Page 61 of Hooked On Victor
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Confirmation,” he said.
She moved closer, her free hand coming to rest over his heart.
“Of what?” she asked, softer now.
He didn’t answer right away. Just looked past her, out over the rolling hills, the dark line of cypress, the vault hidden far away beneath layers of stone and memory.
Then he met her gaze, and there was something almost peaceful in the way his eyes settled.
“That we made the right choice,” he said simply.
She exhaled, leaning her forehead against his.
“And that?” she murmured, nodding at the empty space where the man had stood.
Victor’s mouth curved—not quite a smile.
“They’re afraid of the truth,” he said.
His hand found hers, their fingers threading together in the cold.
“And they should be.”
Chapter seventeen
Chapter 17 – The World Watches
he drop happened at midnight, and it didn’t begin with fireworks.
It began with a quiet ripple.
A link slipped like a dagger between the ribs of history itself.
No press release. No publicist spin. No royal seal to lend it authority.
Just a line of text posted anonymously to obscure historian forums and encrypted networks used by archivists who traded in fragile truths like currency:
The Echo Ledger: Primary Documents on the Romanov Fall.
At first it barely registered.
A curiosity.
A dare.
But the file was real.
It cracked open like a crypt.
Scanned letters bearing the Tsar’s stiff, deliberate hand. Private notes in the Tsarina’s looping, elegant scrawl. Accounts from bribed officers, listing sums next to hastily drawn skulls.
“We are prisoners in our own palace. Even our allies negotiate the price of our corpses.”
“Send the gold to Paris. No one will speak if they’re paid.”
“Tell them the child does not exist. Even if it is a lie.”
