Page 68 of Chain Me

“But this?” I stop pacing, planting my feet. “This is mine. She's mine. And I'm not giving that up. Not even for family.”

The silence stretches between us like a chasm.

“So that's it?” Nikolai's voice is carefully controlled. “You're choosing her over us?”

“I'm choosing myself. For the first time in my life, I'm choosing what I want instead of what's expected.”

Alexi breaks the silence first, clapping slowly. “About fucking time.”

“What?” I stare at him.

“We've been waiting for you to grow a spine for years.” He grins. “I was starting to think you'd died and been replaced by a duty-obsessed robot.”

Dmitri nods, surprising me. “Remember when we were kids, and you used to sneak out to feed that stray dog? You'd rather take a beating from father than let anything happen to something you cared about.”

“That was different?—”

Nikolai remains quiet, swirling wine in his glass. The silence stretches until he finally speaks.

“You're right.”

“I'm what?”

“About all of us being fucked up. About choosing what we wanted.” He looks at Sofia. “I stalked my wife for weeks before she gave me the time of day. If someone had told me to walk away for the good of the family, I'd have told them to go to hell.”

Sofia laughs, the sound cutting through the tension like a blade. “So, we're all in agreement that this family makes terrible life choices?”

“Speak for yourself,” Alexi protests. “My life choices are perfectly reasonable.”

“You once hacked into NASA because you were bored on a Tuesday,” Dmitri points out.

“That was research.”

“For what?”

“Classified.”

I feel the knot in my chest loosening for the first time since Sofia delivered the news. “You're all insane.”

“Says the man planning to storm a fortress for a woman he held captive,” Nikolai observes dryly.

“When you put it like that, it sounds romantic,” Sofia adds with a straight face.

Alexi snorts. “Nothing says true love like Stockholm syndrome.”

“It wasn't Stockholm syndrome.” The words come out sharper than I intended. “She—” I stop because explaining what Katarina is to me feels impossible.

“She what?” Dmitri leans forward despite his injury. “Come on, enlighten us. What makes the ice princess worth starting a war over?”

“She argues with me.” The admission surprises even me. “Every day. About everything. She doesn't back down, doesn't try to manage me or placate me. She just... fights.”

“Most people fight with you,” Alexi points out. “You're not exactly sunshine and rainbows.”

“Not like her.” I rake my hands through my hair. “She fights like she's trying to understand me, not beat me. Like the argument itself matters, not just winning it.”

“Jesus,” Dmitri mutters. “You're completely gone.”

“Utterly fucked,” Alexi agrees cheerfully. “It's actually kind of beautiful.”

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