Chapter 167: Things had just become very interesting

A guard stood in front of her. He wasn’t touching her. In fact, he seemed to be making a genuine effort not to frighten her further. "Listen," he said quietly.

Aliya glared at him. "I still respect you." She laughed bitterly.

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"Then let me go." He sighed. "You need to understand something." Aliya looked away. "No one is coming for you." Her jaw tightened.

"I tried to protect you from the other male guards." That got her attention. The man continued.

"But if you keep picking fights with the other girls, I won’t be able to keep doing that."

"I don’t need your protection."

"Maybe not." He glanced toward the guards nearby.

"But you’re going to need someone’s." Aliya’s eyes flashed. "Go to hell." The guard rubbed a hand over his face.

"Take a shower." Aliya didn’t move. "Change your clothes." Still nothing. "Then come back and work." He nodded toward the tables. "Maybe then you’ll have an easier time here."

Aliya stared at him. "You expect me to do that?"

"I expect you to survive." Her expression hardened. "I’d rather die." The man closed his eyes briefly. This wasn’t how they normally handled stubborn people. Aliya had already been given more patience than most. More chances. More warnings.

Partly because of who she was. And partly because, despite everything, some of the men still saw her as someone delicate. Someone they weren’t ready to treat the way they treated everyone else.

Aliya pushed the chair back. "I said no." At that exact moment, Viktor arrived. He didn’t enter the room. Not yet. Instead, he stood in the security office, watching everything unfold through the cameras. Marcus stood beside him.

Viktor’s face remained expressionless. On the screen, Aliya stood with her arms crossed, refusing to move. The guard continued trying to reason with her. Viktor’s eyes narrowed. "I thought I told you to make her work."

The guard’s head snapped toward the camera. Viktor leaned closer to the monitor. "Is that her working?"

"Boss, she," The guard barely got the words out. Viktor turned from the monitor. His expression was calm. Too calm. "You think she’s here to play princess?"

The man went silent. Viktor stepped closer to the screen, watching Aliya standing there with her arms crossed, still refusing to cooperate.

"She is here because of what she did." His voice dropped. "And now she’s going to face the consequences."

"Boss, we were trying to..."

"I didn’t ask what you were trying to do." The room went still. Viktor looked at every man standing in the security room. "Get her to start her punishment."

His eyes hardened. "Or all of you will pay for it." That was enough. "Yes, Boss." The guards moved immediately. On the monitor, Aliya was still shouting when several women approached her.

"What are you doing?" she snapped. One grabbed her arm. Aliya pulled away. "Don’t touch me!" Another woman took her other arm. Aliya fought them.

"Let go of me!" They dragged her toward the washroom. Aliya dug her heels into the floor, twisting and pulling, but there were too many of them.

"No!" The washroom door opened. Aliya stopped. The smell reached her immediately. Her face twisted.

"This is disgusting!"

"Get inside."

"I said no!" She planted both hands against the doorframe. The women exchanged a look. Then one of them grabbed a bucket. Aliya barely had time to gasp.

Cold water crashed over her. She screamed. Her hair fell across her face, water dripping from the torn fabric of her expensive clothes. For one second, the entire room went quiet.

Aliya slowly lifted her head. Her eyes burned. "You’re all going to regret this." No one answered. The women pulled her away from the doorway.

"Let me go!" Aliya struggled. "Do you know who I am?" They didn’t care. She was dragged back into the washroom. The door closed. Viktor continued watching from the camera. Several minutes later, Aliya was brought out.

Her hair was wet. Her face was red. A plain uniform had been forced onto her. Nothing about it resembled the clothes she usually wore. She immediately tried to pull it off. "Don’t touch me!"

One of the women pushed her toward the line. Aliya stopped. "I said I’m not working." A guard stepped forward. He raised his gun.

Aliya froze. The room became silent. The gun wasn’t fired. It didn’t need to be. Aliya stared at it. Then slowly looked around. Nobody was coming. Not her father. Not Marcel. Not anyone. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.

For the first time since arriving there, something in her expression shifted. The certainty. The arrogance. The belief that someone would eventually come and save her. It cracked. Slowly, Aliya walked toward the line.

Viktor watched her through the monitor. That was what he wanted. Not her broken. Not yet. He wanted her to understand one thing first. She wasn’t untouchable. She wasn’t protected by her father’s name.

And if she continued believing she could control the situation, the place would swallow her whole. Viktor turned away from the screen.

"Good."

Elsewhere in the building, Marcel was learning the same lesson. He was locked inside another cell. Alone. The hours moved slowly there. Too slowly. He had stopped asking when Viktor would let him go. He had stopped threatening the guards.

By now, Marcel understood that every word he said could make things worse. The sounds outside the cell told him enough. Footsteps. Doors opening. Someone crying somewhere down the corridor. Then silence. Marcel sat against the wall, bruised and exhausted, waiting for the next time the door would open.

He didn’t know what Viktor had planned for him. That was the worst part. Waiting.

—

Two days later, the manufacturing site looked almost normal. Almost.

Workers sat at their usual stations, heads lowered as their hands moved steadily over the tables. Boxes were stacked along the walls. Guards moved through the building, but there were fewer of them than usual.

Enough to maintain order. Not enough for what was coming. Don Konstantin had kept his word. He couldn’t travel to West Philadelphia himself. But he had sent men.

And they were not ordinary men. They arrived quietly; they appeared ruthless and disciplined. The kind of men who didn’t need to raise their voices to make people listen.

Don Capri and Elena met them outside. One of the men stepped forward. "Where is she?" Don Capri nodded toward the building.

"Inside." The man gave a short nod. "Then let’s not waste any more time." They moved.

Aliya didn’t know what was happening at first. She heard shouting somewhere outside. Then footsteps. Running. One of the workers suddenly looked up. Another screamed.

The guards began moving toward the entrance. Then everything happened at once; there was shrieking and shooting. Men in white stormed into the building. Aliya froze. For two days, she had learned to keep her head down.

For two days, she had watched every door, every guard, every possible exit. At some point, she had almost stopped believing anyone was coming.

Then she saw her father. "Dad?" The word came out small. Don Capri rushed toward her. Aliya stood there for one second. Then ran.

"What..." She threw herself into him. "Dad!" Her arms wrapped around him. For the first time since she’d been taken, Aliya’s voice broke. "Did you come for me?"

Don Capri held her tightly. "Oh, my dear girl." She had almost accepted her fate. She had begun to understand what it meant to wake up every morning in that place. To put on the uniform. To stand in line.

To work. But suddenly. Everything was changing. Outside, smoke began to rise. Someone had set the building on fire. Workers were being rushed out. Guards shouted orders. Somewhere in the chaos, Marcel was dragged from another section of the building.

Bruised. Exhausted. But alive. Elena saw him and ran toward him.

"Marcel!" Aliya barely had time to look around before one of Don Konstantin’s men reached her. "Miss Ivanou." Aliya frowned.

"What?" The man in white removed a long cotton jacket from his arm and carefully placed it around her shoulders. Aliya stared at him.

"Miss Ivanou?"

"The jet is ready." He spoke as though this was the most normal thing in the world. "It can leave whenever you are ready." Aliya slowly turned toward Don Capri.

"What is he talking about?" Don Capri’s expression changed. The moment had come. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Aliya, listen to me." She looked at him. "I never wanted to hide this from you." Her eyebrows drew together. "Hide what?"

Don Capri reached into his pocket. He pulled out the necklace. Aliya stared at it.

"Do you remember this?" She took it slowly. The gold felt cold in her palm. "You had it when you were little."

Aliya looked at him. Her confusion deepened. Don Capri swallowed. "I adopted you." Aliya went still. "What?"

"I raised you as my daughter."

"What are you saying?" Don Capri looked toward the men waiting nearby. Then back at her. "Your real father..." Aliya’s breathing stopped. "Your real father is Don Konstantin."

For several seconds, she didn’t react. She simply stared at him. Then she laughed once. A small, disbelieving sound. "My father?" Don Capri nodded.

Aliya’s eyes widened. "You mean..." She looked toward the men. Then back at him. "You mean I’m not your daughter?" Don Capri’s face tightened. "I will always see you as my daughter."

"But biologically?" He nodded. "No." Aliya looked down at the necklace. Her fingers closed around it. "My father..." She looked up again.

"Don Konstantin?"

"Yes." Everything began moving inside her head. The missing daughter. The powerful family. The name Ivanou. And then. Something else. Her expression changed.

Slowly. A smile appeared. The missing princess. She wasn’t just anyone. She was an Ivanou. And Viktor. Aliya’s eyes flickered. Her fiancé. The engagement. It was all hers. The realization settled over her like something she had been waiting for her entire life.

She looked toward the waiting man in white. "Tell my father I’ll go back later." The man frowned slightly. Aliya pulled the jacket closer around herself. "This is where I grew up."

Her eyes moved over the city. "I have unfinished business here." The man in white watched her for a moment. Then nodded. He spoke briefly into his phone.

When he ended the call, he approached Aliya again. "Your father agrees." He held something out to her. A black card. Aliya looked at it. "What’s this?"

"A card from Don Konstantin." She took it. The guard lowered his head. "He asked that it be given to you." Aliya stared at the card. A slow smile spread across her face.

Two days ago, she had been standing in a line, wearing a uniform she hated, believing she had lost everything.

Now she held a card with no visible limit. Her father’s men stood waiting for her. A private jet was ready. And Viktor Kessler had no idea what was coming next. Aliya closed her fingers around the card.

The smile on her face grew. Things had just become very interesting.