"He's in his office, and he's furious."
"Good," I spit, whipping back around.
I'm not happy that my father's angry, but I'm not surprised, either. With everything that's happened, it was inevitable. Besides, he's always angry about something, anyway.
I walk past Danyel who barely acknowledges my presence and then into the building. It feels hollow now, like the life has been sucked right out of the walls while I was away. But maybe it was always this way, and I never knew it until I visited a place where there was real life and light. Now places I used to call my home don't feel like home. Stepan feels like my home.
The door to my father's office swings open with a nudge and my father stands behind his desk with his phone in his hand. He looks up at me with his eyes narrowed and his jaw set. Hedoesn’t even look shocked to see me. It's like his attacks on Stepan's family were simply his way of calling me home and he fully expected me to show up here.
"Sit down," he orders, but I stand there waiting for a moment. If the only rebellion I can offer in this situation is to resist his direct orders, I feel like I have to. I'm an adult now. I've been one for years, but I've let him control me. And that ends today.
Still, I sit in the chair across from his desk as he leans over it and glares at me. I'm transported to a time when I was just a child and he was angry over something I’d done wrong. It's the same posture, same facial expression, and he still thinks it's gonna work on me.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he asks, glaring at me.
"Papa, I need to talk to you."
"You need to talk to me..." He repeats it back, scoffing as he rolls his eyes. "You have ruined a deal that was in the making for ten years, Marina. Ten years!" His hand slams down on the desk, making me jump, but I quickly school my expression and sit straight again. I'm here to make sure he doesn't try to kill Stepan and for no other reason.
"I didn't ruin the deal," I say plainly, but telling him who did isn't my place. I won't ever give Stepan up, and I won't celebrate Maksim's death, either. But I'm glad he's dead. I hated him.
"Then tell me how it happened, Marina." His nostrils flare and he shakes his head. "You betrayed everything I stand for. Everything I taught you."
I cross my arms over my chest and force myself to hold his gaze. "I haven't betrayed anything you taught me, and I didn't end thisalliance. " I don't tell him I know Maksim is dead, but I'm sure he already knows I'm aware. "I wanted life, Papa. I wanted to know what it feels like to be in love, and I made a bad choice. But Stepan is a good man who?—"
My father snorts and rolls his eyes again, then angrily stamps his hand on his desk, interrupting me. "A good man? He got you pregnant knowing you were betrothed." He plants his hands on the desk and leans forward. "Do you hear yourself?"
Everything inside me wants to shout and defend Stepan, but I know it won't work. He has too many reasons to hate them. But he also has reasons to need them, and if this is going to work, it’s going to be a business thing, not a personal thing. He has to understand what's at stake for the organization.
"I hear myself clearly. And you should listen to me too. If you align with the Kuzin name, you will have the force of the Radin operation behind you. It benefits everyone?—"
"Benefits everyone." He straightens abruptly, and the rage under the surface is so crisp in his eyes. "They want my territory. They want my contacts. They want my daughter as a trophy and my grandchild as leverage and they'll strip this family down to the bones and leave me with nothing. That's what a Kuzin alliance is, Marina."
"You're wrong." I'm shaking now, lip quivering as I protest because I don't know what he'll do next. He might order Danyel or Filipp to lock me in my room or tie me to a chair. I'm here to try to save the man I love, but my father doesn’t seem to want to listen to me.
"I'm not wrong." He shouts so loud, I feel it rumble in my chest. "I've spent thirty years building this organization. Sacrifice anddiscipline and blood, and you want to hand it to the one family that's been trying to take it from me since before you were born."
"Stepan doesn't want to take anything from you. He wants to help."
"No!" My father comes around the desk and stands in front of me, and I have to tilt my head back to look at him. "You're a child, Marina. You aren't even thinking straight. All you see are blue eyes and muscles. You're a stupid, foolish girl."
My cheeks are burning with rage as tears well up in my eyes. I'm not stupid and I'm not foolish, except that I care about this man standing in front of me who doesn't give a single fuck about me or what's right. "You're wrong!" I stand up abruptly, hugging my belly. "I'm not stupid. You're a monster, and I never knew it until I knew how a man who isn't like you treats me." I'm not even making sense, but I know what I'm trying to say.
"I'll kill them all... Every last one of them." He turns, heading toward the door, and I cling to his arm, pleading with him.
"Papa, stop. Please. You have to stop this."
"I don't have to do anything." Then he turns on me, grabbing my arm harder than Filipp did. "You need to learn what happens when you disrespect me."
"Papa, no," I plead, resisting him, but he drags me into the hallway. My shoulder slams into the doorjamb as I pass, making me wince, and I see Filipp standing there watching this whole thing.
"You're an insolent and rebellious girl, Marina, and you have to be taught a lesson. They've poisoned you against me." Hecontinues dragging me toward the back of the building near the break room, and I'm scared of what he might do.
"Papa, you're hurting me," I whimper, now with tears freely flowing down my cheeks. I should’ve listened to Stepan and stayed put, but I really thought I could get through to them.
When we get to the break room, he pulls open the closet door and barks, "Get in."
"Papa. Don't do this."