He scoffs. “Right. Just business. Like getting married to my ex-girlfriend? That kind of usual business? Tatiana told me you were getting married. Never got an invite, Brother.”
My throat closes. I knew this was coming, inevitable from the moment I saw him, but knowing so doesn't dull the impact of this.
“Tatiana has a big mouth,” I mutter. “Besides, you wouldn’t have shown.”
He leans forward, elbows on knees. “Lilibeth Orlov, Agafon? Really?”
The way he says her name with such familiarity makes me see red. “It was arranged,” I say, the words stiff. “A business agreement with her family.”
“Bullshit,” Nikandr scowls.
I hold his stare. “You wouldn't understand. You weren't here.”
“Because you didn't want me here,” he snaps, and just like that, we're fighting again.
“That's not true. I’ve always had the door open. You’re the one who chose to leave, who wanted nothing to do with us!”
“It is. It's always been true.” His voice rises. “You prefer me at a distance—close enough to keep an eye on, far enough that I don't embarrass you. Isn’t that why you had me locked in that asylum three years ago, Brother?”
My temples throb with the beginnings of a migraine. This is why Nikandr and I can't be in the same room for long.
“That's not why I sent you to that place. You needed help.”
“I needed my brother,” he says, voice dropping. “But that's not what I got, was it? I got the boss. The patriarch. The fucking judge.”
I scream at him now. “You were destroying yourself. What was I supposed to do? Watch?”
“You were supposed to embrace me despite my failures!” The words explode out of him. “You were supposed to see me for who I was and accept me the way I was, and in time, I would have changed.”
“I always knew who you were and what you were capable of,” I say quietly. “That's why it hurt so much to watch you fade away. I did my best, you hear that, Nikandr? My best.”
The moment hangs between us, and then Nikandr laughs with scorn.
“And now you've married the woman who started it all. That's quite the punchline for proving you did your best, Brother.”
The anger roars in me like a living bull. How dare he question my choices? I married her for one reason alone—him. And he sits here before me, acting like I’m the selfish one?
“You,” I say, pointing at him in anger. “You have no right to judge me. Not when you’re the reason I had to marry Lilibeth Orlov!”
“That’s rich!” he fights back. “You married her for me? I wonder how you justify that in your head.”
“I don’t have to justifyanythingto you,” I snarl.
“No, you don’t. But don’t you dare tell me you married her for me, Brother. That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s not an excuse,” I say with ice in my tone now. “I remember what she did to you. How broken you were. How much we all suffered as a family because of what she reduced you to. And I thought—”
Nikandr’s eyes widen, and he cuts me off in shock. “You married her for revenge? Because of me?”
I don't answer.
“Jesus Christ, Agafon.” He leans back in his seat, disgust written across his features. “That's fucking pathetic.”
“I did it for you,” I snarl, but the words ring hollow even to my ears. “She destroyed you. I watched you disappear piece by piece, and she was the trigger. I wanted to—”
“To what? Make her pay? By marrying her? Do you hear yourself? You married a woman to punish her for breaking up with me years ago? That's not revenge, that's—” He stops, eyes widening as something else occurs to him. “Unless...”
“Unless what?” I demand.
