Page 4 of The Payment

“I’ve had enough.Get out of my house, you fucking lunatic!”Gregor was quickly losing control.

“What did he tell you?That Petrov decided against the marriage?That—”

“He had no choice,” Gregor interjected angrily.“You fucking cut off his finger and threatened him with much worse if he didn’t.You are the reason...”

“Yes?”Jarek’s eyebrow twitched upward as Gregor’s words drifted off.“I am the reason for what?For the excuse you needed to kill him?To have Skull slice him like a piece of beef until he bled to death...”He pointed to the lake.“Right there, in the underground bunker, where no one could hear his screams.”His gaze darkened as he looked at Tatiana.

“When are you going to realize you are nothing more than an opportunity to him, Tatiana?Why do you think he didn’t balk when you decided to go into logistics?Because he respected your choices?Get the fuck off the naivety train, my dear wife.All you are to him is a tool to use in his desire for ever-expanding his riches through the deaths of those who believe they have no other way to survive but sniffing and pumping their veins full of the crap he supplies at top dollar.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Gregor exploded as he waved the gun menacingly in Jarek’s face.

“Eventually, you will lose everything, Tatiana.Everyone who stands in his way always does...like your uncle.”Raw savagery reshaped Jarek’s expression.“Ask him how Nikolai Polov really died...not the version he sold to the world.”

“What is he talking about?”The words fell from Tatiana’s lips like shards of broken glass.Already pale from Jarek’s assault, her face drained of what little color remained.The room threatened to tilt on its axis as her mind struggled to process this new betrayal.She had adored Uncle Nikolai.He was always her protector, her confidant, the one who had taught her to ride horses and sneak extra desserts when her grandmother wasn’t looking.

“Babushka?”Her gaze swung to Elizabeth.Something in her grandmother’s expression made her stomach clench.The usually composed woman’s hands fluttered like trapped birds as her perfect posture visibly cracked under the burden of long-held secrets.

“He’s lying,” Elizabeth’s voice had a desperate edge that Tatiana had never heard before.Her eyes darted nervously between Tatiana and Jarek.“Can't you see, my darling?He’s trying to put a wedge between us.”

But Tatiana saw it now; it was impossible to miss.Her grandmother’s perfectly manicured hands trembled, and she couldn’t quite meet her eyes.The forced lightness in her tone rang false after years of genuine warmth.The realization hit Tatiana with physical force and turned her blood to ice in her veins.

Elizabeth Polov, the woman who had been her safe harbor, her moral compass, knew more than she was letting on.The foundation of trust that had supported Tatiana’s entire life cracked further, leaving her adrift in a sea of lies.Every childhood memory was now cast in shadows, hiding darker truths behind the perfect façade of family devotion.

The world she had known was unraveling thread by thread, leaving her surrounded by strangers wearing familiar faces.

“Since they obviously won’t be honest, let me be the bearer of bad news.”Jarek ignored Gregor, who lifted the gun warningly.“Why do you think Petrov had such a hold over Gregor?Your uncle had been trying to clean up the Polovskaya Bratva for years.Gregor made him believe they were moving toward only white-collar crime.When he realized he had been lying to him for years, he had enough.He was about to walk out.”His jaw locked.

“Except no one ever walks away from the Bratva and lives to talk about it.Gregor feared that Nikolai would go to the Feds and oust him.Petrov was his firing gun who took him out.Your uncle didn’t have an accident, Tatiana.He was shot through the head, assassin-style, and dumped in the shark-infested seas of Hawaii.”

“He’s lying!”Elizabeth sneered.“Do not listen to him, Tatiana.”

The truth of Jarek’s accusation solidified in the silent tableau before her.It wasn’t in his words, but it was written in the minute details of her grandparents’ reactions.Those tiny tells that decades of familiarity had taught her to read.

It was Gregor who confirmed everything.The proud set of his shoulders crumpled, and color leached from his features, leaving behind a gray pallor that aged him twenty years in moments.His eyes held a haunted quality she had never seen before.This wasn’t the reaction of a man facing baseless accusations.This was guilt made flesh and decades of carefully buried secrets clawing their way to the surface.

“My parents,” she snapped in a husky voice as a dormant suspicion surfaced.“Where are they?”

“We don’t know,” Elizabeth said.“That is the truth, my darling.”

“I would take anything they say with a bag of salt,” Jarek said, keeping his gaze locked on her.“It’s time to make a choice, Tatiana.Stay here or leave with me.I might not love you, but you will never be in danger of losing TAP United Logistics.You will live a good life where you make your own decisions.”

“As long as I give you what you want, right?Just how is that different fromDeduschka’smethods, Jarek?Making my own decisions?How gullible do you think I am?Gregor Polov pulling the string of the puppet that is Tatiana Polov or you doing the exact same thing using even darker methods?”

Even as she said the words, the realization settling in her gut felt like lead.Her world hadn’t just tilted—it had shattered completely.She was left standing in the ruins of everything she had believed to be true.All her childhood memories and what she had believed to be the love of a wonderful man...all of it now cast shadows over her future.The foundation of her life had been built on quicksand, and it was slowly sucking her under.

“You already had plans in place to move out of Atlanta before we became involved, Tatiana.If you trusted your grandfather, you wouldn’t have done that.Instead, you placed your future in the hands of Bolton Enterprises.”He lifted his shoulders.“I invested in your future growth already and have no intention of withdrawing that support.In fact, I will do everything in my power to ensure success.”

“How do you know about that?”

“I own Bolton Enterprises.”

“You...we’ve been doing business with Bolton for over five years.”Something vital collapsed inside her.The void that replaced her heart wasn’t despair—it was absence, a complete cessation of hope and faith that left her hollow.At that moment, Tatiana Polov’s dreams of the future ceased to exist, leaving behind only the empty architecture of what she had believed her life would become.“You’ve entrenched yourself in my life for the past five years...and I didn’t know.”

“What do you want me to say, Tatiana?You were always the target...the one pawn I knew would cripple Gregor when I demanded the debt be paid...because you are his only weakness.”

“And in your demented assertion, some debts can never be forgiven, right?”

“Some debts can only be paid in blood.”His expression turned cruel.“If you insist on not honoring the payment, I am more than willing to change the terms and conditions.”With his hands in his pockets, he continued in a dulcet-toned voice.“So, what’s it going to be?You leave here with me as my wife, or stay, lose everything you worked for, and bury your grandfather’s bloodless body...because that’s what I’ll do.I’ll physically bleed him dry...like my family did on that sidewalk twenty years ago.”

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