Tremors assaulted my spine as snot and tears stained my face and jeans. The heat in my face threatened to melt my cheeks as it seeped down my neck. After four years of trying to separate us, my parents finally succeeded. Now, though, there was no use for anger.
But this didn’t stop it from forming a dense, writhing ball in my chest, knocking my heart out of rhythm and squeezing my lungs until they were useless. Everyone around me was more concerned with their plans than my happiness. My mom and dad were more focused on where Sascha was born than what he grew up to be.
“Ophelia…” Aleksander’s called to me. He, at least, had the decency to look sad for me. “Let’s go.”
I swiped at my throbbing, reddened eyes with the back of my arm. Sniffling harshly, I struggled to stand, alone, even as Aleksander’s henchman flooded the room. Shouts and struggles were drowned under the ache in my head. Getting dragged out of the room, my parents and elder brother yelled and begged while I stayed silent. Like so many times before, the differences between us were obvious. I seemed to be the only one who could face reality.
When they decided this attempt on Vyachaslav Makovich’s life was a good idea, they’d sealed their fates. The only real issue for me was… I wasn’t involved at all. I didn’t know anything was going on behind the scenes. I’d been too caught up in Sascha and our life together to notice something was amiss. Maybe, because I didn’t want to shatter my beautiful moment— the unfiltered happiness that had filled me to bursting.
Only, now that happiness was gone, there was nothing but a void left. Unfillable, bottomless— empty.
2
Ophelia
“My father wants to kill everyone in your family.” Aleksander watched me with his hawk like gaze. “Are you upset because of what they did?”
I could only summon a slight nod. He’d been raised as the eldest Makovich to be power itself. In no feasible way did he care about the opinion of a small fish like myself when he was a shark whose teeth always grew back. “They’re stupid.” Licking my dry lips, I lifted my head.
Aleksander arched a brow quizzically.
My mouth dried at his calm demeanor— all the while I was falling apart. “What?”
“You’re not going to try to reason with me for your life?”
A soft scoff escaped my nose, but if he took offence, it didn’t show on his face. The darkness that slowed my mind became deeper, and I reached a trembling hand to my temple.
“Well, I suppose that does count for something.”
“I’m sure that unyielding attitude intimidates some people, but you didn’t kill all the Avernisk’s. You’re not gonna kill us all, either.” I sniffled as I spoke, “Whoever you keep alive… don’t expect much.”
Aleksander’s features drenched in amusement at my rasp. “What if I decide to keep you alive, Ophelia?”
For a fraction of a second, my mind puttered into action before I shook my head.
Aleksander leaned back, throwing his arm over the back of the sofa leisurely. He exuded iron will, and anything or anyone that got in his way would be crushed. “What if I gave you the opportunity to take your boyfriend and leave this life?”
“You wouldn’t. The families wouldn’t be crushed if you did that.” Maybe, for the first time, I stared Aleksander directly in the eyes. My eyelids ached and threatened to close, but I didn’t feel the instinctual need to look away. “You can’t just obliterate them. You need pawns. You don’t want them but need them. It doesn’t matter who they are, though. Pawns are replaceable for a reason…because once they go rogue, there’s no forcing them back onto their square.”
“You think I see this as a game?” he asked.
Frowning slightly, I shook my head again.
Aleksander tapped the back of the sofa with a thoughtfulness blazing from his eyes. “Tell me about your relationship with… what was his name? Sascha?”
“No,” the answer slipped out before I could stop it. Pursing my lips thinly, I ground my teeth as the temperature in the air dropped like a stone. We were sitting, waiting for whatever grotesque play Aleksander had planned. Glaringly, I wasn’t involved, but I didn’t know if this was a good thing or not. Whether Aleksander had different plans for me was not a mystery, but the specifics were. Regardless… it didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered.
“How about I tell you what I know about your relationship, then.” Aleksander gazed at me through hard, narrowed eyes.
There was no escaping it, but the anxiety of him knowing anything about Sascha flooded my gut.
“Your boyfriend is a professor at Moscow State University as a nuclear chemist. You’re only 22, but he’s almost 40. You’ve been together since a few weeks after you turned 18, but I couldn’t find out how you met. Your parents hate him because he wasn’t born in Russia, but he’s been here since before the fall of the USSR, and he’s got dual citizenship. Both his parents are dead, now, and he’s got no siblings in the country.”
“… That’s not much about our relationship, just us as people.”
Aleksander shot me the blandest look possible.
My brows twitched as they drew together. “You really don’t know anything about us?” I asked.
“You’re very good at keeping secrets. I’ll be honest, Ophelia, I came here today with every intention of killing you.”
Goosebumps rose on my arms and across my chest at how casually he spoke. What kind of monster just says something like that?
Leaning back again, Aleksander crossed his knees to tilt his head at me. “I decided not to because of exactly how little I could find on you and your boyfriend. Interestingly enough, you always use cash, avoid places with too many security cameras, and have no online presence. So, either you’re very careful or very boring, both of which I find positive traits.”
“We’re boring. I like it… being boring.” Sucking my bottom lip between my teeth, I held my throat in a clammy palm. Inhaling a shaky, shallow breath, my eyelids fluttered to dislodge a particularly brave tear. “Being n-normal people— they don’t worry a-about coups, about dying, being k-killed—by their bosses.”
“Why would you worry about my killing you, Ophelia? Ignorance isn’t an excuse, and that’s a philosophy I live by. Frankly, though, you weren’t ignorant. You didn’t suspect something was going on and ignore it, which is the definition of ignorance, by the way. No… you, Ophelia, aren’t just ignorant. You’re innocent. At least, in this, you’re innocent.”
Hiccupping a gasp, I closed my eyes tightly and turned away.
“I don’t think I’ve ever truly believed someone was innocent, but this coup…” he paused. “You’re innocent of it.”
“You’re contradicting yourself.” Aleksander talked circles around me, and I was tired of spinning around. “Just say it, okay?”
“You can’t be innocent in this business, Ophelia, and you can’t just escape it. Work for me, and I’ll allow you your side piece and your relative anonymity.”