I shake my head, suddenly feeling dizzy. “No. How would I? I never even knew what the Bratva was,” I whisper. “Ilariy, he… took me. Married me and said my family owes him a debt.”
“Ilariy!” Agafon sounds shocked, and I look up at his oldest brother, waiting for him to tell me this is all a joke.
“You seriously married her?” Melor asks like he can’t believe it. “When did this happen?”
“The night I found her,” Ilariy answers, avoiding my gaze. “It’s not how I planned to tell you.”
“Did you plan to tell us at all?” Faddey, I think, from how Ilariy described him in Cancun, asks. “We came because we haven’t heard from you, and now we find you’ve married into the family that—”
“I said that’s enough,” Ilariy cuts him off, like he’s protecting me from something. “She didn’t know.”
At this, Agafon steps in. “I think you two could use some time alone.” His eyes dart between Ilariy and mine.
Ilariy reaches for my arm, but I flinch away. In Cancun, I started trusting him. Now, I don’t know what to believe.
“Arina, please?” he asks, motioning toward the living room.
With trembling legs, I follow. Once inside his living room, alone, I feel like whatever we had going on is shattering with each passing second.
Even after Cancun, when I thought we trusted each other, when he had every opportunity to answer my questions, he didn’t bother to tell me he’s a part of the Bratva. I don’t know what to do but fight, to rage, to be livid by that betrayal of trust.
“You lied to me.” My voice is strangled as I try to hold back tears. “About everything.”
“I never told you what I did,” he counters, as if that’s a defense.
“You let me believe you were some hotel and casino mogul!” My voice rises, cracks at the edges. “You showed me such a different side to you in Cancun, and I think I finally understood the kind of man I was dealing with. Iknewyou kidnapped me. Iknewyou were dangerous. But I let myself believe that maybe—maybe—you weren’t the kind of dangerous that could get me killed.”
Then, I look up at him with tears in my eyes. “But all this time, you were in the Bratva. What is the Bratva, exactly? What do you do?”
He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, but for the first time since I started asking questions, he answers. “The Bratva is the Russian mafia. We control territories and run businesses. Some are legitimate, like hotels and casinos. Others, well, they can get us into trouble. Protection rackets. Smuggling. Some drug trade.” His voice weakens toward the end.
Each word drives into me like a nail. “And my brothers?”
“They do the same. Our families have been rivals for generations. Recently, your cousin Viktor crossed us, and it escalated into a war.”
I feel my eyes widen, refusing to believe what he’s saying. “How dare you?” I hiss. “Viktor might have done whatever, but my brothers are nothing like what you say. They aren’t criminals. Viktor crossed you, and you’ve painted us all with the same brush. How could you?”
Ilariy looks at me like I’ve crushed his heart, like I can’t see what he does, and it makes me feel small, weak. But I refuse to let him manipulate me.
“So, Viktor crossed you, and you decided to kidnap me. Why?”
“Because, Arina,” he sighs and speaks like each word is torture for him. “Your brothers helped him, and I thought you were involved at first. When I learned you weren’t, I thought I’d keep you as … leverage,” he struggles with the last word.
“Leverage?” I gasp, clutching at my chest from how it hurts.
“If I had you, I thought I could draw your brothers out.”
“That’s why you forced me to marry you? To use me against my family? All this time, I thought our marriage meant I was paying off my brothers’ debts, but … that’s not going to happen, is it?” My voice catches, humiliation burning through me as I remember how willingly I’d kissed him just hours ago, how I’d almost let him sleep with me.
“No.” He shakes his head reluctantly, and his answer burns on the already festering wound in my heart. “That’s not going to happen.”
“What was your grand plan here, Ilariy?” I choke as I try to hold back a sob. “Was Cancun all part of the plan? Were you… trying to seduce me to hurt me, like you want to hurt my brothers?”
“No!” he protests without wasting a second. “Cancun wasn’t planned. That just... happened.”
“Nothing ‘just happens’ with you,” I hiss. “For all I know, you arranged those men to chase us so you could play the hero and put one more feathered lie under your cap.”
Anger flashes in his eyes. “You seriously think I would do something like that?”
