Chapter 244: Ours

"Katalia."

The name came out of the Don’s mouth like a prayer.

"My baby. Katalia. It’s you."

Sienna did not move. She could not. That name landed somewhere deep inside her, in a place she did not know she had, and it hurt more than Katty had.

Don Konstantin stopped just one step away from her. His hands were shaking. She had seen this man in photographs and heard his name whispered in rooms where people spoke quietly. She had never once seen his hands shake.

"Oh my goodness," he said. "You look just like your mother." He turned his head toward Helena and back again. "No wonder she froze when she saw you. No wonder."

Helena said nothing. Her fist was still closed.

Then the Don’s eyes dropped. They went to Sienna’s hand, and to the hand holding it.

"Viktor."

Viktor’s grip did not loosen. "Don Konstantin."

"She is your wife." The Don said it slowly, like a man doing a sum he could not believe. "You are telling me that you have been married to my Kat all this time?"

"Yes."

Konstantin laughed. It was a broken, wet sound, half joy and half pain. He pressed his hand to his forehead.

"All this time. My real daughter was standing in front of me, and I did not see her." He shook his head. "How stupid I have been. I gave you an ultimatum, Viktor. Do you remember? I threatened you over her, and I did not know. I did not know that fate had already done its work, that you two had found each other on your own."

He looked at Sienna again, and his eyes were full.

"My dear, you must be so angry with your father. You have every right. But believe me, I did not know. If I had known, I would have burned the whole world to find you."

He said it with his whole face. His voice cracked in the right places. He looked like a man whose heart was breaking and mending in the same moment. Sienna watched him. He is showing every feeling a man like him cannot have.

She was very still. Inside her head, one cold question kept turning. Is he happy to see me? Or is he happy he finally got his hands on the weapon he made?

"Come here," the Don said softly. He lifted one hand, slowly, as if she were a frightened animal. "Let me look at you."

Viktor moved. It was only a small step, but it put his shoulder in front of hers. The Don’s eyes flicked to him. For one second, something sharp and old showed in them. Then it was gone, and the warm face came back.

"It’s all right, Viktor. I would never hurt her. She is mine." Mine. Sienna heard the word. She saw Helena hear it too.

"Daddy will make it right," Konstantin said, and he was speaking only to Sienna now. "All the people who hurt you, Katalia, Daddy will make them pay. Every one of them." His voice dropped to almost a whisper. "And your heart. It doesn’t hurt like before, does it? Don’t worry. Daddy will fix that too."

Sienna’s breath caught. She kept her face empty. She had learned how to do that a long time ago, without knowing why.

"You are here," the Don went on. "Your mother is here. You are both here." A single tear slid down his cheek, and he did not wipe it away. "We can finally be a family. I have my whole family now."

The tear was perfect. It was the kind of tear a man could cry on purpose. Sienna did not believe a word.

She looked past him, at Helena, and found her mother already looking back. Helena’s eyes were dry and hard. She had never believed him either. Not once, not in all the years.

Helena had not come back for him. She had come because he had sent word that he had found their daughter. She had come to stand between him and Sienna, to keep him away from the girl she had spent her whole life hiding.

And she had failed. Now she stood there, smiling a tight, false smile, and she could not fight him. Not here. Not in front of his men, with a hundred guns pointed at the ground and ready to lift.

The Don had something on her. Sienna could see it in the way Helena held her shoulders, like a woman carrying a weight she could never put down.

One wrong move and everything would end. Every year of running and every lie Helena had told would be for nothing. So Helena smiled, and she waited.

Carina stood a little behind her father in her white dress, and she was staring at the ground. The Don held out his arms.

"Come, my baby," he said. "Let daddy hold you." Sienna felt Viktor’s hand, warm and tight around hers. It was the last thing in the world that felt safe. And every eye on that runway was waiting to see what she would do.

"That’s all right." Don Konstantin slowly lowered his arms. His smile did not change. "We have plenty of time," he said, and he nodded, as if Sienna had given him an answer.

She had not. Her face stayed blank. Her feet stayed where they were. She did not step toward him, and she did not step back.

For a moment, the runway was so quiet that Sienna could hear the heat ticking off the hood of the car. The Don did not seem angry. He only turned away from her, the way a man puts down a gift he plans to open later. He faced Helena and took both of her hands in his.

Helena’s fingers were cold. She let him hold them. "Do you remember now, Helena, my dear?" His voice was soft and full of wonder. "She is our daughter. Ours."

Years ago, she had started to forget. That was what she had wanted him to believe. She had let him watch her smile at old memories with empty eyes.

She had let him see her laugh at the wrong moments and ask the wrong questions, until he decided that the woman who ran from him was gone. A woman who forgot the past could not hurt him. So one day, slowly, he had lowered his guard.

It had taken years. It was the hardest thing Helena had ever done.