LITMIR.BIZ

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years are exactly why there’s nothing to be said. Even if there was, I’m not interested in hearing it.”

      His eyes gave her a clinical sweep, as if assessing her response for veracity and judging it to be false. It made her loathe her weakness for him all over again.

      “I don’t know what you were thinking coming here like this, what you expected, but if...”

      “If you’re still angry, we can discuss that, too.”

      If? If?

      “Are you sure you broke only your legs in that accident? Sounds as if you’d pulverized way more. Like the components that made you human.”

      “I do realize showing up here must have surprised you...”

      “Try appalled and outraged.”

      He shifted, like the automaton she’d just accused him of becoming, as if moving into a different gear to counter her response. “That’s why I showed up. I gathered if I called ahead, you would have been just as resistant to granting me an audience. So I decided to eliminate unnecessary steps.”

      “And this single step turned out to be as pointless. I’m not granting you an audience since we have zero things to discuss, so you might as well save us both the aggravation and go disappear again. Preferably forever this time.”

      “If you’re concerned I might be here to exhume the past, rest assured I have no wish to resurrect anything between us. I’m not here for you at all. I’m here for my daughters.”

      Every word sank into her mind like a depth mine. Then the last ones exploded.

      I’m here for my daughters.

      My daughters.

      The rage that detonated inside her, that he would dare say this, or even think it, almost rocked her on her feet.

      Biting a tongue that had gone numb with fury, she gritted out, “Leave. Right this second.”

      Unperturbed, he gave a nonchalant shrug of his daunting shoulder. “I will leave after I’ve said what I came to say and when we’ve come to a preliminary understanding. Whether you approve or not, I am the father of your twin daughters, and I am here to—”

      Red smeared her vision. “You won’t be here much longer or I’m calling the police.”

      His searing blue gaze remained still, his pupils unmoving, indicating he had no emotional response to her threat and agitation. “I would advise against this. It would disrupt your neighborhood and bring you unneeded speculation and embarrassment. Not to mention you’d have to lie to the police to make them take action against me...”

      “I won’t be lying when I say you’re here uninvited, harassing me and making fraudulent claims to my daughters.”

      “They’re my daughters, too.”

      “Not according to the law, they’re not. Nor to them or to the whole world. Any passing stranger they’ve ever briefly met is more to them than you are.”

      His formidable head inclined in agreement. “I know that being their biological father on its own means nothing. That’s why I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere until I say my piece or until you indicate your willingness to negotiate further.”

      “What the hell do you mean, negotiate?”

      “Over the twins, of course.”

      She gaped, unable to voice any of the million violent protests ricocheting in her skull and boiling her blood.

      “Before you blast me off the face of the earth, I remind you that as their biological father, I do have a right to—”

      “You have absolutely no right to Eva and Zoya. None. You relinquished any right to even think of them as yours way before they were born. You made it clear you didn’t even want them to be born. You may have forgotten this, but I remember all too well.”

      “I freely admit I behaved extremely...inappropriately when you came to me after my accident. You can understand I was at my worst at the time.”

      “And you remained there for over two years?”

      “I’m the first to admit it took me longer than acceptable to deal with everything.”

      Rage deepening at his dismissal of his abandonment of her, she seethed, “I care nothing about why you did what you did, and I’ll be damned if I let you pretend it was forgivable and invade my life again. You’re sure as hell never coming near my daughters.”

      “I’m not here seeking forgiveness. I don’t waste my time, and I certainly won’t waste yours pursuing the unattainable. But I’m here to acknowledge my responsibilities. Whatever I’ve done, I’m myself again.”

      “If you think that makes it any better, let me disabuse you of that notion. Being yourself is proof you know nothing of responsibility or accountability or even common courtesy and basic humanity.”

      Instead of stonewalling her again, he just nodded impassively. “You’re right. My old self was nothing to be proud of. But the past couple of years changed me, and the man I am today is capable of at least being fully responsible and accountable, and resolved to take on his duties.”

      “Good for ‘him.’ And as long as ‘he’ takes his resolutions away from my family, I wish ‘him’ the best of luck.”

      “The thing is, your family is also mine. The twins are the primary duty I’m determined to take on.”

      She fought harder against the screams gathering at the back of her throat. “That would have been a commendable sentiment if they needed anything from you. Which they don’t. And they never will. You’ve done your part and can now feel proud of yourself when you leave and never come back.”

      His azure gaze remained unwavering. “I do understand your alarm and rejection. But even if the past was rife with pain, I’m certain everything happened for a reason. Why else would I have twin girls, and now be called on to take the mantle of responsibility in the land of the twin goddesses?”

      This made zero sense to her, leaving her speechless again.

      Realizing she had no ready comeback, he straightened even more, seeming to grow bigger, more rigid and imposing. “I won’t push for this audience tonight. I’ll give you some time. Not long but enough to let it all sink in.”

      And a croak finally escaped her. “Let what sink in?”

      “The fact that I am back to stay. That nothing will stop me from claiming my throne, and my heirs.”

Two

      Kassandra’s entranced gaze followed Leonid as he descended the stairs of her porch, then crossed her driveway in measured strides to his parked car, a gleaming black Jaguar that looked like an extension of him.

      Without looking back, he got in and drove away slowly, almost soundlessly. After the car disappeared, she remained staring at the void it had left, her mind a debris field in the wake of the havoc he’d wreaked.

      Had he really been here? Or had she conjured him after seeing him earlier in that news spot? Had it all been a dream, a nightmare?

      But if it had been, why couldn’t she wake up, as she always did whenever his phantasm came to suffocate her at night? As much as she would have preferred an actual breakdown to him being here, she knew. He had been here. And he would be back. His last words rang in her ears in an unending loop.

      Nothing will stop me from claiming my throne, and my heirs.

      Legs trembling with futile rage and incipient dread, she closed the door. But it was no use. She didn’t feel she’d successfully shut him out, or that she was safe anymore inside her home.

      As she shakily made her way inside, one thing he’d said

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