Page 70 of Reign of Psychos

Kyril could be very persuasive when he needed to be. The Orliov name carried some weight, even across the pond.

A familiar voice caught my attention, and I looked up to see my father on the screen. He stood on the steps of Blackwood Manor, surrounded by a baying press pack, lacking his usual spit and polish and appearing rather frayed around the edges.

I smirked to myself. Finally.

“Lucian! Can you explain why the clinic you own a controlling stake in was carrying out illegal experiments on its patients?”

“I had no idea what Dr Lassitor was doing!” he blustered, jaw ticking. Malcolm perched behind him, whispering in his ear. From the way Dad stood rigid, fists clenched, he was close to losing his shit. “Lassitor was the clinical director of Highgate. Ihad no active role in running the clinic or say in what happened there.”

“But you sent your wife to the clinic before Christmas, under an involuntary commitment order. Do you have any comment on that?” Marina Kent, the blond reporter from the Daily Mail, appeared positively gleeful at seeing my father pinned down like a moth on a board. He’d called her a cunt to her face more than a few times.

Dad looked as if he was ready to shoot someone in the face while Malcolm wrung his hands. The reporters weren’t letting this go. It was a major story.

“As far as I was aware, my wife was receiving the best possible care.” His face morphed into a caricature of sad reflection. “Ophelia has been ill for many years, as you all know. She suffered an unfortunate breakdown just before the holidays due to the stress of my son’s unforgivably sordid behavior.” I growled. How dare he blame me! “Dr Lassitor assured me she was in safe hands.”

“How do you explain the emails between you and Dr Lassitor discussing treatment plans where you signed off on the drug regimen?” Marina asked, a triumphant smile on her face. “You knew the MHR had not approved the drugs because of dangerous side-effects during the initial trials, including hallucinations and suicidal ideation.”

Dad turned pale beneath his tan. He hadn’t known about the emails. They were our smoking gun.

Milo had found copies of all emails between Dad and Dr Lassitor on a heavily encrypted server. I had a feeling my father wasn’t aware Lassitor routinely backed up all his emails to an external server. Most likely as insurance in case Dad tried to shaft him.

Malcolm whispered something else in Dad’s ear and my father fixed a rictus smile on his face.

“I have no further comment to make.” The press pack went wild as Dad disappeared inside the house, slamming the door in his wake. The report then cut back to the studio, where Nigel Armstrong sat behind his desk with a stack of papers.

“Stay tuned for more on this breaking story.” Angela Carter, Nigel’s fellow presenter, a woman Dad had fucked five years previously, turned to the camera, her face like curdled milk. “And now, some exciting news on the…”

I hit the mute button on the TV remote. The information Milo recovered from Highgate’s servers had been sent to several high-profile press contacts of mine yesterday, including Marina Kent. The story broke this morning, going viral on X within 30 minutes, too late for Lassitor to hide evidence of his wrongdoing.

The police raided the clinic shortly before the story went live, which meant a news crew was on-site, ready to capture the moment armed police hauled Lassitor out of the clinic, along with the staff who’d aided and abetted his crimes.

Not all the medical staff were guilty of abusing the patients in their care. Some were more than willing to testify in court about the things they’d seen.

All the patients, including my mother, were moved to a safe location. Once Mom had been checked by a doctor and cleared to leave, I’d pick her up.

The elevator opened and Kyril walked in looking far more relaxed with Thea tucked under his arm like a cute little pixie. My gaze snagged on the huge ring she wore on the fourth finger of her left hand.

What the?

“Hey, wifey, where have you…” Landon clocked the ring, too, and froze. “You had to go there,” he snarled, fists clenched. “You knew I had a plan, but you went ahead anyway and stole my thunder!”

Kyril eased Thea to one side and squared off against Landon. “She’s having my baby. The bratva heir, no less. Making her my wife legitimizes the baby and protects her. This is for her, not me. So fucking deal,mudak.” I figured Kyril’s smirk at the end of the sentence would provoke a meltdown, but instead, Lan stepped back and stared at him for a moment.

Thea watched the interaction, dark eyes flicking between the two of them, but didn’t intervene.

“Fine. Whatever.” Lan snatched up his jacket and stormed out without a backward glance. I contemplated chasing after him to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid but decided against it. He was a grown-ass man. If he had an issue with Kyril marrying Thea, it was up to him to discuss it. Like an adult.

Did I have any issues with Kyril marrying her?

I thought about it for a moment, and decided, no. Kyril was right. Without the protection of marriage vows, the bratva wouldn’t take their relationship seriously. Vasily expected his son to get married and produce an heir. Thea probably wasn’t Vasily’s number one choice, but since she now wore the family ring, I guessed they’d come to some kind of agreement.

Then it struck me.

The ring.

The last time I’d seen it was on Ekaterina’s finger.

“Hey, how come the step-bitch no longer has the ring?”

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