Page 149 of Betrayal and Vows

My mother shakes her head. "You can't. If you come back?—"

"If I don't come back, they'll never stop hunting us. You know that." His jaw clenches. "This ends with blood. It was always going to end with blood."

The finality in his voice terrifies me. He's already made up his mind. He'll sacrifice his own chance at freedom to ensure mine.

"There's something else," my mother says quietly. "Something you both need to know before you make any decisions."

The way she says it makes my stomach drop. I've learned to fear my mother's revelations. I’m not sure how much more I can handle.

"What now?" Anton asks. I can hear the exhaustion in his voice. How many more secrets can any of us handle?

My mother takes a shaky breath. "Mikhail isn't Vadim's son."

The words hang in the air. Anton goes completely still beside me.

Dmitri curses.

"What did you say?" Anton whispers.

"Natalia was having an affair. Had been for a long time. Irina knew about Natalia. She knew the father of Irina’s baby.”

“She was going to tell Vadim,” I blurt out.

“No, she wasn’t,” Mother said. “She didn’t care. It was nothing to her. She hated Vadim. She didn’t care that his mistress was cheating on him.”

I’m barely listening. "That means..." I can't finish the sentence.

"That means you are Vadim's only living heir," my mother says, looking directly at Anton. "You are the rightful heir to the Orlov empire."

Dmitri whistles low under his breath.

"Holy shit," he mutters. "You're the fucking prince."

Anton laughs, but there's no humor in it. "The prince he tried to murder."

"The prince he feared," my mother corrects. "Even as a child, you had something Mikhail never will. Natural authority. Intelligence. Your mother's heart but your father's strength. Vadim saw it, and it terrified him."

"So he tried to eliminate the threat." Anton scrubs his hands over his face.

“He wanted a son he could control,” Elena says. “Even at five, you were so strong. So stubborn. Vadim saw it.”

"Vadim knows who I am." Anton’s words are flat, emotionless, but I can see the storm brewing behind his eyes. "He's always known."

My mother goes pale. "That's impossible. I made sure?—"

"You made sure Alexei Orlov died," Anton interrupts. "But Vadim never stopped watching. He has pictures, Elena. Thirty years' worth of pictures."

The blood drains from my face. "Pictures of what?"

"Everything. Me at the Center. Graduation. My first kill. Every mission, every safe house, every breath I've taken since I was five years old." His hands clench into fists. “He’s known who and where I’ve been this whole time.”

"Oh God," my mother whispers, pressing her hand to her mouth. “He knows what I did.”

"That night—the last night I came to your room," Anton says, looking at me. "I wanted to tell you. I broke into his office. Opened his safe. He knew exactly who was working for him."

My stomach lurches. “I’m so sorry!”

Guilt wracks my body. I turned him away that night, and he’d been dealing with something huge.