life. You’re okay. Nikolas is okay. The vigilante is dead, and things are going to go back to normal soon enough.”
I don’t know how much of that is true. With Brahim dead, many of my problems will certainly go away, but I can’t shake what he told me in the house. That he’s Niko’s real father. That he was the man Brianne slept with before she met Dmitry and he changed her life forever.
Part of me wants to look into it, but I can’t. I don’t need to know the genetic makeup of my nephew. No matter what those tests might say, he’s a Morozov. He’s Dmitry’s boy.
And now, he’s ours.
“You’re really not mad?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Besides, I’m counting on you. You can become a lawyer and fight in my defense.”
She cracks a smile. “Yeah, sure. I’ll never get into law school at this rate.”
“You will.”
“Not with how much Dad still owes you. Nobody is going to look at me and decide to give me a scholarship. I’ll have to pay for it all on my own.”
“No,” I say, “You won’t. I’ll pay for it. All of it, I don’t care. I have more than enough money to get you into the school of your dreams. Hell, I’ll buy the school itself if you want it.”
She squeezes my hand. “Shut up,” she laughs nervously. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” I say. “I know it’s not the right time, but you’re free to go whenever you want. Right now, you could head home and pack up a bag. I wouldn’t stop you.”
She narrows her eyes at me like I’ve offended her. “Matvei Morozov, you have to be one of the dumbest men I’ve ever met in my entire life. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you or Nikolas.”
“I love you,” I blurt. It comes out without me even thinking, without even second-guessing myself.
Victoria brings my hand up to her mouth and kisses it softly.
“I love you, too,” she says.
Just as she leans in for a real kiss, I hear a small voice behind her say, “Uncle Matvei!”
Nikolas comes running into the room, followed close behind by Timofei. The boy gets to the edge of the bed and has the biggest smile on his face. “Hey, kid,” I say, reaching forward and ruffling his hair. “How are you doing?”
“I’m okay! Ms. Williams keeps giving us homework to do and it’s boring.”
I’m lying here with a bullet hole in my chest and Niko is complaining about his homework. I can only smile and shake my head at him.
“She sounds terrible,” I say.
“The worst!”
Victoria helps Nikolas onto the side of the bed, and we talk for a long time. He tells me that he missed me and that he’s glad that I’m not feeling so bad anymore. I don’t have the heart to tell him that everything is still sore and I can barely move, so I don’t. As far as he knows, I’m the strongest man in the world. I intend to keep it that way.
Behind him, Timofei stands in the doorway, watching as all of this goes down. Victoria must sense that he needs to talk to me, because she randomly suggests that she and Nikolas go get snacks for me to eat from the vending machine a few floors down. Nikolas hops off the bed, and together, the two of them leave the room.
When we’re alone, I look at Timofei and ask, “Everything taken care of?”
“Everything’s taken care of. Nobody is going to find Brahim’s body. The house was cleaned spotless too, and his car is being torn up for parts down at our junkyard.”
“Good,” I say, falling back onto my pillow. I need the Albanian to be out of my life for good. After all the pain and death he’s caused, he doesn’t deserve a funeral. He doesn’t deserve to be memorialized. He’ll die alone and no one will miss him. I couldn’t want anything more from the situation.
My mind trails off to Dmitry. For months, I searched high and low for his killer, for some kind of motive as to why Brianne had been kidnapped, and now I understand it.
Brahim claimed love drove him mad, but I know what love feels like. He didn’t love Brianne; he loved what she could give him. He loved the idea of owning her.
For a long time, I loved that same idea. Keeping Victoria under my control, making sure she was always nearby. But that wasn’t love either. It wasn’t until she told