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ANDREY
“Your father was not happy with Lev and Stacy,” Konstantin continues. “Not about the elopement but because Lev told him Stacy was pregnant.”
“What?” My eyes open wide. “Stacy had my brother’s child?”
“No!” Konstantin shakes his head. “Lev seems to think that Ivan and Marco made sure she never had the child.” His jaw clenches. “He also believes they wanted to teach Lev a lesson about going against them. Your brother nearly destroyed the Moretti and Belov kingdom expansion plans that would come from your marriage to my sister.”
“What?” Now I’m more confused than ever. “What the fuck are you talking about Zhukov?” He’s not making sense. Andrey had known his whole life that Lev was supposed to have been Pakhan—he was the oldest. “Why would my father and Marco want to kill Stacy for carrying the next Belov heir?”
“It’s quite simple really!” Konstantin shrugs. “Your father and Marco would’ve been royally fucked if Lev and Stacy had a child before you and Isabella. For you to be Pakhan, you had to have the first Belov Pakhan heir. Because that’s the Belov rules as laid down by your great-grandfather.”
“That’s bullshit.” I snort. “Lev was always supposed to be Pakhan. I’m only Pakhan because…” Fuck—it can’t be true, surely! “Shit!” Pinching the bridge of my nose, I continue. “Because Lev was presumed dead.”
“No! Not true,” Konstantin disagrees with me. “You were always going to be Pakahn, and Lev knew it. It had to be you because that’s what my uncle and grandmother demanded. Well, that’s if your father was to keep his head so he and Marco could mend bridges. Trust me, those two would do anything to get the keys to an empire they’ve always greedily envisioned.”
“No!” I shake my head. “That’s complete bullshit. Roman and your grandmother have no say over who my father picks as Pakhan. It’s always gone to the oldest son in our family.”
“Again—you’re wrong. Your father owes them a debt. You marry Isabella, become the Belov Pakhan, and have an heir.” He does his annoying shrugging thing again. “And it doesn’t always have to be the firstborn that gets to be Pakhan. It’s really up to the current Pakhan to announce his heir.”
“I know that!” I’m getting pissed off with Konstantin and his superior attitude.
“You know that the Belovs have their way of choosing an heir!” He looks at me questioningly. “Your grandfather Genaddy was very traditional and held onto the Belov traditions. Especially when it came to making sure the Belov line continued.”
“You’re correct, but my father changed a lot of my great-grandfather’s rules, which he said were outdated, much to my grandfather’s disgust. I can remember that they fought about that a lot.”
“Your grandfather Genaddy never wanted your father to be Pakhan.”
“Yeah!” I nod. “I overheard that many times during one of the many arguments they had on almost a daily basis. The old man accused my father of being the real person behind my late Uncle Grigory’s death until the day he died.“ My eyes narrow at Konstantin. “Why are you so interested in my family history?”
“Know your enemy!” He shrugs.
But I can tell there’s a lot more to his obsession with the Belovs. Maybe it’s revenge for my father’s part in Konstantin being sold.
“So you know exactly how to exact your revenge.” That nagging doubt about the man and suspicion I’m being led into a trap hammers in my brain once again. “Is that the real trap here?” My eyes narrow some more. “You’re taking me to a remote hunting lodge to finish me off because you no longer need me?”
“If I wanted you dead or captured,” Konstantin assures me, “I wouldn’t have to set a trap for you, or I would’ve already killed you when my sister set a trap for all of you.”
“Then what is this conversation about?” My suspicions about him are still high.
“Establishing why you and my sister were matched when you were kids,” Konstantin tells me.
“And how important yours and Isbella’s children will be,” Temur adds from the pilot’s seat.
“What do you know about your grandfather’s first wife?” Konstantin asks me.
“That my grandfather Genaddy not only blamed my father for my Uncle Grigory’s death but also for the death of his first wife, Anastasia, Grigory’s mother.” I run a hand through my hair. “He claimed that my grandmother, Colleen, tricked him into having an affair with her and she fell pregnant with my father, Ivan, while Anastasia was about to have their first child.”
“That’s not a claim. It’s the truth,” Konstantin says. “When Grigory was three months old, Anastasia had an accident and died. Colleen’s father made Genaddy marry Colleen a couple of months later to ensure the child was born a Belov.”
“Grandfather Genaddy loved to rub it into my father’s face that because of him, the Belovs lost one of the biggest parts of their empire—Canada and Alaska.”
“As soon as Anastasia died in an accident, her powerful Bratva family suspected it was no accident, especially when Genaddy married a pregnant Colleen a few months after Anastasia’s death,“ Konstantin reminds me. “It was Anastasia’s family alliance that had exalted the Belovs to the position of power they’d been in while Genaddy was married to her.”
“Then, when she died, Anastatis’s family pulled away their alliance, and all our ties to Canada and Alaska were cut. In fact, there’s a lot of bad blood there,“ I continue.
“But when your late uncle was old enough to marry, your grandfather Genaddy then managed to move the family to an even bigger alliance. Your Uncle Grigory was to marry Karina Zhukov,” Temur states. “And we all know how that ended. So as far as the Bratva in Canada, Alaska, and Europe are concerned, the Belovs don’t deserve their respect—your family’s trash to them.”
“Fuck you!” I glare at Temur.
