Chapter 6 - The Woman He Was Ordered to Marry|
I stared at Marius.
My mother's murder.
The words echoed inside my head.
My mother had died in a car accident six years ago.
She'd been driving home from a medical appointment when her vehicle went off a mountain road outside Salerno.
The police said she lost control in heavy rain.
I had never questioned it.
Not until tonight.
"Marius," I whispered, "did you know my mother?"
His expression tightened.
"Yes."
My stomach dropped.
"How well?"
He looked away.
"Elena, there are things I should have told you years ago."
I laughed bitterly.
"Of course there are."
He took a breath.
"Your mother came to see me before you started working for me."
I froze.
"What?"
"She asked me to give you a job."
I stared at him.
"That's impossible. I applied through the agency."
"She arranged for your application to reach me."
My heart hammered.
"Why?"
"Because she believed you would be safer near me."
I shook my head.
"Safer from what?"
Marius looked toward the window.
"Your father."
The room seemed to tilt.
"My father?"
He nodded.
"Sergei Volkov wasn't the man you remember."
I folded my arms.
"Then tell me who he was."
Marius hesitated.
"He worked with my father. Together they controlled several shipping operations between Russia and Italy."
"And?"
"Some of those operations were illegal."
I stared.
"What kind?"
"Weapons. Money. People who wanted to disappear."
My stomach tightened.
Marius continued.
"Your father took money from the wrong partners. When my father discovered it, he tried to end the arrangement."
"And Viktor?"
"Viktor was supposed to negotiate peace."
I looked away.
Everything my mother wrote was beginning to make a terrible kind of sense.
Marius's voice lowered.
"Then Alexei was murdered. Sergei disappeared. Viktor was blamed."
I turned back.
"And you believed Viktor killed him."
"Yes."
"But my mother knew that wasn't true."
Marius nodded.
"She believed Sergei arranged the murder."
I stared.
My father.
The man who taught me to ride a bicycle.
The man who used to lift me onto his shoulders at Christmas markets.
The man who called me his little star.
Could he have murdered another man's father?
I sat down.
My legs wouldn't hold me.
Marius remained near the window.
For once, he didn't come closer.
"Why did my mother ask you to hire me?"
"Because Sergei was looking for you."
My breath caught.
"What?"
"She told me he'd discovered where you were living."
I stared.
"And you agreed?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Marius looked at me.
"Because I owed her."
I frowned.
"Why would you owe my mother anything?"
He closed his eyes.
"She saved my life."
Silence.
"After my father died, I went looking for Sergei. I walked into an ambush. Your mother warned me before the men arrived."
My chest tightened.
"She helped you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because she believed I wasn't responsible for my father's crimes."
I looked down.
For years, I'd thought I earned my position through hard work.
I had worked hard.
But the opportunity itself had been arranged.
By my mother.
By Marius.
Two people who never told me.
I felt small.
Foolish.
Like a child everyone had agreed to protect by keeping her ignorant.
"Did you ever plan to tell me?"
Marius's voice broke.
"Yes."
"When?"
He couldn't answer.
I laughed through tears.
"Exactly."
I stood.
"I need time."
He nodded.
"I understand."
"I need space."
"Of course."
"And I need you to stop treating me like something you own."
His face tightened.
"I know."
I took a breath.
"Then I'm resigning."
The words hung between us.
Marius went completely still.
"What?"
"I'm resigning."
"Elena—"
"I can't keep working for you while trying to understand what I feel about you."
He looked devastated.
"You're leaving?"
"Yes."
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he nodded slowly.
"I'll have the necessary documents prepared."
I blinked.
That was it?
No argument?
No command?
Marius looked at me with heartbreaking sadness.
"If staying means you feel trapped, then I won't ask you to stay."
Tears filled my eyes.
I turned away before he could see them.
The next morning, I moved into a small hotel overlooking the Gulf of Naples.
No guards.
No drivers.
No schedules.
For the first time in three years, nobody knew where I was going.
I should have felt free.
Instead, I felt lost.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice spoke in English.
"Elena Volkov?"
"Yes?"
"My name is Sofia Orlov."
I froze.
Orlov.
"Marius's sister?"
"His fiancée."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
The woman laughed softly.
"Oh, darling. He didn't tell you?"
I couldn't breathe.
"Tell me what?"
Sofia's voice became cold.
"That our families signed a marriage agreement six months ago."
I gripped the phone.
"That's impossible."
"Is it?"
A photograph arrived.
Marius stood beside a beautiful dark-haired woman wearing a diamond ring.
He was dressed in a black suit.
She was smiling.
On the table between them lay a signed agreement.
Sofia continued:
"Marius Orlov is supposed to marry me next month."
My eyes filled with tears.
May you like
Then she whispered:
"And if you don't stay away from him, your father will be the one who makes sure you regret it."
