Page 18 of Love to Defy You
And with that, she disappears down the hall.
The vein in my temple throbs, and I clench my fist on the desk. Willow Baker gets off on driving men to madness like a sirenseduces sailors on the open sea, and I am just one of her many victims.
The moment I laid eyes on her, my death sentence was sealed, and I’ve never looked back.
With my unclenched hand, I pick up the phone and bark, “What do you want?”
“Why are you selling the villa in Saint-Tropez?” my mother demands.
I hold the phone away from my ear to avoid the shrillness of her voice. “Because we don’t need it anymore,Mat’.”
She scoffs. “Don’t be ridiculous. What if I wanted to spend a spa weekend there?”
“Then stay at a hotel.”
“Don’t give me that attitude, Aleksandr. That American sarcasm is rubbing off on you, and I don’t like it.”
The leather groans as I lean back in my executive chair. “I’m selling the villa, and that’s final. Your apartment in Paris will remain untouched.”
“Your father and I bought that villa together before you were even born. You can’t just sell it.”
I bite back a growl. “Yes, I can. That’s whyOtetsleft me in charge of the estate and not you.”
The line goes quiet.
It’s a low blow, but I am sick of these calls. All she does is yell and vent her frustration at me, and it doesn’t change a thing. The estate needs cash flow from somewhere, and the idea of my mother getting a job is laughable.
“What else are you putting on the market?” she asks coldly. “The country home in the Cotswolds? The townhome in Prague?”
My fist clenches tighter. “Both of them.”
She lets out a dramatic gasp, and I imagine my dearmat’clutching her pearl necklace on a chaise lounge in her luxuriousFrench parlor. “The chalet in St. Moritz? We spent every Christmas there when your father was still alive.”
“The chalet is safe,” I explain.
“Well, it’s good to know you haven’t turned completely heartless.”
I let out a cool laugh. “Will that be all?”
“Did you speak to the Vasilievs about increasing my allowance?” she asks. “I just took Ana shopping for school last week, and we need more money.”
“It’s not happening. All you do is blow through your allowance, which is more than enough to support you both, and now I have to sell off assets to support your ridiculous lifestyle.”
“That’s your job, Aleksandr. Your father expected you to provide for me and your sister, but instead you’re gallivanting through Europe with that American whore and no plan—“
I disconnect the call and slam the phone on the desk. My mother may speak to me however she wants, but I will not tolerate her vitriol against Willow.
Rubbing my temples doesn’t alleviate the headache caused by Olga Kurochkina’s screeching. My mother is a succubus who takes and takes until there’s nothing left. Not even my sanity.
I stare at the open finance textbook lying on my desk. Now that I won’t be ascending to the Andarusian presidency, I must forge a new path, whatever that is. Women in my life depend on me to step up and provide, whether or not I like it.
Weltner College has an excellent finance program, but the true value lies in its elite alumni network. The university has produced many of Europe’s wealthiest people, and I intend to remain among them by forging contacts with powerful men.
It’s how my grandfather became the president of Andarusia, by leveraging his connections. He wrote the playbook on rising to power, and my father wrote the chapter on how to destroy it.
Whatever I choose to do—or whomever I choose to be—I refuse to follow Grigor Kurochkin’s footsteps.
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