Dealing Her Final Card(64)

I’m in love with you, Breanna. She whimpered as she remembered the dark midnight of Vladimir’s eyes, the hoarse rasp of his voice. I never stopped loving you.

With a choked sob, she ran upstairs. Not letting herself look at the mussed-up sheets of the bed where he’d held her last night as she wept, she packed up her duffel bag, tucking the paper beneath her passport.

“Are you leaving?”

Looking up with an intake of breath, she saw Vladimir in the doorway, wearing a black button-down shirt and black trousers. His face was half-hidden in the shadow.

She swallowed. “Yes.” She turned away. “You set me free. So I’m going.” Forgive me. I can’t take the chance.

He exhaled, and came closer. When she clearly saw his face, she nearly staggered back, shocked at the luminous pain in his eyes. Then she blinked, and it was gone.

“I have a plane waiting to take you wherever you want to go,” he said.

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“You knew I would leave?”

“Yes.” Lifting his gaze to hers, he whispered, “But I hoped you wouldn’t. I hoped you could—love me—enough.”

Her heart was slamming against her chest. She wanted to sob, to throw her arms around him, to pull out the contract and rip it up in front of his eyes. “Perhaps I’ll come back.”

“Perhaps,” he said, but his lips twisted. “And Snowy? Are you leaving her behind?”

“Of course not,” Bree said, shocked. “I wouldn’t abandon her!”

“No,” he replied quietly. “I know that. You wouldn’t abandon anyone you truly loved.”

Bree swallowed. “Vladimir, I told you the truth. I do love you. But I—”

“You don’t have to explain.” His eyes met hers. “Just be happy, Bree. That’s all I want. All I’ve ever wanted.”

“Your great-grandmother’s necklace is on the nightstand,” she said in a small voice.

“That was a gift.” Picking up the necklace, he held it out to her. “Take it.”

She shook her head. “That belongs to...to your future wife.”

Coming up behind her, he said softly, “It belongs to you.”

He put the necklace around her neck. She felt the cool, hard stone against her skin, and grief crashed over her like a wave. Closing her eyes, she sagged back against him. He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her against his chest for a single moment.

Then he let her go.

“I will always love you, Breanna,” he said in a low voice. He turned away. “Goodbye.”

Vladimir left their bedroom without looking back. She wanted to chase after him. She wanted to fall at his knees, weeping and begging for his forgiveness.

But she couldn’t. She had the signed contract. Fate had made the decision for her.

It won’t stand up in court, she told herself again, her teeth chattering. After Josie’s safe, I’ll come back. I will somehow make him forgive me....

Bree had no memory of collecting Snowy and her duffel bag. But somehow, twenty minutes later, they were in the back of the limo, driving away from the palace. Her puppy sat in her lap, whining as she looked through the window at Vladimir’s palace, then plaintively up at her mistress.

As Bree looked back at the fairy-tale palace, snow sparkled on Vladimir’s wide fields and on the forest of bare, black trees around the palace of blue and gold. And she realized she was weeping, pressing her hand against the necklace at her throat.

Bree felt something prick her finger. Looking down, she saw the peridot’s sharp edge had pricked her skin. A Russian prince had once sent his beloved wife and child into the safety of exile, with this necklace as their only memento of him, before he’d died alone in Siberia, in ultimate sacrifice.

A sob rose to Bree’s lips. As Vladimir had sacrificed...

Her eyes widened. With an intake of breath, she looked back at the palace.

You knew I would leave?

Yes. His eyes had seared hers, straight through her soul. But I hoped you wouldn’t. I hoped you could—love me—enough.

What had Vladimir sacrificed for her?

Was it possible...that he knew?

“Stop,” she cried to the driver. “Turn around! Go back!”

The puppy barked madly, turning circles in her lap as the limo stopped, struggling to turn around on the long, slender road surrounded by snow.

Bree didn’t care if the signed contract had miraculously fallen into her lap. She didn’t care what the universe might be trying to tell her. The choice was still hers.

All this time, she’d thought she had to choose between the two people she loved. She didn’t.

She just had to choose herself.