Page 104 of Gilded Shackles
"Seven months," he repeats, eyes going glassy.
"You better be healed by then, because I am not pushing a human out of me without you holding my hand and telling me I'm a goddess."
"I'd do that anyway," he whispers.
I laugh and wipe my cheeks. "Damn right."
We sit like that. His hand in mine. My breathing slowly returning to normal. He's here. He's okay.
We're okay.
Then his expression changes. Goes serious.
"I have to tell you something," he says quietly.
I feel it in my teeth. Something awful. My stomach tightens.
"What?"
"It's about Gayle. And who you really are."
I stiffen. "Okay."
"She wasn't your mother, Elle."
"I'm sorry, did you hit your head harder than I thought?"
"I wish I didn't have to tell you this." His voice is careful, steady. "She killed your parents. Murdered them. Took you. Raised you as her own, but she was never your mother. Your real father was her brother. Stephan Donskoy. Bratva. Out of Saint Petersburg."
My brain scrambles. Too big. Too impossible.
"No. That can't be right."
"It's true. Viktor's people have been into Gayle. The trail led back to Russia. To your real family."
He sounds certain. This isn't confusion. This isn't medication.
The room tilts.
"She killed him?" I whisper.
He nods. "Killed your father and your mother. Moved to America with you. Took your name, your inheritance, took control of the U.S. operations. Everyone thought you were her daughter. You're not."
I feel like I'm falling through the floor. The childhood I thought was privileged but sheltered was a prison built on murder. The mother I resented but loved was my parents' killer.
"She kidnapped me?"
"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying."
"But why..."
"Your father was grooming you to inherit. She wanted it. So she took it. You were just the key."
I feel sick. All those years. The locked doors. The rules. The secrets. No photographs of my father. No stories. Nothing.
I put a hand over my mouth.
"I thought she loved me," I whisper. "I thought she was strict. Controlling. But she was... what? My aunt? My captor?"
