Chapter 28 Rekindled Fire pt. 1
Alina's POV
The office smells faintly of cigar smoke and polished leather. Viktor sits across from me, calm, collected, but there’s an edge in his voice I know means he’s thinking three steps ahead — as always.
“You know who he is, don’t you?” he asks, eyes sharp, resting on me like he’s weighing my every reaction.
I nod. I’ve replayed the image of him over and over in my mind for years. Aleksander. The man who broke me at eighteen and left me hollow. The boy I thought I would marry, the man I imagined building a life with — gone, discarded. The thought tightens my chest, makes my fingers curl into my lap.
“Yes,” I say. “I know him.”
Viktor leans back, folding his hands. “You’ve carried this for too long. That fire you’ve buried — it’s time to put it to use. He hurt you. He left a mark. And now…” His voice lowers, deliberate. “Now you have the chance to act. Are you ready?”
I feel the familiar anger surge, a bitter, beautiful burn that I’ve nurtured quietly for over a decade. “I’ve been ready for twenty years,” I say, voice low, deliberate. “He walked away when I trusted him. When I let him in. I’ve never forgiven him. I’ve never stopped…” The words hang in the air, raw and heavy.
Viktor nods approvingly. “Good. That feeling — don’t let it fade. Channel it. Remember the humiliation, the sting, the rejection. Use it. Don’t let sentimentality cloud your judgment.”
I remember that night vividly: the warm summer air outside my parents’ house, my hands trembling as I confessed everything I felt, the hope in my chest, the way he looked at me, and then the cold dismissal — his refusal to marry, to partner with me, to take me seriously. At eighteen, it felt like the world had crumbled beneath me. I never recovered. I’ve never been the same since.
Viktor’s gaze softens slightly, almost imperceptibly. “Alina, this is more than anger. This is… unfinished business. You’ve let it fester too long, and it’s time you let it drive you forward. But you must be controlled. Patient. You cannot let your emotions rule the moment. You have to strike when the time is right.”
I nod, my mind racing with memories and fantasies of what I would say, what I would do if I ever confronted him. Not just to hurt him — though that thought brings a thrill I haven’t felt in years — but to reclaim the power he took from me when he walked away.
“Will I be working with you?” I ask quietly, almost afraid of the answer.
“Yes,” he says, sharp and final. “You’ll be my eyes, my instrument. Aleksander left a wound in you that never healed. I can help you channel it. Together, we make him pay for what he did — to you and to anyone else who crosses us.”
I bite my lip, a surge of satisfaction coiling through me. The idea that my father, who has always been a fortress of cold calculation, is willing to bring me in, willing to let me strike alongside him… it’s intoxicating. For the first time in years, I feel alive. Purposeful. Driven.
I think back to the boy I loved — so sure of himself, so untouchable, so arrogant. The first time he smiled at me, the first time he held my hand, the way he promised things I wanted to believe — and then tore it all away. I haven’t forgiven him. I can’t. And I don’t intend to.
“You’ve waited long enough,” Viktor continues, leaning forward. “Twenty years of simmering anger… it’s time to act. And you will act carefully. Aleksander thinks he’s untouchable. He isn’t.”
I nod again, more firmly this time. The fire inside me is no longer just a memory; it’s a weapon. The wound he left in me, the ache of rejection and heartbreak, the humiliation I carried like a secret shame — it will all fuel this. I will not be the girl he left behind.
“I’m ready,” I whisper, voice trembling slightly, but full of resolve. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes.”
Viktor smiles, sharp and approving. “Good. Then we begin. Carefully. Quietly. And when the moment comes, Aleksander will learn the price of walking away from me — and from you.”
I sit back in my chair, heart hammering, mind alive with the memories of him, of what he did, of how he made me feel small, powerless. But that girl is gone now. I am not the same. And when the time comes, I will be the one holding the power