Page 1 of Darkest Sin
Chapter One
Mikhail
Iwatch her dance.
The graceful way she moves is stunning. I can’t take my eyes away. It’s like she’s floating on water or flying through the air.
She’s the best dancer on the stage.
Even in a sea of ballerinas, she stands out.
I clench my teeth together when she’s lifted into the air by a male dancer. The way he grips her waist looks too tight for me but she doesn’t seem to mind. Her expression doesn’t change. She still looks just as beautiful.
I want it to be me that’s gripping her waist. If I had my way, I’d kill that fucker for touching her.
But he’s just a male ballerina. He’s not a threat to me.
I will make Natalya Petrov mine, sooner or later.
She will dance right into my arms and I will make sure I take her pure innocence and corrupt it.
Natalya
I’m the principal dancer for the New York City ballet. I’m the lead in Swan Lake and I’ve worked for countless of hours to get here. Even though my father is a powerful man in the city, I still did this on my own.
At least, that’s what I tell myself.
I don’t want to admit that my father might have had a hand in helping me get here. The great powerful Lev Petrov. He’s the Bratva – the Russian mafia.
He’s not the only one in power in this city but he’s near the top. He holds a lot of sway.
If he wanted me to be the principal dancer, then he would make sure to make me one.
Which is why I’ve worked as hard as I’ve done. I don’t want to credit my success to my father.
At twenty, I’ve spent my entire life dancing and training for this very moment: to be the lead in Swan Lake. To dance both dual roles. The innocent white swan and the seductive black swan. The innocent one has always come easy for me. My father has made it clear I’m not allowed to date. My fate will be to marry another Bratva man to secure my father’s fortune andpower. He just hasn’t married me off yet, saying he wanted to wait until I was in my twenties. I know he wanted to give me a childhood and I’m appreciative of him for that.
The downfall of my father being as protective as he is, is that I struggled to tap into playing the black swan. She’s much more powerful and seductive and bold than I’ll ever be.
I’ve reminded myself that it’s just acting. That I don’t have to be like any of the characters I play in real life. I just have to dance.
Which is what I do tonight.
I dance with everything I have inside of me. Tonight is the premiere of our show and I want to make an impact. If tonight goes well, more people will be coming back for the whole season.
As I dance all over the stage as the night goes on, I spy my family in the audience. Third row, front and center. Close enough to the stage to see everything but not so close that they have to crane their necks back.
My three younger sisters are in attendance. Sasha, who’s only a year younger than me. She looks bored but tries to look interested. I know ballet is not her thing.
Next to her is Irina. Unlike Sasha, Irina looks fascinated by the dance. She’s a ballerina like me but at seventeen, she was too young to audition for the lead role. Instead, she’s been cast as one of the background dancers but she doesn’t dance every night since she’s still in school. She performs the weekend shows and I know she’s been practicing like crazy to get it just right.
Anastasia is the youngest at fifteen. She keeps trying to go on her phone but our mom keeps grabbing it out of her hand and making her put it back in her pocket. Ana hasn’t always followed the rules. She tends to be the most bratty out of us being the baby. I think our father spoiled her rotten sometimes.
Beside her is our mother. Tatiana Petrov. She is a striking figure with her brown hair cascading over her shoulders and hergreen dress hugging all the right parts of her body. My mom is only forty, having had me at twenty. She’s still so beautiful and other men notice. It’s always driven my father insane. If he had his way, no man would ever look at her. But he can’t keep her locked up – not when she needs to show her face in public. It’s good for the family. She can be the beautiful front to her husband’s operation.
My sisters and I all look like her, something she’s very proud of. I think she always hoped we wouldn’t look like our father. He’s a lot older than her – in his seventies now. They had an arranged marriage, something he strove for and something my mother never fully wanted.
It’s the reason he’s always been possessive over her. I think he’s worried she’ll leave him given the chance.
