Chapter 14 - Her Father’s Last Bargain
Vadim ran.
Elara followed.
Viktor stood in the main hall with Anna at gunpoint.
Two guards lay injured.
Cassandra and Daniel had been moved to another property hours earlier.
Anna had refused to leave.
“This is my home too,” she had said.
Now Viktor held a gun against her.
Vadim stopped.
“Let her go.”
Viktor smiled.
“You always collect strays.”
His gaze found Elara.
“Your father did the opposite. He broke people until they thought nobody else would take them.”
Elara did not react.
Viktor wanted the trust document.
She knew it.
“You can't have North Star.”
“I know.”
That surprised her.
“I want the ledger and Evelyn's recording.”
“Why?”
“Because prison is inconvenient.”
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Viktor's smile vanished.
Vadim had triggered a silent alarm.
Viktor dragged Anna backward.
Then another voice came from behind him.
“Let her go.”
Gerald.
Elara stared.
He stood in the doorway.
Pale.
Still wounded.
“How did you get here?”
Gerald ignored her.
He held a small drive.
“You want Evelyn's evidence?”
Viktor stared.
“I have the originals.”
“You're lying.”
Gerald tossed the drive onto the floor.
Viktor's attention shifted.
That second was enough.
Anna dropped.
Vadim moved.
Elara pulled Anna away.
Gerald tackled Viktor.
A shot fired.
Then another.
Police entered.
When the noise stopped, Viktor was alive.
Wounded.
Handcuffed.
Gerald lay on the floor.
Elara knelt beside him.
Blood spread beneath his shirt.
“Why?” she whispered.
Gerald looked at her.
“I can't fix what I did.”
“No.”
“I know.”
His breathing shook.
“But maybe I could stop doing it.”
Paramedics rushed in.
Gerald survived again.
Weeks later, he pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy, forgery, and other charges.
He gave evidence against Viktor.
He did not ask Elara to forgive him.
That was perhaps the first decent gift he had ever given her.
Viktor remained in custody awaiting trial.
The danger was finally ending.
But one question remained.
The marriage.
Vadim placed annulment papers on the table.
Signed.
Everything North Star owned remained Elara's.
No conditions.
No bargain.
“You're free,” he said.
She stared at the papers.
“Is that what you want?”
“No.”
“Then why did you sign?”
“Because what I want cannot be the reason you stay.”
Elara looked at the man her father had sold her to.
The man who had been offered her as part of a transaction.
The man who had somehow become the first person to show her what choice felt like.
She picked up the papers.
Vadim's face remained controlled.
Elara tore them in half.
He stared.
She tore them again.
“Elara.”
“Our first wedding was my father's decision.”
Vadim said nothing.
She stepped closer.
“I want another one.”
His eyes changed.
“One I choose.”
He reached for her, then stopped as always.
Elara smiled.
“You can touch me.”
His hands settled around hers.
“Are you asking me to marry you?”
“No.”
Vadim raised an eyebrow.
Elara smiled wider.
“I'm telling you that this time, you're going to ask properly.”
For perhaps the first time in his adult life, Vadim Sokolov looked nervous.
He reached into his pocket.
Elara's smile disappeared.
“You already have a ring?”
“I've had it for three weeks.”
He lowered himself onto one knee.
Then the front door opened.
Cassandra stood there with Daniel.
Both froze.
May you like
Vadim looked up at Elara.
And opened the small black box.
