As soon as Papa steps out of the armored car, I see the contract in his hand, rolled up and sealed with his ring. My heart flutters wildly. He made a deal with the Gallos.
I can’t believe it.
I knew he was going to meet them, but I didn’t believe he’d actually agree to an alliance. I was sure something would happen to make it all blow up.
But there’s the evidence, clear and irrevocable. This was no verbal agreement—he made a blood pact.
I’m up in my room, looking down from my window. I debate whether I should run down to thank him, or whether I should steer clear for a while. He might be in a foul mood, depending on how well the negotiations went.
Even under the best of circumstances, I can’t imagine that he’s thrilled about this. The Gallos could give him their most generous terms, and he’d still feel like a subordinate, forced to pay homage to the throne. He wanted revenge, not capitulation.
Adrian looks equally annoyed, stalking toward the house with his hands thrust in his trouser pockets. I expect him to come up to my room to speak with me, but instead he disappears inside our father’s office for several hours, along with Rodion. I’m sure they’re going over the details of how this new contract will work.
I pick up my phone to call Sebastian, noticing that I already have a text from him.
It worked, he says. Come see me tonight.
I clutch my phone almost hard enough to break it, trembling with excitement.
I want to . . . I say. My father might not be in the best of moods . . .
That doesn’t matter anymore, Sebastian replies. He promised you to me. You’re safe now.
The relief I feel at those words is immeasurable. Sebastian is right—I don’t belong to my father anymore. If he were to hurt or damage me now, he’d be breaking his agreement with the Gallos.
Thrilled beyond belief, I start to change my clothes. I put on a sage-green romper and a pair of gold hoops, and slip on my sandals. I pull on a kimono-style wrap over the romper, in case my father sees me on my way out the door.
Sure enough, he intercepts me in the lobby. He has the ears of a cat—it’s almost impossible to sneak out of the house unseen when he’s home. Adrian stands just behind him, his face pale and somber.
“I assume Sebastian told you that we reached an agreement,” Papa says.
“Yes,” I say, trying not to let my full emotion show on my face. I want to be grateful, but I don’t want to annoy my father with something as distasteful to him as my complete and utter happiness.
“I expect you to remember your loyalties, Yelena. Even after you say your vows at the altar . . . you are still a Yenin. You always will be.”
“Yes, father,” I say.
I wonder if he can see the lie on my face. I have no loyalty to him. I will always love my brother, but I intend to cut ties with my father as much as possible, as soon as I’m wed.
Adrian will know I’m lying. I glance over at him, to see if he’s scowling. As soon as I try to meet his eye, he looks down at his feet instead.
“Is it alright . . . if I go see Sebastian?” I ask my father hesitantly.
“Why not?” he says, surprisingly amenable. “Enjoy your time with him.”
I don’t entirely trust this good mood. But I might as well take advantage of it while it lasts.
“Thank you, father,” I say.
I leave on foot, hurrying out through the open gates, down to the street. I walk a few blocks over to the cafe where Sebastian and I agreed to meet.
He’s already waiting for me outside the cafe. As I walk up to him he sweeps me up in his arms and kisses me hard.
“How did it go?” I ask him, as he sets me down.
“I wish you were there,” he says. “I felt like an asshole signing for you like I was buying a car.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, shaking my head. “This is what I want.”
“Are you sure?” Sebastian says.
I see the concern in his dark eyes. He’s afraid I’m only doing all this to get away from my father.
I grab his hand and squeeze it hard.
“Completely sure,” I tell him.
“Good.” He nods. “Come on, then.”
“Aren’t we going in the cafe?”
“No,” he says.
I follow him back to his truck.
I usually hate uncertainty. My father likes to surprise me with the most unpleasant things possible. But already I’ve learned that I can trust Sebastian—when he has something planned, it’s always a good thing.
Sebastian drives us down to the lakeshore, to a building that looks like the Cathedral of Florence mixed with a spaceship. It’s not until we’re all the way inside that I realize it’s a planetarium.
I feel a rush of warmth so strong it frightens me. I can’t believe that Sebastian remembers all these little things I tell him. I never expected anyone to get to know me like this. To care about my interests and preferences. The only other person who treats me this way is my brother—and even he can be capricious.
I feel like a little kid, running around looking at all the displays, touching an actual chunk of meteorite that’s apparently four billion years old. I lay my hand on the smooth, dense metal, trying to imagine the timescale of this object flying around in outer space, before it crashed down on this particular point of the galaxy.
Sebastian seems to be looking at me as much as any of the displays. He’s smiling at my excitement—not laughing at me, just enjoying my pleasure at the exhibit on modern space travel, and the scale model of the cockpit of the Apollo 13 rocket.
I’m disappointed when the docents begin ushering everyone out of the exhibits, telling us that the planetarium is about to close.
“We should come back another day!” I say to Sebastian.
“Sure,” he says. “But come see one last thing before we go.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me toward a set of doors that look like some kind of theater.
“Aren’t we supposed to be leaving?” I ask him.
“It’s alright,” he says. “Trust me.”
Mystified, I follow him through the swinging doors.
The room beyond is completely dark, but I get the sense of vast, open space over my head. When we speak, our voices echo through the air.
“Where are we?” I ask Sebastian.
“In outer space,” he says. I can hear his grin without seeing it.
At that moment, I hear a clunking sound, and a whirring. Suddenly the whole room illuminates with a thousand pinpricks of light. I realize we’re standing in the center of the vast dome of the building, and that dome is a model of the galaxy.
We’re surrounded by stars, planets, nebulas, and the vastness of space. They float gently around us, so I feel like we’re floating, too. The floor seems to have dropped away beneath me. The only thing stationary and close is Sebastian himself.
I look up into his face, illuminated by the pale blue light. His eyes look bright and clear, and when he smiles his teeth flash white against his deeply tanned skin. It feels like we’re the only two people in the universe. I wish that we were.
Sebastian drops down on one knee. My hands fly up to my mouth, because I was not expecting this, not in the slightest.
“I know we went through the motions this morning to appease our families . . .” Sebastian says. “But I want you to know. Yelena, I’m not marrying you because of your father, or the Bratva, or anything else. I want to marry you because I want to be with you, always. You captivated me from the moment I met you. I’m fascinated by you, impressed by you, utterly infatuated with you. I love you, Yelena. I’ll do anything for you.”
He’s holding up a box and opening the lid.
I didn’t expect a ring. He signed the contract—that was the proposal and the acceptance, without me even there.
But now Sebastian is offering me the choice—not my father, just me alone.
I look down at the ring.
It’s a teardrop-shaped stone on a delicate, filigreed band of pale gold. The filigree looks like ultra-fine lace, like frost on a windowpane. It’s so lovely that I’m almost afraid to touch it. It’s Sebastian who pulls it from its cushioned resting place and slips it on my finger.
The diamond gleams against my skin, like Sebastian plucked down one of those stars and set it on my hand.
“Will you marry me?” he says.
“Yes,” I breathe, still unable to believe this is happening.
Sebastian sweeps me up in his arms, spinning me around so the stars whirl around us all the faster. He kisses me, his arms locked tight around me.
I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I don’t know how to handle this feeling. It’s so overpowering that I feel like my body can’t hold it all inside.
I keep thinking, This can’t be real, this can’t be real.
And then a cold, malicious voice whispers:
It isn’t real. This whole thing is a fantasy. A lie that you created.
Sebastian doesn’t know that you set yourself out as bait. That you deliberately snared him. That you lured him into whatever trap your father’s planning.
I shake my head hard, trying to force these thoughts away before they ruin this moment for me.
It doesn’t matter that I lied before. It doesn’t matter what my father planned . . . that’s over now. He agreed to the alliance. He signed the contract in blood.
Once Sebastian and I are married, I’ll tell him everything. And he’ll forgive me, I know he will. He’ll understand that my father forced me. I didn’t know Sebastian back then—I didn’t know we’d fall in love.
I can’t risk telling him before the wedding.
Afterward, none of it will matter. We’ll be safe together, the two of us. I’ll be part of the Gallo family. They’ll protect me. I’ll tell them everything I know about my father, his business, and his resentments. They’ll understand. They have to.
That’s what I tell myself, to keep my mouth shut. To keep myself from destroying this beautiful and perfect moment.
I tell myself that everything will be alright, as long as Sebastian and I are together.
