Page 79

“How?”

“You left your cufflink.”

His hand moves toward his wrist. “The silver one.”

“With the black stone.” I turn the orange beneath my fingers without pulling it free. The cool, rough skin of the fruit steadies me beneath my palm. “The hotel gave me nothing. I called the charity office and described you. One of the trustees remembered Alexei Orlov arriving with Maksim Volkov.”

His face stays still. “Then you searched me.”

“I searched the Volkov name first.” I let go of the fruit. “That was enough.”

“What did you find?”

“Shootings, businesses, men who disappeared, and stories about women whose names became tied to debts they never created.” I look at him. “I heard whispers about the Blacklist before I knew I was pregnant.”

Alexei’s hand leaves his pocket.

I see the change in his face and hate that part of me wants to soften the blow.

“I found out about Misha three weeks later,” I continue, keeping my voice steady. “By then I knew what happened to anyone close to men like you. Children become a way to force obedience. Mothers become useful because they have something worth threatening.”

He doesn’t deny it, and being right gives me no satisfaction.

“You should have told me,” he says, resting one hand on the back of the bench.

“And then what?” I ask, stepping toward him. “I tell a Bratva strategist I’m carrying his child and trust him to become reasonable?”

“You decided I was dangerous without speaking to me.”

“You were dangerous.”

“I still am.”

He says it quietly, without pride. I turn away because honesty from him keeps making my old determination harder to hold.

Alexei shifts his weight. “You were right to fear my world.”

I look at him.

He continues before I can answer. “Men would have used the child if they knew. Belov is proving that now. I understand why you ran.”

My throat tightens.

“But I won’t accept fear as the only parent Misha had,” he says, gripping the bench harder.

I laugh, though nothing is funny. “Fear fed him, dressed him, chose his school, and kept him alive.”

“You did those things.”

“I chose them because I was afraid.”

“Because you loved him.”

The words stop me beside the flower bed.

Alexei steps around the bench. “You keep giving fear credit for everything you built.”

“It kept me alert.”