Page 102 of Betrayal and Vows

“You think we’re going to run away together? Start over? What, like this is some kind of fairy tale?” She laughs but it’s filled with disgust. “There’s no escape. You of all people should know that.”

“I know more than you think,” I say tightly. “I know what Vadim’s planning.”

She flinches.

“What do you mean?” she whispers.

I hesitate. She’s clearly under a lot of stress and I don’t want to make it worse. “Your father. Your mother. They’re marked, Lena. Vadim’s working with another faction. He’s going to have them killed once you’re married to Mikhail. He wants your family erased.”

She doesn’t speak.

“Do you understand?” I press. “Everything you’re sacrificing—he’s going to take it all anyway.”

“I don’t care.”

That stuns me. “What?”

“I don’t care anymore,” she says. “Anton, I am exhausted. I can’t fight this. I’m done pretending we have a choice. I’m marrying Mikhail tomorrow, and you need to stop trying to save me.”

Her words slice my heart.

“I don’t believe you,” I say hoarsely.

“Then you’re a fool.” She turns her face away. “We were never going to work. I was never yours to begin with.”

“That’s not true.”

She looks at me finally, her eyes deadened and flat. “Go, Anton.”

I don’t move.

“I said go.”

“You don’t mean that.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “My future is with Mikhail. Not you. I will marry him, and I will have his children. You cannot give me the life I want. The life I deserve.” Her hands wave to gesture at the room. “I am Lena Rostova. I will live in a palace. I will have nice things. You… you can only give me a life on the run. I will never be happy with you. We had sex. That’s it. I am a Bratva princess.”

Every part of me wants to scream, to shake her, to tear this place apart until there’s no wedding left to ruin.

But instead I nod.

Just once.

I will not beg.

Never.

I get out of her bed. My chest’s caving in.

She doesn’t watch me leave.

I don’t look back.

Back in my room, I close the door and brace my hands against the wall.

My breath shakes.

My fists clench.