Page 156 of His Forced Bride
I'm not a murderer. I'm just angry.
"You're not."
"Then you do it for me. Because it has to be done."
My heart is pounding, and the alcohol is making my head swirl now.
"Is that really what you want? Me to murder your mother? Because I can't fathom the idea of your looking at me differently when it's all said and done."
There it is… that vicious evil I know exists within him.
"She poisoned my best friend to send me a message. She's planning to kill everyone I love to force my surrender. She'salready chosen elimination as her preferred strategy." I meet his eyes without flinching. "I'm prepared to give her exactly what she's earned."
Yuri nods, accepting my answer without judgment or surprise.
"Then we move tomorrow night. By the time the sun rises, Viktoria Mirova's world will be burning."
"What do you need from me?"
I take another swig and I finally feel like vindication is within reach.
"No second-guessing, no mercy, no hesitation when the moment comes to pull the trigger on everything we've planned."
"You have it."
"And afterward, when you see what we've done, when you realize what you've become—you don't get to blame me for the person you chose to become."
I sit down on his lap again and let him take the bottle from my hands.
When I signed up to marry Dominic, I was a naive woman with no sense.
That woman died the moment Yuri Gravitch put a gun in my ribs and made me marry him.
Now I'm nothing more than a murderously angry daughter who has unfinished business.
"I understand completely," I tell him.
"Tomorrow night, we destroy the woman who gave me life."
I expect him to approve, to smile at me the way my father would've when I made a good choice.
But he doesn’t offer anything other than a calm expression, as if he gets no joy out of this.
"Then we have work to do."
If I have to do it myself, I will.
And if he never offers me approval or praise, I will still know this was a good decision.
I don't even have to know why my mother left my father’s side years ago or why he pushed her out.
Knowing the evil that lives inside her is enough.
If she continues pushing, she will take everything I own, and I'm not going to take it lying down.
28
YURI
