idea what my father saw in Nina. Years passed after the accident that took our mother, and he’d never brought another woman home – until Nina. Hell, he had barely bothered to come home himself.
Initially, I thought Nina was just a passing phase for him, or maybe a midlife crisis, but I was shocked when he proposed to her several months ago. Nina might be beautiful on the outside, but she was rotten to the core. She was selfish, spoiled, materialistic, and an obvious gold digger. I had no idea why my father would date her. At least he was insisting that the engagement stay a secret for now. We still had time to get rid of her before she got too strong of a foothold into our family.
King followed me out of the auditorium, and once we got to the lobby, I stretched my back gratefully.
“Fuck,” Kingston said as he stretched his arms. “How much longer is this going to take? I have a hot blond with giant tits waiting at the hotel bar for me to get back.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m more worried about how we’re going to derail this marriage.”
“Why bother?” Kingston shrugged. “Dad will have her sign a prenup - he’s not stupid. And you know we won’t see much of either of them after they’re married.” Kingston pretended to be casual, but I could feel the anger and bitterness beneath his words.
I leaned up against the wall. “You don’t think this is going a little too far? How many long-lost family members are we going to have to take in? We don’t run a halfway house. And I’m still not convinced this isn’t a con of some kind.”
“Who said we’re taking the ballerina?” Kingston asked with a frown. “I thought we just had to meet her.”
I couldn’t hold back a sigh. “Did you miss the part where her grandmother died, and she’s a poor little orphan, all alone in the world?”
Kingston narrowed his eyes. “Grandmother? Nina told us it was their mother? And she’s living with guardians or something?”
“Nina’s a liar - there no way that girl is her sister. She’s been hiding a secret daughter from the world and tried to lie to Dad to cover it up. Plus, the ballerina is living with her boyfriend’s parents. Do you not see how this is all adding up to be a perfect setup? She’s going to try and con dad out of as much as she can.”
Kingston’s eyes sparked with menace when he caught up to what I was saying. “Nina or the ballerina?”
“Both,” I said calmly. “But we aren’t going to let either of them get away with it.”
Chapter 5
Katya
After the final curtain, Ryan and I went out into the audience to find his parents. They both met us with polite smiles, and Mrs. Logan handed me a bouquet of roses.
“Where’s mine?” Ryan demanded jokingly. Mr. Logan grimaced instead of smiling. Mrs. Logan tried to make up for it with a fake laugh, but tension strained between all of us.
I handed the bouquet off to Ryan with a smirk, trying to bolster our fake levity. This was supposed to be the happiest moment of the year, and I didn’t want to bring the mood down even further.
“Be a good partner and hold this for me so I can hug your parents?” I teased him.
Ryan laughed with a stressed look around his eyes, but he took the flowers. I inhaled the sweet scent of Mrs. Logan’s perfume as she embraced me, and I tried to ignore the ache in my heart. This was the first year that Babulya hadn’t been in the audience waiting to hand me flowers and give me a list of critiques. I appreciated Mrs. Logan’s effort to make this feel as normal as possible, but it was almost more painful to have someone else hand me flowers that should have been from Babulya.
My babushka had grown up with parents who adored the Bolshoi Ballet and instilled her with a deep respect for the art. She got a fierce sense of pride when she saw me on stage and structured her life around helping me to succeed in ballet. She hadn’t just encouraged me to dance at a young age; she had pushed me to excel and had been strict with the grueling practice schedule she had set for me.
I was lucky enough to be born with the ideal “ballet body,” which was long legs, a shorter torso, and a slender