Page 107 of His Prince

“I did it for a reason.”

“Tell it to the priests. I don’t give a fuck.”

I frown at that. “I’m tellingyou.”

“Well, I don’t want to hear it, okay? I don’t want your lame excuses. I’m over it and I’m over you.”

“You have to hear it,” I reply and then inhale deeply. “You need to hear it.”

His eyes flicker with rage and he inhales sharply.“You had months to tell me and you didn’t. You lied to me, Mikhail!”

“Because I had to! Because I was weak!”

My roar makes him freeze, and I stalk toward him, unable to keep my trembling hands to myself. They move to his shoulders and squeeze roughly.

“Don’t touch me,” he says softly, but I don’t let go. I just hold on tighter.

“She murdered them all. One by one. She took my family from me.”

Angel’s face pales, a wash of pink from his cheeks, turning him ghostly white.

“What? What do you mean?”

“She killed both my parents and my grandmother, sólnyshko. So I killed her.”

My revelation silences him. He’s staring up at me, slack-jawed, eyes as wide as saucers.

“Mikhail…”

“You hate me for it, I know. But I did it to avenge them. I did it so Ivan wouldn’t be next, so that I wouldn’t be next.”

“She—what?”

“She. Killed. Them. All three of them. My family was everythingto me. And she took them from me. I couldn’t let her take what little was left.”

“I didn’t?—”

“You didn’t know. No one does. Only a select few.”

“Who?” he asks, and I swallow.

“Nina and Georgiy. And Ivan, of course.”

He nods and my fingers fall from him, landing at my sides. I don’t know what to say. I have nothing left to say. But I wish I did know. I wish I had the words to make my Angel understand. To stop him looking at me like I’m a stranger.

“What about the guards?”

“They know nothing. It was before their time. I hired new guards after what happened because I couldn’t trust the old ones anymore.”

“Why did she do it?” he asks, and I stare at him, my beautiful Angel.

“She hated us. All of us. My father ruined her family, and so she sought to ruin us. And she did. She took everything from us. From me. I had no idea when I married her. I stupidly believed that she loved me, as I loved her. But I was mistaken. All along, every damned day, she was planning this. To ruin us.”

“How? How did they die?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“I do, Mikhail. I want to know everything.”

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