Page 8 of Beautiful Agony

I keep my mouth pressed in a line, letting my silence goad her into revealing more.

"All this time, I thought I wanted Vadyusha." She moves to perch on the desk in front of us. "But the truth is, I wanted the Stravinsky bratva." A cruel smile plays across her lips. "And there just happens to be another Stravinsky brother available. Useless as he is."

I know who she means.Slava.

"That poor shell of a man." She laughs at my expression. "Unable to feed himself, unable to speak, unable to get out of that hospital bed, let alone run an empire. But that doesn't matter." She leans forward, voice dropping to a whisper. "I just need his cock to work. All I need is for him to give me a child. A single legitimate Stravinsky, and everything I want becomes mine."

"You're sick," I can't hold back anymore.

"Funny. That's exactly what Vadyusha said." Her eyes flash with rage as they drink in the bruises around my neck. "But tell me, little thief. What's sicker? Accepting that you are the monster people make you out to be? Or pretending to be some noble crusader while you follow the footsteps of the monster you claim you are not?"

I feel my stomach turn and the bruises around my neck seem to burn. Sayanaa's eyes glitter with malicious delight as she catches my reaction.

"His heart is too soft," she purrs, running her fingers through my hair. "He's so desperate to prove he's not Pyotr's son when he should've embraced the strength his father had."

She grips my hair in her hand and forces me to look at her, as she pulls out her phone. Nimble fingers tap three times on the screen.

"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" The dispatcher's voice crackles through the speaker.

"Help!" I shriek as loud as I can, my voice raw and desperate.

Sayanaa's smile widens, and her cold eyes gleam with satisfaction. But she makes no move to stop me. Instead, she taps the screen, and I see the mute icon appears.

That's when I realize.

Shewantsme to scream.

She wants the dispatcher to hear the panic, the fear, the desperation in my voice before she cuts me off.

She's letting them trace the call, letting them hear just enough to draw them here.

To ambush Vadim.

Serena trembles besides me. I want to tell her it'll be okay, that Vadim will save us before Sayanaa's trap can spring shut.

But I don't know if I can believe that anymore.

"Ma'am?" the dispatcher calls out on the other end. "Ma'am, are you there?"

Seconds tick by like hours. Then, with a satisfied smirk on her face, Sayanaa ends the call.

"When Vadyusha comes charging in here, all rage and righteous fury to save his precious wife and sister, he'll make this whole operation look like it'shis." Her eyes gleam with savage satisfaction. "And the only witnesses who might dispute his account?" She laughs. "Merchandise too brutalized to talk, assuming if they can even find anyone who can translate Tuvan. And the two of you, I suppose. Not nearly enough to overturn the overwhelming evidence. Especially if they find daddy's book."

My heart pounds as she continues, "Poor Grisha." She sighs theatrically. "At least he'll get one last good fuck before Vadim puts him down like the dog he is."

The casual way she dismisses her own men's lives makes my skin crawl. These are people who trust her, who follow her orders, and she's throwing them away like pawns in her twisted game.

This woman isn't just evil.

She's the literal fucking devil.

"Daddy never understood," she muses, and for the first time, a hint of vulnerability seeps into her voice. "He never appreciatedwhat I could do. All he ever saw in me was just a pretty face to dangle in front of potential allies."

Her eyes harden, as she takes a shuddering breath before she continues, words dripping with venom from years of resentment.

"Just another merchandise to be sold like the rest of you worthless whores."

Slowly, she removes one of her earrings, and uses the pushback to pop the SIM card out of her phone.

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