I had no idea anyone knew about that.

Isabella was a flirt. She liked to drive men wild. I caught her once trying to feel up one of the soldiers. He called her an ugly soul, and that night, I heard the commotion and witnessed the death of said soldier. Isabella had told my father lies, and he’d believed her. That was the first time I realized my sister was not a nice person. Up until then, she had always been perfect. Everyone said so, so she must be.

“What did people say about me?”

“That was the mystery,” Slavik said. “No one said anything. They had no idea what to say, other than she was the ugly sister.”

Tears filled my eyes as I looked down at my hands.

“I’d seen you, Aurora. I knew there was more to you and they were wrong.”

“About what?”

“You’re not ugly.”

“I’m not pretty,” I said.

“Yes, you are, and that is the saddest part about all of this. You are so pretty, and you don’t see it. Everyone around you has gotten you to see this person that, to me, doesn’t exist.”

“If you found this out, why did you marry me? Why did you wait all this time?”

He shrugged. “Duty was one. I’m loyal to the Volkov Bratva. He told me to marry you, I did my duty. I also wanted the time to get to know who you are.”

“That’s a lie, Slavik. We barely know each other.”

“And yet we sit here, talking. There is plenty of time for us to get to know each other.”

“If Mr. Volkov told you to, would you kill me? If the treaty became voided for whatever reason, you’d kill me dead. Even if I was the mother of your children?” I didn’t know where the question came from.

My parents said my curiosity would get me killed, and it would seem today was going to be that day.

“I will kill you, if I have to. Be loyal to us and our cause, and you live in peace at my side.”

As a response, it wasn’t very reassuring.

****

Slavik

I hated banquets.

Being surrounded by the rich, the powerful, all under the guise of helping those less fortunate. Even as I stood with my wife by my side, I looked at the sickening falseness surrounding me.

I was used to dealing with dirty people. The dregs of society, some would call it. I never stuck to the protocol of only dealing with my immediate Bratok. For my men and people who worked for me, I was everywhere. They never knew where I would turn up. Right now, as men and women donated money to several well-meaning charities to help the less fortunate from children to poverty-stricken families, I spotted one woman who owned a slave through human trafficking. This woman she beat on a regular basis. I had the footage of her beating this woman. She used anything from sticks to whips, to even clubs. Her anger was always taken out on this woman. She held a place in a senior role within the courthouse. The evidence I had was a good bargaining tool.