Page 84 of The Pretty Savage

The hatred toward myself.

"I'm so sorry, Mama," I murmured, letting myself mourn the loss of the one person that truly loved me. "I am sorry for destroying your life." I knew if it wasn't for me, she never would've gotten caught. She never would've ended up in jail and I wouldn't have ended up in an orphanage that was just too happy to give me to The Schatten.

They were supposed to protect me, find me a loving family, a place where I could grow up and become the person my mom would've wanted me to be. Not this monster, this unfeeling, cold murderer.

My hand rubbed over my sternum as I worked through the thinner file, letting my tears wash away the misery brewing in my gut. There was nothing out of the ordinary here, nothing I didn't already know. My birthplace was the same as always—Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. My mom's name, my name, my physical appearance, with the exception that they hadn't listed my heterochromia.

I guess they thought that wouldn't be necessary.

Nothing screamed at me as weird, except… Except there was a piece of paper I had never seen before. There was a picture of a man I couldn't recognize.

His dark hair was slicked back, emerald eyes adorned by dark lashes and eyebrows in the same color as his hair, as if they could see through my soul. He was definitely older, maybe even older than my mom, but what interested me was the boy, a teenager more likely, standing next to him, frowning at the camera and looking like he would rather be anywhere else but there.

My eyes flickered over the text written in cursive on the photo—Oleksandr Morozov and Arseniy Morozov. Holy shit, this was Adrian's friend. But why was this here? Why was their picture in the file about my mom and me?

The letter behind it was written in Russian, and wiping my tears from my cheeks, I started reading, my eyes widening as the information finally registered in my brain.

My daughter, Oleksandr wrote, judging by his signature at the bottom of the letter. My mom's name was mentioned several times, along with mine, or at least, my real name. I… No, this couldn't be right.

I kept on reading, stuck on the words that changed everything I ever knew.

Elvira ran away with my daughter. Find her. Retrieve her. I want her with me.

His… No, no, no.

My head started shaking as I read and reread the letter, trying to make sense of all of this. I was Oleksandr Morozov's daughter? I was Arseniy's sister?

Was that why Adrian had this? Was Arseniy worried I would try and take his empire from him or something equally as stupid? My God, they were all in on this.

Adrian, Arseniy, Dante, and Jax. They probably knew who I was the moment I stepped onto these grounds. I wouldn't have been surprised if they knew who I was even before then.

Were they working with Heinrich to eliminate me? I knew he wasn't happy with me and I knew he would never let me go, especially not after I threatened him, telling him I would destroy everything he worked for if he tried keeping me. But this was low, even for him.

This was low for all of them, but I knew what I needed to do.

I was postponing my plans because I thought I could do this properly. I thought I could finish this mission and be free, but that wasn't going to happen, was it? They would never let me go.

Closing the file containing all the information about my childhood and upbringing, I slowly stood up, wiping the remnants of tears, of the heartbreak I’d experienced in the span of a few minutes, and started moving. My feet carried me toward the kitchenette, just as the lock on the door turned, telling me I was no longer alone.

Adrian Zylla thought he could fuck me over and kill me as if I was nothing but roadkill, completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but he had no idea who I was. None of them knew, not even The Schatten, and I would make them pay for what they planned to do to me.

It would've been one thing to try and attack me, to kill me, but it was a real kick in the teeth that they tried to make me fall for the man that was tasked to kill me. They wanted me to be cold? They fucking got it.

They wanted to break my heart and destroy my soul? They got that too.

Before he could enter, before I could change my mind, I took the knife from the kitchen and stood tall, facing him. I wouldn't be swayed, not anymore.

Adrian Zylla made a mistake betraying me, and I was going to show him just how badly he fucked up.

31

ADRIAN

Today was the day, or, well, the afternoon, considering it was already after three. Vega was starting to feel better. I wanted to talk to her yesterday, but instead of talking about The Schatten and her involvement with them, as well as my father's role in this whole mess, we fell asleep, until I woke up at eleven, leaving a sleeping Vega behind.

I thought I would surprise her and bring some breakfast from the admin building, since we had managed to empty my fridge and pantry, but Jax and Dante called me in, telling me they had new information to share.

Turns out my father was working with Heinrich, and I had no idea how to feel about that. I had no idea why he would do something like that, except that my father knew more about The Brotherhood than he was letting on. I thought we had a tight hold on the information we shared between us, but somehow Heinrich found out and shared the information with my father.

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