Chapter 86 Chapter 86
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX
Dimitri's POV
My blood turned to ice as Mikhail stepped out of the elevator. He looked old, and tired. But I didn’t care. All I saw was the man who had poisoned my brother. The man who had sided with my enemy.
Rage took over me immediately. It was hot and blinding.
“What are you doing here, you traitor!” I roared. The sound tore from my throat like the painful growl of a wounded lion.
I raised my gun, my finger tight on the trigger.
But Mikhail didn’t look guilty. He looked… confused and shocked. He held up his hands slowly.
“Dimitri? What are you…” he started.
I didn’t let him finish. The betrayal was too deep.
BANG.
I shot him.
The shot echoed in the hallway.
Mikhail cried out, clutching his leg as he crumpled to the floor. A red stain bloomed on his trousers.
“You silly boy!” he shrieked in pain, his face white. “What have you done!”
“What have I done?” I shouted, stepping closer, the gun still aimed at his chest. My men stood tense beside me. “You poisoned Alexei! Your own godson! And then you were seen crawling out of Viktor Orlov’s estate! You formed an alliance with the man whose daughter tried to kill my son tonight!”
Mikhail groaned, pressing a hand to his bleeding leg. But then he laughed, a pained, bitter sound.
“You fool,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “You absolute fool.”
“Explain,” I snarled. “Before my next bullet finds your heart.”
“I heard Irina had the baby,” Mikhail said, his voice strained. “I came to see my great-godson. To see if he was okay after… after what happened. That’s all.”
“Lies!” I spat. “You came here after siding with Viktor? After what Katya just tried to do?”
“I was not with Viktor, you idiot boy! I was confronting him!” Mikhail yelled, his eyes blazing with a fury that matched my own. “I went to his house to look him in the eye and tell him his daughter’s war ends now! To tell him that if another hair on your family’s head is harmed, I would peel the skin from his bones myself!”
I faltered. The conviction in his voice was real. It was the same tone he’d used when scolding me as a boy.
I lowered my gun.
“Don’t lower your gun, boss,” Ivan, my head guard, whispered beside me. “It could be a trick.”
Ivan. My most trusted guard. The face from Marina’s photo flashed in my mind. My stomach twisted, but I pushed the thought away. I will deal with him later.
“Why would Marina frame you, then?” I demanded, ignoring Ivan. “She gave me proof!”
Mikhail’s face twisted in pain, but not from the wound. “Because, Dimitri, you are not asking the right question. Ask yourself why I would do it. I swore on my life to your dying mother to protect you and your brother. Why then would I poison the very son I swore to protect?”
His voice broke. It was the sound of true, deep hurt. It wasn't faked.
My gun arm felt heavy.
“Don’t listen, boss,” Ivan said again, more firmly. “It’s risky. We don’t know if he’s telling the truth.”
Mikhail’s eyes flicked to Ivan, then back to me. Something hardened in his gaze.
“Have you forgotten?” Mikhail’s voice dropped, but it carried down the hall. “Have you forgotten I loved your mother? More than my own life. Why then would I kill her son… when he has her eyes?”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
It was true. Alexei had our mother’s forest green eyes while I had our father’s ocean blue.
My hand began to shake. The gun wavered.
“Then why?” My voice was quieter now. “Why would Marina frame you?”
Mikhail looked past me, towards the NICU door where Irina was. He took a sharp, pained breath.
“Because she is not who you think she is,” he said. His voice was cold, and final. “She is the culprit.”
Everywhere became silent.
The only sounds were the distant cars outside and Mikhail’s labored breathing.
Ivan stepped forward. “He’s trying to confuse you, boss. Marina has always been loyal. This is a desperate man’s lie.”
But I wasn’t looking at Ivan. I was staring at Mikhail, at the raw honesty and agony on his face. The face of the man who taught me to ride a bike. Who bandaged my knees. Who stood silently at my mother’s grave every year.
“The poison,” I said slowly, the pieces started to click together in a horrible new way. “Sergei said you ordered it.”
“I did not,” Mikhail stated. “But my signature was on the order. Someone in my office, someone with access, forged it. Someone who knew it would lead you to me.”
Ivan moved again, a slight shift of his weight. “Boss, this is madness. We need to secure the area. We can deal with this later.”
But it was too late. The seed was planted. I thought of Marina’s frantic warning about Ivan. I thought of the syringe in the nurse’s hand, the money from Katya. Katya was a blunt force. But this… this was clever.
Alexei had kidnapped their son Carlo weeks ago and it had led to her husband’s death. So she did it. And she knew we would never suspect her.
“You’re saying Marina poisoned Alexei,” I said, the full horror settling in.
“She avenged her husband's death.”
I lowered my gun. Just an inch.
“We need to get him a doctor,” I said to no one in particular.
“No,” Mikhail grunted. “Not yet. You need to hear it all. Ivan. Check his phone. Right now.”
I turned to Ivan and his face looked pale. He was definitely hiding something.
“That’s an absurd order,” Ivan said, his voice tight. “This is a distraction.”
“Check it,” I commanded the other guards, my voice was firm leaving no room for argument.
For a second, Ivan didn’t move. His hand drifted towards his own weapon. It was a tiny movement, but I saw it.
In that frozen moment, everything became clear.
The silence was shattered by a new voice from behind the NICU door.
“Dimitri!” It was Irina, her voice was filled with new terror.
I spun around. Through the glass, I saw a figure in a nurse’s scrubs standing too close to my son’s incubator. The figure turned.
It was Marina.
We had all been distracted. No one noticed her.
She wasn’t smiling. She looked calm and cold. In her hand was a small, thin pillow.
She was going to smother my son.
“NO!” I and Mikhail screamed at the same time.
I raised my gun and shot twice, but the angle was wrong. I’d hit the incubator.
I’d hit my son!
My heart stopped. I glanced at Irina, her face had gone pale. She was trembling. Tears streamed down her face. She ran in to check the baby.
And thankfully, the glass of the incubator didn't shatter. It was reinforced. The bullets left two starred cracks, but it didn't shatter. The baby began to wail. It was startled by the noise. The sound was the sweetest, most terrifying thing I had ever heard. He was alive. But Marina was still in there with him.
I was too far from the door. I would never make it in time.
“Ivan, stop her!” I bellowed, my voice was raw with panic.
But Ivan didn’t move to help. But he finally raised his gun. It wasn't aimed at Marina, it was aimed at me.
A cold, hard smile spread across his face.
“I’m sorry, Dmitri,” Ivan said, and he didn’t sound sorry at all. “The pay was too good.”
BANG!
He took the shot.