Lucian
We stayed with the Romanovs for a while. Katya had stories—so many stories—about my mother. Each one peeled back a layer of the woman I never got the chance to know. And with every word, a knot tightened in my chest.
I was furious with my father for keeping me away from them, for robbing me of this connection, this love. I saw it now—what I had missed. What had been stolen.
Instead, he left me with that ice-hearted woman he dared to call his mate. He abandoned me in that house, where cruelty was currency and silence was survival. And he did nothing. No defense. No protection. Just apathy wrapped in excuses he never even bothered to make.
He could’ve done the right thing. He could’ve sent me to the Romanovs, paid for everything with her money—the money my mother left behind.
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