Page 137 of Lovely Venom
“Where is Iliana?” I ask with a tight throat.
“Dead.” Valdrin’s eyes slip closed. “Tragic accident in Italy.”
“I’m sorry,” I choke out. “I, I have the comb, the missing one. Connor found it. I can give it back to you.”
“No.” He reaches for me across the wooden table and trigger-happy Quinlans knock their hammers.
“Stop. Stand down,” I yell at them.
Valdrin smiles at me. “I have a treasure trove of Iliana’s jewelry, original artwork, and rare figurines worth millions in a safe. They are yours,zemër.”
We exchange a look, and his eyes roam my braid dangling down one shoulder. “You look so much like her. The same green eyes and hair of Sokolov spun gold. That’s how I knew you were mine.”
Mine.
“How did Levin becomekyreand not you if it was rightfully your throne?” Connor asks to get past the mushy sentiment and lay out his plan for Valdrin.
“Levin’s mother lied to her father on his deathbed. She promised to see my father ascend to the throne. She and her husband then manipulated the council to keep them in power until Levin came of age. My father died a few years later. Under suspicious circumstances. My mother immediately made me bend the knee to Levin, fearing the same would happen to me. I accepted that I would not bekyreand that Levin would rule instead of me. I had nochoice.”
“And you stayed in the brotherhood for that reason?” I ask him to justify why he’d be part of this deadly criminal organization.
“Correct.”
“What did that have to do with you abandoning my mother?” I ask with a squeak.
Valdrin’s eyes close softly. “I was in love with her. I thought I was. For a young man who’d been stripped of a crown.”
“Did she tell you she was pregnant?” I ask, thinking of her letter. She spoke of a cold-hearted man whoisn’tthe man in front of me. But people change. “She said she kept me from you.”
“She found me and told me she was with child,” he says, deadpan. “I turned her away.”
“Why?” Connor asks brusquely. “Was a tailor’s daughter not good enough for you?”
My heart squeezes at how he is standing up for my mother’s honor.
“I turned her away for her own protection. And yours,” he says, looking at me. “She knew who my family was and was smart to listenandrun.”
“But why?” I pound the table, finding my voice of frustration. “You said you were in love with her.”
“There was an accident,” Valdrin says, his voice low, his eyes dark. “Levin got hurt. The result was that he would not be able to have children.”
“What happened?” Connor asks, pacing behind me.
“Horse riding accident,” Valdrin admits, and the men around me wince.
The picture sharpens. Hooves. Groin.Ouch.
“What does that have to do with—” I stop and hold my throat.
“You’re so smart,zemër,” Valdrin says with a pridefulsmile that reaches his eyes. “Doctors told Aunt Enya that Levin would not have children. She was fucking livid. She was already cunning and manipulative. If she knewIhad a child on the way?”
“Levin’s mother would have killed me?” I swallow.
“Iwas the rightful heir,” Valdrin gets passionate. “And I just fathered another heir.”
“My mother knew this, too?”
“Yes.”
