Chapter 42 Nikolai
It hit me all at once, like a building collapsing on my chest.
Fifteen years of hunting Viktor Rousseau and building an empire on hatred and revenge. Fifteen years of believing my mother had killed herself out of guilt, believing my father was a victim, believing Viktor was the monster who destroyed everything.
All of it was a lie.
The sound that came out of me wasn't human. It was something raw and broken, torn from a place so deep I didn't know it existed. My knees hit the floor hard and I didn't even feel the impact. My hands went to my face, pressing against my eyes as if I could push the tears back in, as if I could stop what was coming.
But I couldn't.
The tears came like rain, hot and fast, streaming down my face and into my hands. I couldn't breathe properly, couldn't think past the weight crushing down on me. My shoulders shook and I bent forward, curling into myself on that dirty floor in this safe house that smelled like mildew and salt air.
I hadn't cried since I was fifteen years old. Since the day I found my mother hanging in our apartment. Since the day I read that note blaming herself for everything. Since the day I promised her I'd make Viktor pay for destroying our family.
But Viktor hadn't destroyed us. My father had. Dmitri Volkov, the man I'd spent years defending in my mind, romanticizing as some kind of tragic figure cut down too soon.
He'd planned to murder me and Katya. His own children. To tie up loose ends like we were nothing more than witnesses who needed eliminating.
And my mother. God, my mother. She'd made a deal with the devil to save us, had testified against her own husband, had faked her death and lived in hiding for fifteen years just to keep us safe. She was the hero. She'd always been the hero.
And I'd spent fifteen years hating her for it. For being weak. For betraying my father and leaving me alone.
The sobs tore through me harder and I couldn't stop them, couldn't control anything. My whole body shook with the force of it and I felt like I was breaking apart, like every piece of the person I'd built myself into was shattering on this floor.
Everything I'd done. Everyone I'd hurt. Marlena. The contract. The manipulation. Using her as bait to lure out a man who wasn't even the real villain. I'd destroyed her life for revenge against the wrong person.
I felt movement beside me and knew it was Marlena. She knelt down on the floor next to me, close enough that I could feel her warmth, but she didn't touch me. Didn't speak. Didn't try to comfort me with empty words.
She just watched quietly, her green eyes steady on me while I fell apart.
Something about her silence was worse than anything she could have said. It stripped away every defense I had left, every wall I'd built over the years. She was seeing me at my lowest, most broken point, and she wasn't looking away.
I dragged my hands down my face, trying to get control back, but the tears kept coming. My throat was raw from the sounds I couldn't hold back and my chest ached like something inside had cracked open.
"Why didn't you tell me?" The words came out ragged, directed at Katya though I couldn't look at her. "All this time we've been talking. All the phone calls. You never said anything about why Mama did it. About Father planning to kill us. Why?"
Katya's voice was quiet when she answered. "Because you weren't ready to hear it. Because I knew it would destroy everything you'd built your life around. And because I needed you focused on Viktor, not falling apart."
"You had no right—" My voice broke again.
"I had every right," Katya said, her tone harder now. "I'm your sister. I watched you spiral for fifteen years, watched you turn yourself into a monster chasing another monster. If I'd told you the truth earlier, you would have done something stupid. You would have tried to find Mama, blown her cover, gotten her killed. So yes, I kept it from you. To protect you both."
The anger that flared through me was hot and vicious, burning away some of the grief. I wanted to scream at her, to make her understand what she'd stolen from me. But she was right and I knew it. If I'd known the truth years ago, I would have torn the world apart to find our mother. I would have exposed her, endangered her, maybe gotten her killed.
I wiped my face roughly with my sleeve, trying to clear away the tears that wouldn't stop coming. My breathing was still uneven, ragged, but I forced myself to straighten up, to pull the pieces back together even though they didn't fit right anymore.
"Viktor still has Elena," Katya said, pulling the conversation back to tactics. "My sources confirm she was at the villa tonight. He'll be moving her now that the firefight exposed his location, probably within the next few hours. If we're going to extract her, it has to be tonight."
I took a shaky breath and nodded, not trusting my voice yet.
"He also has a team mobilizing," Katya continued. "He's planning to come after Marlena. He sees her as his property, something you stole from him. He won't stop until he gets her back."
The grief in my chest hardened into something colder, sharper. Viktor might not have destroyed my family the way I'd believed, but he'd still hurt people I cared about. He'd kept Elena prisoner for years. He'd abandoned Marlena and Luka. He'd built his empire on the suffering of others.
And he wanted Marlena back. Wanted to own her, control her, keep her locked away like he'd done to her mother.
Over my dead body.
I stood up slowly, my legs unsteady but holding. I wiped my face one more time, clearing away the last of the tears. When I looked at Katya, something had shifted inside me. The grief was still there, heavy and suffocating, but beneath it was cold fury and clarity.
My eyes felt dead and cold now, all the emotion locked away behind walls I was rebuilding brick by brick.
"Then we end it all tonight," I said, my voice flat and final.
Marlena stood too, moving beside me. Her face was set with determination despite the blood still staining her dress and the bruises forming on her skin from Viktor's blows. She looked at me and nodded once, sharp and certain.
She wanted her father dead too. I could see it in her eyes, that same cold fury that burned in my chest.
Whatever happened next, we were in this together. Not as bait and hunter. Not as captor and prisoner. But as two people who'd both been destroyed by Viktor Rousseau in different ways, who both wanted him to pay.
Katya pulled out her phone and started pulling up maps and blueprints. "The villa has multiple security systems," she said, spreading the images across the coffee table. "Armed guards, cameras, reinforced doors. Viktor will be moving Elena soon, but he's arrogant. He thinks he's untouchable."
"Where would he take her?" Marlena asked, her voice steady despite everything.
"One of three locations," Katya said, pointing to different addresses on the map. "A warehouse near the port, a private clinic in the hills, or another villa twenty kilometers north. All are fortified, all have his people stationed."
I studied the maps, my mind already working through scenarios and contingencies. The grief was still there, would probably always be there, but I pushed it down and locked it away. I could fall apart later. Right now, I needed to be sharp, focused, deadly.
"We hit all three simultaneously," I said. "Split up. Fast extraction teams at each location."
"We don't have the manpower for that," Katya said.
"Then we make him come to us." I looked up at her. "We have something he wants."
Katya's eyes moved to Marlena, understanding immediately. "You want to use her as bait. Again."
"No," Marlena said before I could respond. "Not bait. Bait is passive. I'm going to walk in the front door and kill him myself."
The certainty in her voice was absolute, and I saw myself reflected in her. The same cold determination. The same willingness to burn everything down to get what we wanted.
"That's suicide," Katya said.
"Then we make it a very strategic suicide." Marlena leaned over the maps, studying them. "Viktor wants me. Fine. He can have me. But on my terms, in a location we control, with backup he doesn't know about."
"A trap," I said.
"A trap," she confirmed, looking up at me. "For both of them. Viktor dies. Elena goes free. And we all walk away."
It was reckless and dangerous and had a dozen ways it could go wrong. But it was also brilliant, the kind of plan that could actually work if we executed it perfectly.
Katya looked between us, her expression calculating. "You're both insane."
"Probably," I said. "But we're doing it anyway."
Marlena pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, her finger tracing possible routes on the map. "If we're doing this, we need to know exactly where Elena is. We can't risk Viktor moving her mid-operation."
"I can track his vehicles," Katya said, pulling up another screen on her phone. "GPS tags on three of his SUVs. If he moves Elena, we'll know."
"Good." I moved to stand behind Marlena, looking over her shoulder at the maps. "Then we pick our location carefully. Somewhere with multiple exits, somewhere we can control the variables."
"The warehouse," Marlena said, tapping the map. "Near the port. Open floor plan, high ceilings, shipping containers for cover. If things go wrong, we have the waterfront for escape."
I nodded. "Katya, can you get us blueprints?"
"Already have them." She pulled up detailed schematics. "The warehouse is owned by a shell company Viktor uses for money laundering. Mostly abandoned except for monthly shipments."
"Perfect." I studied the layout, my mind cataloging entry points, sight lines, potential ambush locations. "We set up here and here. Sniper position on the roof. Marlena enters alone through the main entrance—"
"With a wire so you can hear everything," Marlena interrupted.
"With a wire," I agreed. "The moment Viktor shows himself, we move."
They started making a new plan together.