me again and gestured to the door. “Now that it’s done, we’re heading out. Let's go.”

I furrowed my brows at him, surprised he was going to allow me to leave the house, like a prisoner granted thirty minutes of fresh air. “Where are we going?”

“To do business.”