"Why are you still upset, Lena? This leaves you free to marry whoever you wish, just like you wanted. Don't you remember how angry and resentful you were at your otets when he told you that you had to marry him, I'm not understanding why you're upset now?" Alexei reminds me as he sighs, closing his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose in aggravation.
I roll my eyes, continuing to skim through the photographs delivered this morning as requested. Stopping on a shot of him and that сука curled up on a blanket on the sand kissing, the anger and hatred that I feel for her is building to the point of madness.
"That svoloch knows how this life works, Alexei. Don't act like you don't hate him and his pathetic family just as much as I do. You know we can't just let this go unpunished. He made my otets a promise and now look," I scoff, tossing the pictures across the wooden table towards him. "He broke that sacred promise and dared to marry that blya shlyukha!"
Letting out and soft breath, I shake my head slightly. "Alexei, you know what my otets would have done if he knew this!" I stare at him, knowing that he knew what I had said was true. I knew if I used my otets memory it would help him see sense. He loved my otets more than his own.
Since his recent passing, Alexei has taken over as the Pakhan of our family and is determined to run it as my otets wanted. Families from around the world feared the Ivanov's, because of the power he enforced on our enemies. Alexei needs to remember he's got big shoes to fill if he wants to be just as powerful and notorious as Demetri Ivanov.
It's a shame that he was shot down in cold blood by one of our rivals a couple of villages away. Unfortunately, the old man had begun to soften as his mind weakened. I cared for him, but also loathed him for allowing my cousin to train and become the head of the family. In his eyes, a woman had no place running a group of highly trained killers.
He promised me my future husband would take his place when the time came. Then Caine Heart informed us his son had fled from the own family and broke the promise he made to my father for my hand in marriage.
"Damien Heart was promised to me, and as for that gryaznyy shlyukha," I grit out through clenched teeth, "I want her to suffer tremendously for even thinking she could have what is rightfully mine." I seethed as Alexei's eyes finally open and lock with mine.
His eye twitches slightly, his jaw ticks, he nods once before slowly rising from the chair across from me. "I'll let the Bratva know to begin preparing." He grabs his glass of whiskey before heading out the door.
I look down at the photographs scattered across the table. "They will regret the day they dared to double-cross, Yelena Ivanov."
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