Page 23 of The Brutal Arrangement

She nodded, stubborn about it. “I can’t prove it, but I swear he had to be behind it.”

Hearing that Anton could’ve been a murderer should’ve shocked me. He was clearly embedded in the Mafia, a crime leader. Obviously, he was capable of great crimes. No shit, he’d probably killed someone. For all I knew, he was behind mass murders all over the place.

That fact lurked in the back of my mind ever since I learned that the Kozlov residence was a Mafia home. Until now, I’d tried to rely on the concept of ignorance being bliss. That it wouldn’t touch me. That this detail wouldn’t matter to me personally.

Now, it did.

I wasn’t anywhere near considering Katerina’s demand that I leave to marry some man she didn’t want. But I had to wonder if I would be safe here for much longer. If Anton was a murderer, was I safe at all?

Staring at this woman who had tempted me to consider friendship, I registered how shitty of a position I was in.

Maybe I wasn’t ever really safe here at all, with Anton nearby.

Perhaps I could be better off in another place while knowing my mother was completely cared for.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, but…

“It won’t last. It doesn’t have to last,” she added, as if thinking she was persuading me. “All you need to do is go in my place. You can’t deny that we look a little alike.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t.

“Just go in my place and get through the wedding. Then once I…” She sighed heavily. “Once I manage things here, once I finish looking for what I need to find here, then I’ll give you the signal that you can end it. You can divorce him. You don’t have to stay married to him, but I need you to marry him in the first place so the pressure is off me. It’s only temporary.”

“If it’s only temporary, why can’t you do it?” I lowered my hands, relaxing my arms. Hearing her add this caveat of not having to stay married changed things a bit.

“Because. Because I need to behere, where I can look for…” She shook her head. “I’m convinced that my uncle is hiding things here. Secrets and motives and… Just because, Lucy. I need to be here and look deeper.”

I told her that I didn’t want to be involved, and that was precisely why I didn’t try to demand further explanations. She spoke in riddles, but they could be her damn riddles. Not mine.

“The second that it’s safe, I’ll help you. I will walk you through the divorce process. And you’ll be free. Think about it, Lucy. You’ll becompletelyfree. You won’t have to worry about those outstanding bills or how you’d ever get her into that better place. I’ll even divert funds to set up an account to cover the expenses there for as long as I can.”

Katerina and I hadn’t spent enough time together for her toknowme, but she had uncovered what made me tick. She’d spotted my weakness. My mother was all that anyone could everuse as leverage, and I hated how well she was doing this. She had good points.

If I didn’t have tostaymarried to this reject she didn’t want, then…

Why not?

The idea of erasing the burden of bills and funding my mom’s care was an enormous motivator. Nothing else could be so effective to twist my arm like this.

But she had.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this.

“Fine.” I bit out that one word of agreement. It was out there, hanging in the air between us. And I couldn’t take it back.

Without any reassurances that she would keep her word, I jumped and took the bait.

Not stressing about money and whether my mother would be cared for were too good to pass on.

“I’ll do it,” I said, hating every second of the fact that I was agreeing to marry someone with the intention to divorce later.

I’d never had enough downtime to daydream about some magical happily-ever-after. Marriage wasn’t a goal when I spent every minute of my life trying to stay afloat and take care of my mom. But deep down, I had always hoped that someday, I’d find a man I’d want to love. That I’d just know when I met him that he wasThe One. That I’d marry once, out of love, and stay in that committed relationship until we grew old together and death did us part.

“You will?” she asked, almost cautious that I was agreeing now.

I glowered at her, pointing my finger at her face. “So help me God, Katerina. If you’re bluffing, if you’re lying, and if you don’t see your end of this agreement through and my mom isn’t cared for, you’ll have a lot more than your uncle to worry about.”

“No, no.” She held up both hands. “I will. You havenoworries there. I’ll handle it all. I can hack into the banking program and move the money without a problem. You have my word.”

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