3| HIS FATHER’S WIFE

VIKTOR

Igor just got married.

The fucker actually remarried at the age of 71, knowing he had one foot in the grave from that terminal disease that could end him any day soon. Only a fool wouldn’t know what this meant for us all.

My hand tightened around the steering and I drove like a possessed man, but somehow not still driving fast enough.

The moment my car turned up in front of his building, I was out of the door before the engine even died. My phone vibrated in my hand for the umpteenth time—my brothers again, no doubt. Everyone was going crazy, I was just the only one close enough to figure out what exactly this fuckery was all about first.

The door pulled open after my first knock, and his butler, Pedro opened for me. I saw the moment he opened his mouth to probably lie that my father wasn’t in. I brushed past him, not caring to listen.

I was about to run for his room when I heard someone cuss in Italian, not too loud but audible enough,

“Cazatte!” That was somebody that definitely didn’t sound like any housekeeper or security personnel. It was freakishly familiar. Impossibly.

I charged towards the sound of the voice, convinced it was her—my father’s new wife. I stopped in front of Igor’s private living room. It was pitch dark inside, so I stepped in, making sure not to make a sound before I flicked on the light switch. And there she was.

Sniffing drugs.

The stash flew out of her hands seconds after I walked in, but it was too late. My lips pulled into a smile that was the opposite of everything I felt at the moment. Igor had really gone and married a drug addict, what a fool.

The lady’s hands gripped the table behind her for support, and she finally raised her head.

Recognition hit like a punch to the gut.

“… Lottie?”

Her fingers tightened around the edge of the table behind her, knuckles paling. Those wide, freakishly blue eyes continued to stare at me, but they weren’t just shocked. They were terrified.

Her breath hitched.

And just like that, something ugly and long buried clawed its way back to life inside my chest.

Years. Fucking years—and this was where she turned up. In my father’s house. As his wife.

A slow, humorless laugh left my throat. “All these years hiding from me, just for you to end up here…”

Her lips parted, but no words came out. That alone pissed me off more than anything. Where was her bite now?

Instead, moisture gathered in her eyes. “Viktor…”

I almost went blind with rage. Closing the distance between us in two strides, I crowded her against the table so my front grazed the hard buds of her nipple under that flimsy singlet she had on. Her scent wafted through my nostrils—expensive Sicilian lilies and just a hint of cheap drugs. I ignored the scintillating sensation of my body against hers, forced myself not to be the pervert I was itching to be.

“Shut up.” I growled. “I don’t want to hear my name from that mouth.”

She trembled against me, while her eyes continued to scan my scar and the eye patch strapped on my right eye.

“Disgusted, Snow White?” I barked. She gulped, tried to look away, but I gripped her chin and made her look at me. “You did this to me, remember? Don’t tell me you can’t fucking stand it.”

Lottie shivered in my hold, her lips trembling like she’d burst into tears anytime soon.

God, she looked different. The sweet mafia princess I’d known was gone.

There were tattoos now. Small ones scattered over her skin—her arms, her neck, her thighs. Her jet-black hair was piled into a messy bun, her face bare of makeup. She was thinner than I remembered too, so much that her full chest now seemed criminal on her petite frame.

But those eyes were still the same.

Too freaking blue and innocent, but they didn’t fool me.

I continued to remind her, “We were going to get married, start our own little family.” My breath hitched. “All I did was love you. But you repaid me by leaving me to die in the hands of those men, luring me to them in fact. Remember?” I continued.

“I didn’t… What are you even doing here?” She choked.

“And you’re still a shameless gold digger. That’s why you married my father, isn’t it? To use him like you use everyone you attach yourself to.” I barked in accusation. Hurt flashed in her eyes for a moment. Then, out of the blue, a smile lit up her face.

“Oh hello there, stepson!” The balls on this woman.

My hand shot out and wrapped itself around her throat. She tilted her head upwards to look at me, a bit of whatever powder she had been sniffing still somewhere under her nose. Her cheeks were tainted the prettiest shade of red.

My chest clenched hard. When the hell had she started taking drugs?

“Don’t mess with me. It’ll be in your best interests to watch that fucking mouth if you don’t want me shutting it for you.”

“Why? You were the one that accused me of being a golddigger. I just called you what you are… my step—”

I tightened my hand around her throat before I could stop myself. Her hand was on mine at once, trying to claw me off her. I didn’t budge, even if those nails hurt like a bitch. I never lost my fucking cool. But with Lottie…

“Let me go!”

“If I were you, I’d pack my bags and leave right now, snow white.”

She shrugged, batting her lashes at me, “Too bad I’m not you and you’re not me.”

I watched her keenly for a few more seconds, then chuckled to myself. I also loosened my grip around her throat and almost fucking died when I saw the marks I’d left. I didn’t need to be reminded that she was easy to bruise, too. My dick twitched despite myself.

“Where’s my child?” I calmly asked the question that had been in the back of my mind since I saw her. She swallowed. Shrugged. “Snow White…”

She wrapped her arms around her chest stubbornly. “What child?”

I looked down at her stomach as if she’d still be pregnant until this time. “Don’t play stupid with me, Lottie.” I snarled when I directed my gaze back to her face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She muttered. A lie. She was lying to me, but I couldn’t stop looking at her…

The way her lips trembled after every sentence. The way she kept stealing glances at mine. The room suddenly felt too small, too hot. Memories of when I would sneak into her bedroom and kiss her senseless slammed into me.

Kissing her all over in the dark while she whispered my name like a prayer, keeping her voice down so we wouldn’t get caught.

It had been years. And somehow, I still remembered every inch of her. Her eyes dropped to my lips again.

Big fucking mistake, because something in me snapped right away and I grabbed the back of her neck, crushing my mouth against hers.

Lottie clutched my shirt and kissed me back with a frenzy, her body shaking under me. My blood roared and my cock stiffened as little moans escaped her mouth. She wiggled against my hard length on her stomach, teasing me. My tongue licked every corner of her mouth, tasting what I’d missed out on for the past few years.

What she’d denied me.

I immediately leaned off her at the thought. I whipped around, exiting the room in fast strides. I started up the stairs first, then ran back down and stormed towards the private elevator instead. I punched in the code to his room with enough force to ruin the buttons, not that I cared.

I couldn’t get out of that elevator fast enough, adjusting my pants while I walked out. Ignoring the two bodyguards standing on each side of his door, I twisted the door knob and started to step in when a hand landed on my arm.

“Sir, your father doesn’t want to be disturbed, ” Kyle said calmly. I nodded, responded,

“I just want a word.”

With that, I slipped inside and locked the door behind me with a click. Igor looked up from his TV. Different wires were connected to his body, and he looked weaker than I saw him the last time.

“Viktor…” he drawled when our eyes met. “… what do I owe this visit? Haven’t seen you in a long—”

“You know I haven’t come here for pleasantries.” I cut him off midway. “What’s this I’m hearing?”

And Igor smirked... adjusting on the bed.

“You finally heard of my marriage, ey? Was wondering when you and your brothers would get the information—” He bursted into a coughing fit, and it was then that I noticed another person in the room. His nurse. I motioned for her to get out, after she’d checked on him. Thankfully, she left without any depressing question.

“You realize this would take away five percent of our shares. Any woman you get married to will depend on our shares, she’s taking five percent from our money—”

“I know exactly what I did when I made my decision.”

“Cool.” I nodded. “So you know you married a druggie too, right?”

The look on the motherfucker’s face was satisfying. For once, Igor had fucked up his shit.