“You don’t understand. I had no choice.”
“Then fucking explain it already.”
I never swore at my mother but she was trying my patience. How could I understand when she wasn’t telling me a single damn thing?
That’s when André interrupted us by bringing me over a tray with my tea and a cup of coffee for himself. Isabella looked up at him, almost startled.
“Oh, it’s you.”
“Mrs Russo,” he said, his tone polite as he eyed me warily.
He picked up his mug, gave me a nod and moved away to a table a few feet away from us. I turned back to Isabella.
“So Viktor dispatched one of his dogs with you.”
“He didn’t want anything to happen to me. He doesn’t think you’re ever going to leave Frank for good so he took precautions since he cares about my safety.”
Her eyebrows shot up. Viktor had told me that last night when we spoke about me seeing her today. I was personally happy to have André here since I didn’t trust her at all.
“Your father—”
“Frank is not my father.”
“He raised you.”
“And whose fault is that, huh? That I didn’t know who my real father was.”
She flinched.
“Ashleigh, if you’d let me explain—”
“I’ve been waiting for you to explain since I sat down. You’re the one who’s reluctant to tell me the truth.”
It felt good not to be the mindlessly obedient daughter any longer. I’d been under her and Frank’s thumb for so long. The boys had taught me an important lesson about freedom and choice. And the side I’d picked was theirs.
She sighed and looked at her hands.
“Frank and I had trouble conceiving. He seemed to think we just needed more time, but it’d been years. I knew it was him since I’d had my fertility checked but telling him that was impossible. You know what he’s like.”
I knew all too well. I’d grown up fearing him and the repercussions of disappointing him.
“I met Viktor when he was eighteen, just after he’d moved here with Gregor from Russia. He was always a very charismatic and confident man, even when he was young. That’s how he built his empire. The affair began when I became disillusioned with my marriage to Frank. It’d been eight years and I still hadn’t been able to give him a child. He became frustrated and temperamental, accusing me of being unable to bear children and all sorts of things. I sought solace in Viktor. He was twenty, beautiful and didn’t care about me being older than him.”
She met my eyes and all I could see was abject misery in them. A part of me felt for her but the other part hated what she was telling me. Hated every single thing about it.
“I’m not proud of this, but I was so convinced if I could just get pregnant, then Frank and I would be okay. Viktor knew I was married, of course, so he was very meticulous about protection. I took matters into my own hands and sabotaged it.”
I blinked. My own mother just confessed she’d tricked Viktor into giving her a baby. Giving her a child so she could pass me off as Frank’s. The whole thing was more awful than I could even imagine.
“Are you seriously telling me you poked a bunch of holes into condoms like some crazy lady obsessed with having babies?”
“You don’t need to make it sound so distasteful, Ashleigh.”
“It is fucking distasteful. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I was desperate. I’m not saying it was okay or that I should’ve done it. It happened and I quickly fell pregnant with you. Then I ended the affair which I don’t think Viktor was upset about. Frank was over the moon and things were good between us for a long time after that because I’d given him what he desperately wanted. A child. I was worried when you were born he’d notice you didn’t look like him, but you looked enough like me so it never became an issue. Perhaps deep down Frank knows you’re not his, but he had his heir and it was all that mattered to him.”
I poured my tea into the cup and put a dash of milk in. I stirred, needing something to focus on. My mind was wild with the implications of what she’d done. How far she’d gone to have me. And I was completely disgusted by it. I didn’t care about her justifications. What she’d done was wrong. So fucking wrong.
“So Frank doesn’t know to this day I’m not his daughter? Why would he threaten you with my life then?”
Her eyes widened.
“How do you… You’ve been eavesdropping.”
“I’ve done more than that, Mother. Answer the question.”
I’d snooped through her things as I wanted an explanation of why the hell she’d force me to be compliant to Frank’s demands. That’s how I’d even found out about her having an affair in the first place.
“He doesn’t know you’re Viktor’s daughter. He doesn’t know about the affair because we were discreet. We have always been discreet. It’s been on and off for the past twenty-two years. It’s off for good now he knows about you. He told me if it was up to him, he would’ve sent me back to Frank and forced me to tell him the truth so I’d have to face the true consequences of my actions.”
Just because I’d discovered Viktor was my father didn’t mean I had any illusions about the type of man he was. He had mafia connections. Shit, his own brother was Bratva. Viktor was a ruthless businessman who took no prisoners. The only reason Isabella hadn’t been sent back to Frank was down to me. My decision which Viktor had respected. That showed me he cared about my feelings. He cared about me. Something I wasn’t sure I could say about the woman in front of me.
“You have me to thank for that. The only reason you’re alive is because of me. And don’t doubt I
