Chapter 314 Chapter 315

Chapter 314 Chapter 315
Chapter 315

Nikolai’s POV 

The deception began subtly, like a small crack spreading across a glass sheet.

Nicholas started small. He borrowed my heavy dark wool coat, the one I wore during late-night rounds around the clinic perimeter. He adjusted his posture, straightening his broad shoulders to mimic my stiff, disciplined military carriage. He dropped his naturally expressive voice down an octave, smoothing out his lively cadence into my low, flat rumble.

From my seat inside the security monitoring room, watching the high-definition surveillance feeds, I saw him approach Freya at the edge of the courtyard garden.

She was standing near the koi pond, wrapped in a pale gray cardigan against the chilly autumn mist. When Nicholas stepped up beside her, wearing my coat and my face, she looked up with that bright, breathtaking smile that usually made my heart beat wildly against my ribs.

"You came out," Freya said softly on the audio feed, her warm almond eyes shining as she looked at him. "I thought you were locked in the server room again, Nikolai."

Nicholas paused, playing the role with terrifying accuracy. He kept his hands deep inside the coat pockets, tilting his head slightly just as I always did when analyzing a situation. "The server protocols are running smoothly. I wanted to see if you were still awake."

Freya let out a gentle, breathless laugh, a pale blush dusting her cheeks. "You never come out just to talk. Are you feeling alright?"

"I am fine," Nicholas replied in my voice, stepping a inch closer to her until the fabric of their coats brushed together. "Just... tired of being cold."

I sat frozen in the dark monitoring room, my fingers gripping the edge of the metal desk so tightly the steel groaned under the pressure. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to stand up, march down to the garden, and tear him away from her. But my cold, analytical mind held me down like a heavy iron anchor.

For months, I had convinced myself that I was too dangerous for her. I was a hunted ghost, a man bound to a path of blood and vengeance. If Freya could find warmth with a man who had my face, a man who wasn't broken by tactical calculations, maybe she would be safer. Maybe this was the only way she could ever be happy.

What started as Nicholas proving a bitter point quickly devolved into something far darker.

Over the next three weeks, the impersonation continued longer than planned. Nicholas didn't just play the role to win a childish game against me; he was actually falling for her. I watched through the cameras as he met her in the quiet research archives, as he walked her to her private residential quarters near the hillside, as he listened to her talk about her dreams of pediatric neurology.

The fake persona began to consume him. The desperate, insecure medical student who hated living in my shadow found solace in the way Freya looked at him when she thought he was Nikolai. She looked at him with profound reverence, deep affection, and absolute trust.

One evening, after watching them sit together on the wooden bench overlooking the foggy valley, Nicholas walked into our private living quarters.

He took off my coat, tossing it over the leather sofa. He looked exhausted, his handsome face pale, his dark eyes wide with a frantic, chaotic light.

"You should end it, Nicholas," I said quietly from the shadows near the window, my voice flat and hollow. "She thinks she is talking to me. She thinks she is growing close to the man who carries our mother's burden."

Nicholas spun around, his jaw clenching hard. "She loves the way I talk to her, Nikolai! She loves that I actually listen to her instead of treating her like a secondary variable in a tactical plan!"

"She loves me," I corrected, stepping into the dim light. "She loves the man she thinks you are. You are living a lie, brother."

"It is not a lie!" Nicholas yelled in a harsh, choked whisper, taking a step toward me. "When I am with her wearing your face, I am not the useless younger twin! I am not the failed medical student living on stolen syndicate funds! She makes me feel whole, Nikolai!"

He stopped, breathing heavily, the raw terror in his eyes showing just how deeply he had lost himself in the lie. Falling for her scared him far more than he cared to admit, because deep down, he knew the foundation was built on sand.

I looked at my identical twin brother, seeing the deep, fractured pain inside his soul. Despite the anger twisting my chest, a small, foolish part of me let myself hope. I hoped that if this was real for him, if he truly cared for her, maybe he would tell her the truth. Maybe he would drop the act, present himself as Nicholas, and give her a real, honest life far away from the dark storm following our family name.

"Tell her who you are," I said softly, my voice dropping into a rare, quiet plea. "If you really care about her, tell her the truth before it destroys everything."

Nicholas stared at me for a long, agonizing moment, his dark eyes unreadable. He did not answer. He turned on his heel, grabbing his jacket, and walked out into the cold night air.

I let out a long, heavy breath, turning back to the window.

The clock on the wall read midnight. It was time for my mother's late-night medication check. I pulled on my own dark tactical sweater, smoothed down my hair, and walked out into the quiet, sterile hallway toward her room.

As I walked toward my mother's glass suite, the clinic was deathly silent, the heavy silence hanging in the air like a cold, suffocating shroud.