Chapter 269: You don’t understand

They were. Sienna could feel it. All around the room, heads were turned a little too carefully, and eyes slid away a little too quickly. The guests pretended to talk and drink and laugh. But the whole hall was leaning toward the three of them like a field of grass in the wind.

"The Ivanou empire was yours in the first place," Helena said. She spoke softly and steadily, as if she were commenting on the flowers.

"It was never his. It was an honest business once, ships and warehouses and land, with honest men to run it." Her eyes darkened. "Before Konstantin turned it into this. Everything he is giving to you has always been yours. And they are all legal. Believe me."

Sienna stared at her. "No," she said.

"Katty..."

"No. I don’t understand." She had stopped smiling. She could not keep it up any longer. Her voice dropped, sharp and low, and Viktor moved a half step closer, shoulder against her shoulder.

"You told me everything illegal was in your name. Every account, every deal. You cried in front of me." Her voice cracked. "You said that if we exposed him, you would be the one to pay. So how can it all be mine now? What changed? What else are you hiding?"

"I..."

"Your story keeps changing, Mother. It does not add up." She drew a sharp breath. "He gives me everything. You say it is a good thing. Why would he give back the family fortune? Why do you think that is good?"

"Sienna," Viktor said, very quietly. His eyes flicked left and right. "People are looking."

"I don’t care." He did not touch her. "But they do." She shut her mouth. Her chest rose and fell. She could feel her pulse racing under her ribs, and she hated it.

Helena did not look away. For a long moment she stood very still. The sweet, obedient wife had gone, and what was left was older and tired and fierce.

"Yes," she said. "I admit it. I have not told you all my plans." Sienna’s eyes narrowed.

"There are more things you don’t know. I’m sorry. I wish I could say them here." Her voice was low and rushed. "But believe me when I say this is a good thing. You are the rightful heir. You are the only one. Not Carina. Not Konstantin. You."

She stepped closer.

"He thinks he is doing this to keep you here. He thinks that if you own it all, you will not leave. And I made sure he thought so." Her mouth moved in the smallest, grimmest smile. "I let him believe it was his own idea. It took me a very long time."

"So it is a trap," Sienna said. "Just a different one."

"It is his trap. And I have turned it around." Helena’s eyes burned. "The legal businesses are yours. Under the law, the clean part of the empire, the part with no blood on it, now belongs to you. And that means half of his power is gone. The half he cannot touch without your name."

She stopped. Her fingers went white around the glass. "I cannot tell you the rest. Not here."

Sienna looked at her.

She wanted to believe her. She wanted to so much that it frightened her. But her mind went back to the red room, and the glass boxes, and the smooth voice saying Daddy will fix it. She did not know who to trust anymore. She only knew who she loved, and those were not always the same people.

"I’m so confused," she whispered. It came out smaller than she meant.

"I don’t understand you. I don’t understand any of this." She shook her head. "I only need to get into the lab, get those files, and leave this cursed place for good. Can you at least help me with that?"

Helena’s face changed.

She looked, for a moment, like a woman who had been struck. Her eyes went toward the doors, then the ceiling, then back.

"Baby," she said. "No."

"Mother..."

"That is too risky. Not tonight." Her voice was quick and urgent. "I will find a way to speak to Konstantin. I will think of an excuse. A walk, a visit, a doctor, something. But not tonight."

"Why not?"

"Because the place is heavily guarded. You saw them. And he is on high alert." She lowered her voice to a breath. "He suspects there is a mole among his men. He has been looking at everyone all evening. Even me." Her fingers found Sienna’s wrist. "Please. Abort everything for tonight. Whatever you and Viktor have planned. Let it go."

Sienna looked down at the hand on her wrist. It was thin and cold. It was her mother’s hand, shaking, begging. She lifted her eyes. Slowly, she shook her head.

She had her own plan. So did Helena. They were two women who loved each other and could not say all the words. But Sienna had made up her mind. She needed those files, and she needed them tonight.

Her heart was running wild. Her eyes did not look right in the mirror. Whatever was wrong with her would not wait for her mother’s careful plans.

"You don’t understand," she said. "I think my health is..." She stopped.

A sound had come across the marble floor, soft and clear. It was a small, hard tap, then another. A slow, steady rhythm.

Helena’s hand went still on her wrist. Her face turned toward the sound, and all the color left it. Viktor straightened. His hand moved to his side. They did not need to turn around to know who it was. They had heard that sound before.

They turned anyway. "Oh, dear." Kalisto’s voice was soft and sweet, like honey poured over a blade.

"I have been waiting all night to speak to you."

He stopped an arm’s length away and rested both hands on his cane. His purple suit looked almost black in the candlelight. He was smiling, and he kept his eyes on Helena only. He looked at Sienna and Viktor the way he looked at furniture.

Helena smiled back.

It came on her face so smoothly that Sienna almost missed it. One second her eyes were hard and afraid. The next, they were warm and a little foggy, like a woman who has drunk one glass too many and is happy about it. Her shoulders loosened. Her hand fluttered up to her hair.

"Kalisto," she said. "What a pleasure."