Page 43 of The Brutal Arrangement

Maxim lowered his gun, pivoting sharply to narrow his eyes on me. “He fucking…”

I brought my gun down as well. I didn’t trust this woman, whoever she was supposed to be, but the men behind us wouldn’t lower their guns yet. She was covered. But as my brain hurried to make sense of the little she was telling us, my fury burned hotter all over again.

“He sentyouto marry me in place of Katerina?” I asked.

She nodded, small, feeble movements as if she couldn’t be brave enough to do anything more than that.

“He fucking tricked us,” Maxim growled, stalking back and shaking his head.

“I don’t understand,” Grandmother protested. “I didn’t reach out to him about that arrangement when I found it. He reached out tous. And he only wanted to with a… a…” She gestured at Lucy. “With a decoy? A stand-in?”

I was livid. Nothing pissed me off more than dealing with a liar. The feeling of being duped and manipulated wasn’t a sensation I cared to hold on to.

As I stared at this woman who swore she was my wife, this stranger, I knew the genuine terror in her eyes meant she wasn’t the mastermind behind this lie, this duplicity.

Anton Kozlov had tried to fuck with us, and he would regret it all.

I couldn’t tear my gaze off her, determined to understand why the Kozlovs were messing with us like this. But she gave nothing away.

“Who are you?” Maxim asked. “Where did he find you to send here last night?”

I almost wanted to caution him not to take her word for what she’d said so far, but even I couldn’t deny how this could’ve happened. She’d worn that veil since the moment she got in. No one had actually looked at what she wrote in and signed on that paper, her penmanship so small. We hadn’t spoken vows that used our names, just blankyesandI doreplies.

Then when I dragged her in here and didn’t turn on the lights to fuck her in the complete darkness…

Fuck.

Fuck!

I married the wrong woman!

All that she’d said so farwasplausible, and I regretted that I hadn’t taken a second to check that she was even Katerina. I’d been so annoyed to marry her—anyone—at all that my attitude was to just get it all over with.

“I am… Well, Iwasa maid at the Kozlov mansion. I’m just a maid.”

“Amaid?” Grandmother exclaimed, clearly astonished and offended as she faced us. “You married theirmaid?”

“I didn’t mean any harm. I didn’t know any details and I just did what I was told,” Lucy claimed desperately.

“You were told to come here and marry me?” I asked, doubtful yet not. We were aware that this arrangement was likely a trick, but not like this.

“Yes.”

“Anton told you to come here instead of Katerina and marry him?” Maxim asked, pointing at me.

“Well, yes. I mean no.”

I tilted my head to the side, narrowing my eyes. “Which is it?”

“Yes, I was asked to come here and go through with this marriage thing. But also no. I didn’t knowwhoI was being sent to.” She looked between me, Grandmother, and Maxim, as if pleading with us to believe her.

“Who told you to?” Maxim ordered.

She hesitated. If I hadn’t been watching her so closely, stunned at this revelation that I’d married a random maid, I would’ve missed how she slightly waited to reply.

“The Kozlovs,” she replied.

“Who?” Maxim asked again.

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