Page 119 of Beautiful Deception

“You just got married a couple of days ago,” Dante points out. “You’re wishy-washy, Viktor.”

“I’ve always done my duty. I was willing to marry Nadia to form an alliance with Erik. I was willing to marry Elena after Dante kidnapped Nadia. I was willing to step down from Elena because she didn’t want me. But what hurt me was being made a fool. I wasn’t going to marry for love. I made a mistake with Inessa. I have learned my lesson. I will do my duty once more. I will be allies with you again, Erik. As long as you keep Dante in line.”

“Hey,” Dante objects.

“Dante,” Erik warns. “Let me handle this.” He takes a step forward. “You would be willing to do this? Make peace with us? Marry Aria? Are you willing to divorce your wife? Because if you change your mind, Viktor, we’ll have more problems on our hands if you back out of this marriage deal with Aria Romano.”

“That would be ironic, wouldn’t it? Doing the exact same thing that was done to me? Talk to Elio Romano. Get him on board. Then we can discuss more. Until then, no more fighting. I’ll back off if you will.”

“Can you get Finn to step down?” Aiden asks.

I hesitate and the men all see it. “You know Finn is a wildcard. But I’ll convince him. If not…”

“Don’t kill my brother.”

“Easy,” Dante says, placing a hand on Aiden’s shoulder.

“I won’t kill Finn. He’s been an ally to me. But I’ll try to get him to come along. If not… then I’ll leave him for you to deal with. Make the arrangements. We can be allies again.” I walk away before the men can stop me.

I can tell they have a lot of questions but I’m in no fucking mood to answer them. I have been betrayed by my own wife.

I’ll never bring emotion into a relationship again.

Inessa

I untie my dad from the chair and he flops right to the floor. “Dad? Are you ok? Do we need to get you to the hospital?”

“We don’t have the money.”

“We do. I have thousands of dollars saved up.” I go cold. All my money is stashed under my bed at Viktor’s house. Will he give it back to me? I did work hard for that money. I deserve it at least.

Or maybe I don’t. I did lie to him from the beginning. I have no idea what I do and don’t deserve.

I just know Viktor hates me and I’ll probably never get that money back. All that hard work… for nothing. I’m back to square one.

“You do?” Dad asks, looking up at me.

“It’s at Viktor’s house so… forget it. I don’t have any money.”

Rage crosses his features and he jumps on top of me before I can even react. His hands are around my throat in an instant.

“Dad?” I push and shove at his hands but he’s not moving.

“You lost all that money? Now we have nothing. No way to live. You ruined us!” He tightens his hold around my throat.

“Please,” I choke out. “Please.”

As soon as he began to strangle me, he lets go. I suck in a heavy gasp of air.

“What have you done, Inessa? You married the man who tried to kill me? What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry,” I sob, curling into a ball. “I’m sorry.”

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking we needed the money.” I sit up so fast, I get dizzy. “I was thinking you weren’t doing anything to earn us money so I had to be the one to do it. I was thinking that I needed to survive.”

“By marrying the man who tried to kill me?”

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