Page 65 of Depraved Royals

On Kal’s face, I see an expression I’ve seen before. This is how he looked at me when he asked me to marry him. When he bared his soul to me.

“At first, it was just sex. I only meant to toy with you. The plan was to kill your father and take his place, just as my stepfather tried and failed to do. But you changed me. You showed me a way out and gave me a reason to turn my back on everything I thought mattered.”

I still believe in him.

God help me. I know I’m a fucking fool. But why else would he come back to me?

Mel is speaking.

“So what happened tonight?”

“My mother and Simeon must have tailed us somehow.” Kal drops his face into his hands. “I don’t know how I missed it. But they ambushed us, and Simeon knocked Fyodor out. While Idina tried to convince me to follow through with her plan, Fyodor came around and—”

A crash behind me. My father is striding unsteadily along the path, shirtless, with a fresh patch of gauze on his injured shoulder. Mama tries to hold him back, but he shoves her aside, and she stumbles to the ground.

I’ve never seen him do something like that to Mama.

Papa has his rifle in his hands.

24

Kal

“Leave us, Brutus,” Fyodor says. “Take my wife and daughters inside. They don’t need to see this.”

Mel reaches her hand to Dani.

“Come on,” she says. “It was all a fucking mirage, Dani. He was a figment of your imagination, a daydream. No good hanging onto fantasies.”

Dani is still looking at me. I hold her image in my mind, knowing she may be the last thing I ever see.

Then she speaks.

“I am not leaving.” She turns to her father with a steady, unwavering gaze. “Whatever happens now, I will witness it.”

Brutus is shepherding Mel up the path, helping Marta to her feet as they go.

“Fyodor,” I begin, “I came back because I had to at least ask for your forgiveness—”

“And you may have it.”

I was ready to make my impassioned appeal for absolution, but now I don’t know what to say next.

Fyodor fills in the silence. “I forgive you, Kal. How could you do any different? Conceived from a brutal, dehumanizing act of violence. Raised to be a bitter, twisted creature capable only of wreaking destruction and havoc on innocent people. And I was stupid enough to show some faith because I wanted to believe the chain could be broken.”

“No, that’s not how it is. Not anymore.”

“Papa,” Dani says. “Kal loves me for the person I am. The good you saw in him was real. Why would he be here, alone and unarmed, if he wasn’t telling the truth?”

“You’re a poor judge of character, Dani,” Fyodor says. He doesn’t look at her as he speaks but keeps his eyes on me. “I thought I knew people, but maybe I don’t. You must get it from me.”

“Mama told me whatever I believe will turn out to be true. I believe this man returned tonight because he wants to right this wrong.” She shudders as she exhales, afraid to finish her thought. “Because we have our baby to think of.”

Fyodor closes his eyes for a beat, then opens them again, glaring at me. He looks as though he has a thousand things he wants to say, but nothing comes out.

I’m stung by the realization that, for the first time, I’m losing a man I thought of as a father.

Fyodor raises the rifle. I freeze and fix my eyes on Dani, hoping her father will grant me a headshot and put me out of my misery.