Page 89 of Corruption

“And then you betrayed her.”

“It wasn’t my intention. How was I supposed to know my father would sentence the entire family to die? Apparently, it wasn’t the first time Nadia’s family had been caught playing sides. But finally, I could do something to show my father my dedication to the brotherhood. Killing Nadia was just going to be an unfortunate side effect.

“But it turned out even better than I could have predicted. Alik married her to save her and fell from my father’s grace. My father should have taken his life and then Nadia’s. But he’d been so perfect over the years, he just took his inheritance instead and gave it to me. I thought all I would have had to do was bid my time. Wait for my father to die and then Alik to get rid of Nadia once he didn’t need to protect her anymore. But instead…” Vaughn chuckles mirthlessly. “Instead the bastard had to fall in love with her and flaunt what was mine right in front of me.”

“You would have let her be killed.”

“It was either her or the brotherhood. At the time, I didn’t think it was possible to have both. But when I saw that it was…” He shrugs.

“She hates you.”

“She’ll get over it once my brother is dead.”

“She wouldn’t forgive you for trying to kill her. You think she’ll forgive you for killing Alik?”

“Sweetheart. She won’t have a choice.”

He steps aside and nods for a young woman with a mask on to come in with a syringe to take my blood. I’m not stupid enough to resist while there’s a needle in me, so I let her. She leaves without bothering to wipe the small bleeding hole in my arm, and my mother groans back to consciousness. She glares at me as she gets back to her feet with Vaughn’s help.

“Wretched child. Hitting your own mother.”

At this point, denying she’s my mother is pretty pointless. But I don’t know if the denial will still come in handy later. So I decide not to answer her at all.

“My men will take you and your daughter to the airport. As promised, you’ll be well compensated for your troubles,” Vaughn says to her. Then he adds, “So long as you keep your mouth shut.”

“I appreciate your aid.”

“I’m not going,” I say stubbornly, glaring at Vaughn. “When my father finds out—”

“Even if he was your father, I’ve already got all the proof I need to prove his daughter’s nothing but a lying traitor who opens her legs for the first man who says some pretty words to her,” he says, holding the pregnancy test. “He knows what laws he subjected you to by giving you over to me. Now. Are you going to make this easy? Or are you going to fight.”

Obviously, I’m going to fight.

I fight even harder than I fought him and his men when they threw me out of his house. Because it’s not just my life in danger, but also my baby’s. Granted, I don’t know what I’m going to do about my pregnancy. Whether I’m going to go through with it. Whether Icaneven go through with it. But I’m going to fight like hell to not let that choice be taken away from me. I’m going to fight like hell to live to make that choice.

“What’s going on?” comes Isaak’s voice as he rounds the corner and sees his father’s security dragging me out the door.

“Kiya is going home with her mother is all. Go back to your room, son,” Vaughn orders calmly.

Isaak looks at me, then back at his Dad, and then back at me.

“No. You… You can’t—”

“Go. To your room.”

I see when Isaak makes the decision and yell, “Isaak, no!”

“No,” Isaak says and then makes his way over to try to pull me from the two guards dragging me out the door.

I try to push him away. Because even if he doesn’t care what he’s risking, I do care. But Isaak is relentless. Managing to tousle with the two guards enough that they let me go. The guards are reluctant to touch him. Him being the heir to the Vorobev empire and all. But that doesn’t stop his father.

Isaak only manages to push me aside before his father is upon him, yanking him so hard by the arm that it pops out his socket before he proceeds to punch and hit Isaak until he’s forced to cower on the ground and try to protect his head with his free arm.

“Leave him alone!” I scream, attempting to race forward to get Vaughn off Isaak, only for the guards to grab me by the middle and throw me into the car where my mother is already waiting.

“Isaak!” I yell, hitting on the window and trying uselessly to open the door while watching Vaughn beat his son. “Isaak!”

The car pulls away, and I continue to watch helplessly until I can’t see Isaak and Vaughn anymore.

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