Page 114 of The Enemy Protector

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"When."

"Before the wedding."

"And you didn't tell me."

"No."

I swallow. “Were you under the impression I knew about this?”

“No.”

The room is very quiet. I hear my own breathing. It’s fast, but I’m not running straight into a panic attack.

"Why didn’t you tell me?”

"Because you weren't in a position to act on it," he says. "You needed the marriage formalized. You needed to establish your position. If I'd told you then, you would have gone straight at it and Yuri would have used the exposure against you."

"That was not your call."

"It was a strategic decision."

"It’s my business." I don't soften the fury. "It was my name on those operations. My inheritance. My decision about what to do with the information." I stare at him and see the man that demanded I marry him. I don’t see the man that fucked me last night and then held me while I cried. "You decided I wasn't ready. Without asking me. Without telling me. You made me trust you.”

"Yes," he says.

Just yes. No apology. Just acknowledgement, clean and cold.

I thought I was coming in here to talk to a confidante. I thought we'd become something. Partners. People who tell each other things. He made me feel like we could have a real marriage with trust.

But I see it clearly now.

He's been managing me.

I stand up.

"I need you to understand something," I say. I keep my voice calm, which takes more effort than it should. "I am not a piece on your board. You don't move me when you're ready and hold me back when you're not. I am a person running an empire that I inherited. The information about that empire belongs to me regardless of whether you think I can handle it."

"You're right," he says.

"I know I'm right." The agreement doesn't help. If anything, it makes it worse. “I’ll be hiring my own security team. I need people loyal to me—not you.”

“I’ll vet them.”

“The hell you will.”

“Non-negotiable.”

He’s completely unbothered, and I feel like I’m being torn apart.

I’m not going to argue. I don’t have to ask for permission.

I’m Sofia Fucking Baranova. Fuck being Sokolov. I am the queen of the Baranov bratva.

I thought I knew who I could count on. The list has always been short. I've been fine with that.

It just got shorter.

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