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16. A deal with the devil

September 2026,
Ovzdusia, Soare-Luna Kingdom

Dimitri

'I love you, Ajax.'

I stared down at Felix, Louise, and Walter Richardson.

Felix looked at me and his eyes lit with recognition. But before he could say anything, his father spoke. "What is the meaning of this?! Why did you drag us out of our rooms and force us to come here?"

"The three of you are under arrest for blackmailing Katerina Van Acker into marrying Felix Richardson."

"What?!" Walter raged. "We did no such thing!"

Louise and Felix flinched. Ah. So this was the handiwork of the mother and son duo.

"Do you two want to tell him the truth or should I?" I asked them. Louise looked at me pleadingly before she realized that I wasn't going to budge.

Begrudgingly, she turned to her husband. "Kate had initially rejected Felix's proposal and then had broken up with him. I might have...used a contract in my favor and...nudged her to reconsider her answer."

"This is the original contract that was used to blackmail her," I said and placed the contract on the desk in front of me, "and I was a witness when Felix confessed to being an accomplice to his mother's crimes."

"Is he speaking the truth? Did you two do it?" Walter looked at his wife and son in pure fury. They shrank back.

"Did you?" he yelled.

Louise meekly nodded. If we were in a cartoon, steam would be coming out of Walter's nose and ears right now.

"I cannot believe you," he spat and then turned away from her.

"I need my lawyer. I am not talking without him present here."

"This is not the United States, Walter. This is my country. And here, what I say, goes. No lawyer, no courtroom, no law is going to be able to help you now."

"I want to talk to your superiors. Call the manager."

"Queen Avalyn and King Nikolai are not here. They're on vacation and I'm in charge."

Walter grew confused and angry.

I had plans for them. I wanted to back them into a corner and make them regret all their life decisions. I wanted to see them cower and beg. I wanted them to plead with me to forgive them. And the two main reasons I wanted to do it were avenging Katerina and gaining her favor.

But now, it all seemed pointless. She was already in love with another guy. And apparently had been for several years. I didn't stand a chance against them and their shared history. She had already chosen him. I was never even a competitor for her love for someone else had been declared the winner a long time ago.

Story of my fucking life.

'I love you, Ajax.'

Not even my soulmate chooses me.

That's what you get for being a heartless monster.

"I'm Prince Dimitri Volkov," I said. The confusion on their faces cleared up fairly quickly. Now, fear was the only thing that clouded it. They realized that they had dug a hole for themselves and were probably going to be buried in it. I should be enjoying this. I usually took great pleasure in making people squirm and putting them in difficult positions. But my mind was rather occupied by someone else.

I wondered what she was doing right now. Were they fucking? It was a happy, heartfelt re-fucking-union for them after all.

"You have two options. Rot in prison for a few years or," I reached into my bag, pulled a new contract, "terminate the contract and hand over the firm and all its rights to Katerina. To do that, all you need to do is sign this new contract. You can be on the next flight out once you do it. You have five minutes to make a decision."