บททั้งหมดของ Submit To Me: บทที่ 51 - บทที่ 60

KaterinaThe papers are spread across my bed like I'm planning to make a thousand paper flowers for a wedding. They cover the blanket so thickly you can hardly see it between the gaps. Stalking around the mattress, I write hastily on the back of a scrap piece I've folded in half.My notes must make me seem insane. No one could decipher my scribbles, which have been made in increasingly frantic lines. But I need to write to keep track, and also ... to believe that what I'm seeing is true.This can't be real. It just can't!Staring in between my writing and the documents, I finally sink onto the floor in a heap. There's no denying it. I've gone over everything a hundred times—it's nearly dawn. After the high- octane escape out of the mansion and back again, I'm awake from pure adrenaline.What I've learned is going to change everything.Mom ... is this what you didn't want me to know?The major trail of income into the dance studio points in one direction. For years, my father accepted

SashaThrough it, I hear Katerina vomit again. The doctor is mumbling something to her that I can't discern, but it's in a pleasant tone.Unsure what to do with myself, I begin marching back and forth in front of the bathroom. What could be wrong with her? Is it an illness? Something someone did? I stiffen, my hands making tight fists. What if someone poisoned her?Moments later, the door opens. The doctor guides Katerina toward her bed. She's still pale, her forehead shiny, like she's been out for a hard run."I'm going to fucking fire Danil," I snarl."No!" Katerina holds up a hand, waving it anxiously. The doctor gently coaxes her to lie back. "Sasha, don't. If he did anything, it was an accident.""Instead of punishing people, Mr. Ivanovsky," Dr. Helsan chuckles, "you should be celebrating.""What are you talking about?" I ask angrily.Clapping me on both shoulders, he beams as wide as humanly possible. "You're going to be a father."The room begins to sway around me. I grip the b

SashaIs it too reckless to burn a whole city to the ground?That's what I'm wondering as I flip through my piles of paperwork in the library. My eyes scrape over the notes I've kept for the last few months. Plans upon plans exist in my esoteric scribbles. Some are in code, others meaningless drivel to the untrained eye.But for people like me—a man neck-deep in a bloody war—it's an instruction manual. Except it didn't work, I remind myself furiously. Meticulous planning, yet nothing has come to fucking fruition! None of my men have reported movement by Yevgeniy in the last week. Other than sending someone to shoot up the studio, he seems to have vanished from the face of this earth.I have to dig him out of his hole. My fingertips crimp the edges of my notes. I imagine the paper is his throat and start crushing it into a ball. It's not like I need these documents anymore. They haven't done me any good.There's a light knock on the frame of the library door. My head jerks up. Katerina

SashaThe sound of laughter rolls through the partially open door of the small building. Beyond the crack, I can see multiple men loitering around a table. Their attitude is relaxed—for the most part. My brigadiers know that when I call them for a meeting, something important is happening."Everyone is in there, pakhan," Nikolai speaks beside me.He's wearing a navy-blue jacket over his taupe slacks. He was the one I instructed to gather the other brigadiers here. Ever since I caught him gossiping with Kostya, he's intentionally kept the two of them separate. I suspect, on some level, that his goal is selfish. Men are quick to do whatever it takes for their own success. Nikolai wants to climb the ladder and be seen as worthy, which means he thinks I consider Kostya to be pathetic.He's wrong.While I might have relegated Kostya to less glorifying work like guard duty far below what his rank deserves and I kept him from attending the wedding, it's not because I don't respect him. In tr

SashaA walk under the stars doesn't bring me clarity. It's a spontaneous decision, one made from a desperate need to recalibrate my emotions. I don't have a jacket on, and the night air scrapes over my skin, worming into my bones. It's awful, but it's still not enough to distract me from the chaos in my soul.I should have apologized sooner. Or more enthusiastically. Regrets are useless. I can't escape them. The memory of her face, the way she shrank on the stairs, sends shame coursing through my soul. I kick the gravel on the path aimlessly as I wander through the grounds. I don't watch where I'm going because it doesn't matter.The only place I want to be is at her side.A sound reaches me. Looking up, I see that I've made it to the separate room on the other side of the mansion grounds. There's light emanating from the window, and wind carries the sound of multiple voices to me.When I get closer, I recognize a few of my men through the glass. Nikolai, Iosif, and Mikhail are insid