Page 79 of Gilded in Blood

The question hangs between us. I could lie. Instead, I force myself to tell her the truth. “…Yes.”

The silence that follows is deafening.

The tears she’d been holding back finally spill over. “I see.”

I drag a hand down my face.

“But I need you to hear the rest before you decide what kind of man I am.”

She says nothing.

“When Michael hired me, that was the plan. Find you. Earn your trust. Use you to get close to your brothers.”

“How did you know Ilya was supposed to come get me in Manchester?”

I draw a slow breath. “Through Michael. He contacted me shortly after your brothers reached out to Konstantin.

“He heard that your brothers had reached out to Konstantin to bring you back safely from England. So he pulled strings, sabotaged Konstantin’s business, kept him busy out of the country. That’s why Konstantin couldn’t come himself.”

Milana’s eyes widen. “How could Michael have known? That was just between my family and Konstantin. Konstantin is loyal to my brothers.”

I shake my head. “That’s what you think. Milana… conversations like that are almost never as private as people think they are. Guards overhear things. Household staff hear names. Drivers catch pieces of conversations. Someone mentions something to the wrong person without realizing it. Information leaks. It always does.”

She stares at me.

“Not everyone around powerful people is loyal. Some people are loyal to whoever pays more.”

The realization slowly dawns on her face. “So when Konstantin decided to send Ilya instead… that’s when Michael contacted you.”

“Yes. I questioned him until I had everything, I needed to become him.”

She swallows hard.

“Then I came to England.”

“The plan was to use you to get closer to your brothers. Gather information about their businesses. Feed it to Michael so he could destroy them from the inside.”

“And then?”

I don’t answer immediately.

“And then,” she repeats.

“When he’d taken everything he wanted…” My voice lowers. “…he was going to kill you.”

The room falls silent.

“So…” she whispers. “You’ve been feeding Michael information about my brothers.”

“No.”

Her eyes snap back to mine.

“Not for a while.”

“What changed?”

I laugh once. It’s hollow. “I’ve been asking myself the same question.”