Page 12 of His to Own

“That old fucker is a respectable man. He’s not some man who kidnapped my other daughter. Sergei is a good match for Elena. End of discussion.” Father storms out of the bedroom.

Nikolai sighs, running his hand down his face. “I apologize. None of that was meant for any of your ears. Elena, rest.” He leaves the room much more calmly than my father but I can sense the anger simmering inside of him.

Lana turns to the doctor. “Could you give me and my sister some space?”

“Of course.” He offers me a kind smile. It does nothing to ease the panic in my chest. Once he’s gone and it’s just me and Lana, she sits down beside me on the bed.

“Elena…” She reaches for my hand but I pull it away.

“Did you know?” I ask.

She sighs. “I…”

“Did you know that Nikolai wanted to marry me to that man? To… Maxim?” It’s hard to even say his name. “Is that why you wanted me away from him so badly?”

“He did play a part in kidnapping me. It’s normal I wouldn’t want my sister around a man who did that to me.”

I only stare at her until she sighs. “Yes,” she admits. “And it was because I knew Nikolai wanted to make a peace deal with him by offering maxim your hand in marriage.”

“And you didn’t tell me,” I whisper. The sense of dread building inside of my stomach grows.

“I didn’t want to ruin your birthday. I knew you’d find out eventually. But it wasn’t my place to say.”

“It was your place. As my sister.”

She flinches. “I know. But Nikolai hasn’t finished finalizing the deal. There was no point in worrying you if it didn’t come to fruition. I never thought Father would make another deal in that time. Sergei Petrov? He’s older than Father.”

“He wants me to marry him,” I say through numb lips. Everything feels suddenly numb.

“I will stop it.”

“How? How can you stop Father?”

She hesitates, knowing there’s nothing she can really do.

“So my choices are either an old man who disgusts me or a young man who scares me. And I don’t even get a choice, do I?” I squeeze my eyes shut to prevent myself from crying.

“Elena…” The pity in Lana’s voice wrecks me. I curl into a ball away from her.

“I just need to be alone for a while. Please.”

I can sense she has more she wants to say but thinks better of it and leaves the room. The moment she’s gone, I let myself cry. All the dreams I had: of being a writer and a working wife and mother are gone. I am a mafia daughter, soon to be a mafia man’s wife. I will not be allowed to write if I’m married to Sergei. I just know he won’t want me having an education and he’ll put his old, ugly babies inside of me.

As for Maxim… I shiver. He’s handsome but he’s incredibly dangerous. He could abuse me. Hurt me somehow. He already hurt my sister when he played a role in kidnapping her before. Who knows what he could do to me?

That unknown is more frightening than my future with Sergei.

The door cracks open and I lift my head up with a gasp. Sergei steps into the room.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, pushing myself into a seated position.

“I wanted to make sure my future wife is all right. You can understand.”

My stomach coils even more. “I’m fine. You can go now.”

“Now, is that anyway to speak to your future husband?” His eyes narrow as he walks closer to the bed. “I heard about everything. How your brother-in-law wants you married to another man. Your father didn’t mention that to me when he gave me your hand in marriage. I just have to say, Elena, that you are mine. The second your father said you were mine, that was it.”

I can’t speak. No words. No thoughts except I want to run as far away from this man as I can get.