“Who is Mikhail? And why are you defending him so desperately?” the man asks. “You let him touch what belongs to me, right? Answer!” I stay silent. Imanov looms over me. He invades my personal space. He mustn’t know that Misha is just a little boy—with his dark hair and my blue eyes. And I’ll do anything to keep him safe.
“‘He’s nobody! Don’t touch him!’”
“You want to protect him? Then you’ll be under me,” he deafens me with his sentence. “You’re not new to this.”
He told me he loves me. Madly. I believed. It was in vain—he lied. He used me to get revenge on my father. Zakariya Imanov became my worst nightmare—a heartless, cruel monster. I thought I’d escaped him. I convinced myself we’d never meet again. But can you really run from a beast? It will always go after you.