Page 118 of Phantom Flower

Did I feel sad?

No.

Not for the man who had just died. That man had been willing to destroy the only thing that had ever made me feel human again. But somewhere at the back of my head, in the same place where I still kept the memory of my mother brushing my hair and telling me stories about a father who loved me in ways she could not explain… I mourned. I mourned the father I had wished for. The one who might have understood why I would burn an empire for Rei instead of asking me to choose.

But that man had never existed.

And now the one who had was dead.

My first instinct was not grief. It was fear, for Alexei.

I rushed toward the door. I yanked it open. I did not see any guards when we came in here, but I still expected the entire fucking organization to come running at the sound of the gun.

“No one is here. He dismissed them all before he called us both in.”

“Why?” The word tore out of me. “Why the fuck did you kill him? You could have taken my spot. He was handing it to you on a silver fucking platter. You could have been the heir. You could have had everything.”

Alexei holstered his gun. He glanced once at my father’s body, then back at me.

“Not interested.”

This motherfucker.

“What the hell are we going to do now?”

Alexei walked toward the door.

“I’m sure you’ll find a cover-up story,” he said. “Something about an assassin. A rival family. Maybe even a tragic accident. You’re creative when you need to be.” He paused at the threshold and glanced over his shoulder, the faintest ghost of something like a smile touching his mouth. “Consider it your first task as a leader.”

I stood frozen for a second. Then I remembered, and it made sense. It made sense why he did not hesitate to kill him when he was about to make him heir. I called out before he would leave.

“I’m sorry… about Marco.”

Alexei’s back stiffened. I watched the way his fingers curled into fists at his sides, the same way mine had done so many times when Rei was in pain.

Then he nodded and walked away.

I turned back to the desk.

The empire was mine now.

Chapter 41

Rei Kurosaki

I sat across from Ilya in the corner while he stared at me like a hawk. It was very uncomfortable, to be honest. So I decided to break the silence.

“Are you planning to talk?”

Ilya’s mouth twitched.

“You don’t look like your brother.”

Oh? That was why he was staring at me?

I arched an eyebrow. “Yeah. I take after my dad. He takes after our mother.”

Ilya nodded once, like the universe had just been explained to him. “Makes sense. Since he’s a bitch.”