Page 144 of Forbidden Forget-Me-Not

For the first time since I walked in, something real flashed across his face. Rage. Or maybe pain. A memory he had never forgiven.

“You will not speak about that.” His voice was deadly.

I didn’t stop.

“Do you remember…what it felt like to watch Reneta marry your brother? Did it crush you? Would you still do anything to see him destroyed?”

His eyes turned to ice.

“This is not the same thing.”

“It is!”

I smacked my hand on the metal table, and the sound cracked through the room. I shoved to my feet, the chair scraping harshly across the floor.

“It is the same. How do you not see that? You are doing to me exactly what was done to you. And you don’t care that you’re trying to crush my heart, my spirit, me. Me, Father.”

He rose slowly, more controlled, then buttoned his suit jacket as if this were nothing more than a business meeting.

“You wanted to live your life,” I said, my hands trembling, not from fear, from fury. “You loved Reneta, and she was torn away from you. You hated Vadin for it. You hated Grandpa for it. You’ve hated them every day since.”

His face went rigid.

“So tell me,” I said, voice cracking, “is that what you want? Do you want me to hate you for the rest of our lives? Do you want me to resent you? Do you want me dreaming of ways to pay you back? Have you ever loved me at all?”

For a moment, he softened, and I saw the man I remembered from my childhood. It was small, just a loosening around the eyes and a quiet exhale.

Then it vanished.

“You are a Mikhailov princess,” he said, voice hard again, “and you will do what is best for your family.”

I laughed once, but there was no humor in it.

“Family,” I repeated, shaking my head. “No. You mean you. You just had me thrown to the ground in front of hundreds of my peers for the world to see.” I crossed my arms. “Don’t try and tell me that you didn’t have them use more force than necessary so Goran would lose it. I know your games.”

His gaze didn’t shift.

“That was necessary.”

“Necessary,” I echoed, disgust rising like bile. “You humiliated me.”

“You humiliated yourself when you stole my property.”

Property. He still thought Atlas belonged to him, even though he had given him to me. In his mind, it came down to the fact that he bought him. And that meant control. Atlas was a string to tug on when he needed leverage against me.

He sat back down like the conversation was finished.

I stayed standing.

Father folded his hands on the table and spoke as if he were explaining a business decision.

“I learned to love Helena…for a time.”

The words hit harder than I expected. Tears pricked at my eyes. I had never heard him admit that he no longer loved my mother. I realized how trapped she must feel, and my heart broke for her.

“You learned,” I parroted, voice low and bitter.

His eyes hardened.