Page 58 of Corruption

“But Vaughn doesn’t care. You’re a convenient and advantageous scapegoat,” I deduce.

I still don’t know a lot about the politics and the relationships between the mafias and the different families and branches. But what I have learned from Isaak is that the Fantonis are powerful. So to accuse one of them of killing your family member and demanding they make it right is a good position for the Vorobevs to be in. Like the times I could get my mother to feel guilty because something she did or said was so insane, even she couldn’t find a way to justify it. She’d do anything to absolve herself of the guilt, and those were the times I leveraged that to get things I wanted from her that she wouldn’t normally allow.

“Vaughn certainly thinks so. Nadia and Alik, on the other hand, aren’t convinced. Nadia told Dele as much a couple of years ago. But what Nadia wouldn’t do is tell Addy exactly why she thought that. Just that it was some family conflict.

“But seeing as you have clearly fostered some kind of bond of trust with the two of them, perhaps you can find out exactly why it is they’re so convinced of that and get proof that will clear my wife’s name so I can break your marriage contract with Vaughn. And you can fuck his brother and sister-in-law in peace.”

“We’re not—”

“You don’t have to like me, Kiya. You can hate me for kidnapping you and selling you into an arranged marriage. But don’t play me for a fool. Hm?”

“And you… you don’t care?”

“Not particularly. I kidnapped you and sold you into a marriage, but I don’t own your body. The woman whose body I do own is upstairs in our bed. Even if she’d try to dispute it still after all these years,” Adrian mutters.

Despite myself, I laugh.

Adrian just shakes his head. “Regardless, these kinds of assignments can get dangerous. I know Eileen gave you the stun gun, but I’m going to show you some basic self-defense and takedown maneuvers. Just in case.”

“Just in case what?”

Adrian smirks. “Let’s just say I have firsthand experience in knowing that when a clever woman who can’t leave well enough alone gets in the middle of something like this, things tend to go awry. I won’t have my daughter helpless in the midst of it.”

“I’m not your daughter.”

“Lucky for you, everyone believes otherwise. Now come on, Kiya. On the mat.”

22

Kiya

Something tells me that it was always Adrian’s intention to see if I could figure out exactly who killed Isaak Vorobev Sr. and not just something he came up with upon seeing my closeness with Nadia and Alik. He’d always intended for me to get close enough to them to solve this mystery with the promise of getting me out this deal if I could figure it out. He was just smart enough not to tell me that was what he intended.

I want to be annoyed. But instead, I’m grateful that he waited. I was a nervous wreck just meeting the Vorobevs, thinking that all I had to do was play the part of his daughter. I would have probably actually fainted if he’d told me what his real intentions were, and wouldn’t that have made everyone suspicious? But now it also makes sense why he was so eager to leave me in Vaughn’s care until the wedding. It was never about getting to know each other so we wouldn’t be strangers at the wedding. It was about seeing if I could get close enough to Vaughn to figure out who really killed his father.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder Adrian doesn’t care about catching me in Alik’s and Nadia’s room. He can spew all that bullshit about not owning my body all day. But at the end of the day, he promised it to Vaughn, so I’m not inclined to believe him on that. But what I do believe is that he’s sure he can get the same result from me getting close to Alik and Nadia as he can get from me being close to Vaughn.

I refuse to use them like that, though. Not when they’ve probably been kinder to me than anyone ever has been. Took me in when Vaughn threw me out the house and didn’t begrudge me for it. Have been nothing but kind.

Besides, the answer to who killed Vaughn’s and Alik’s father is obvious. It was Vaughn. He had the most to gain from the death and has the most to lose if it comes out that Addy isn’t guilty, hence why he’s insisted she was the culprit all this time. And while Vaughn may be awful, he’s not stupid. He wouldn’t confide that in Alik and Nadia, and there’s no way Alik would think that of his brother, no matter how much he can’t stand him. These people may be part of the mafia, but I get the feeling that betraying and killing your own family for a position you stood to inherit in a few years anyway is a big no-no. Something unthinkable even.

As much as I loathe it, that means somehow I’m going to have to get next to Vaughn. But Vaughn has made it fairly clear that he wants nothing to do with me, and I’ve made it clear I want nothing to do with him. To suddenly want to be around him for no reason would be suspicious.

So it’s either outright ask Alik and Nadia or resign myself to the marriage. Those are my only options. Alik made it clear. He and Nadia might kiss me. They might touch me. They might make me come. They might even invite me into their playroom. But I belong to Vaughn. They’re not going to challenge him for me. They’re not going to risk the brotherhood for me. They’re not going to risk a war from the inside.

But when Nadia convinces Vaughn to let Isaak spend the rest of Christmas day with us after we leave the Fantonis after their Christmas brunch, I realize I have one more option. One I’m less loathed to resort to. Mostly because it doesn’t involve any deception.

If there’s one thing about children like me and Isaak, we’re more aware of how awful our parents are than we’ll ever admit to outsiders. We’ll defend them. We’ll make people think they aren’t that bad. But more for our sake than anyone else’s. Because there’s no telling who will go behind our backs and tell our parents what we said to cause problems for us. Better for people to think we’re brainwashed than make our situation worse.

But when we know we can trust someone. When we know someone is like us… we take the chance to vent when we can get it. We take the chance to ask for help to get out when it presents itself. If anyone could believe that their father is a murderer, Isaak would. Even if it might take some convincing.

To my surprise, it takes none.

Nadia and Alik have headed to bed, and Isaak and I are holed up in my room watching Christmas Holiday movies when I carefully broach the topic. He sees what I’m getting at long before I can blurt it out.

“You think my father killed my grandfather. I have to say, it makes sense. He had the motive and the most to gain from all this.”

His bluntness surprises me, and everything I had planned to say based on how I thought he might react goes flying out the window.

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