Page 122 of Tarnished Queen

“Well, it’s an architecture building,” he says. “He liked architecture, didn’t he?”

I nod.

“And you like architecture, don’t you?” he continues.

I nod again.

“So there you go. An anonymous donation was made to revamp the college’s school of architecture. It was named after your dad.”

Nikolai makes it all sound so reasonable that I’m not sure why I was freaking out so much at the start.

“I—You—I mean… what?”

“Are you pleased?” he asks after a pause.

“I’m—Well—” In the shock, I never really stopped to think about it. But… “Yeah. Yeah, I am. It’s—”

Oh Lord, there I go. Just like that, I’m crying. Weeping, actually. Blubbering like a big damn baby.

Nikolai laughs and pulls me against his chest. “I didn’t want to make you cry.”

“So you did this for me?” I blubber.

“Of course I did.” He kisses the top of my head. “It was a wedding gift. I had it all lined up, but then they wanted to announce my name with the press release. I knew all the stories would be about me donating money instead of the name of the building. So I had to cancel dinner to negotiate. It cost me another million, but it was worth it.”

“Another million?” I swipe at my eyes. “How… how much did you spend?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.”

“No, it doesn’t. You don’t care about money,” he says.

“Well, I certainly care if you spent too much! And I’m guessing you did. They probably don’t name buildings after people for a couple grand. And you’re talking about a million like it’s loose change.” I shake my head, the news still not fully penetrating. “Why did you do this?”

Nikolai sighs. I can tell he doesn’t want to rehash everything, but he’s being remarkably patient with me. “I told you.”

“Not really, though. If you wanted to get me a wedding gift, you could have given me jewelry. Or a knife. That’s what Makar gave me.”

“Don’t talk to me about Makar,” he growls.

I hold up a palm in apology. “But the point remains. This is a huge, massive, absurdly extravagant gift. I just don’t understand—”

“Your father isn’t here to see us get married or have a baby,” Nikolai interrupts. “He can’t be with you physically, but I’m only lucky enough to have you because you were lucky enough to have him. He helped you see a brighter future for yourself. He did for you what the Bratva did for me. He gave you drive and purpose. He helped you become who you are today. And I wanted to say thank you to him for that gift. This is my way of doing that.”

My throat is clogged with emotion. I can’t even form the words.

Nikolai wanted to tell my dad thank you… forme. He’s thankful for me.

I thought seeing my dad’s name on the news was surreal, and realizing that people are going to learn and study under my dad’s name and go on to make the world a better, more beautiful place is overwhelming.

But realizing that Nikolai did all of thisfor me?

That is what steals my breath away.

“Are you going to cry more?” Nikolai asks warily.

Yes. Absolutely. If I try to speak, the dam will break. I’ll lose it. I have to channel all of this emotion into something else.

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