My phone wouldn't stop. It just sat on the desk, buzzing and buzzing until it felt like a hornet's nest. Access denied. Account Frozen. Every time it lit up, another part of my life just… vanished. My father isn't just trying to abandon me, he is deleting me.
I looked at the keys to the car. I didn't even want to touch them. They don't feel like they belong to me anymore. Nothing was. I was standing there in a shirt that cost more than a month's rent and I felt like a forgotten ghost. But as the last notification cleared, the panic actually started to lift. It was replaced by this weird, uncomfortable and lightheaded feeling. I don't have a name to protect anymore. I just had to find her.
As I picked up my phone, a message notification came in, it was from Emmeline.
She'd probably heard about my tantrum and was texting to confront me about it. I don't have the patience to deal with her. She's such a drama queen and that's the last thing I need on my plate right now.
Isabelle.
I need her.
Right now.
The North wing was freezing. Adrien had hinted to me exactly where she would be. It smelled like dust and damp stone. Isabelle was there, a silhouette against the moonlight, playing the violin so hard it sounded like the strings were screaming. A tune filled with so much rage. She didn't even look up when I walked in.
"Isabelle," I said, my voice sounding cracked in the empty space.
"Go away, Dmitri. I don't want to hear what you have come to say." She didn't stop. The bow was a blur. "What are you doing here? Go talk to your lawyers or your fiancé. I don't want to be part of an affair scandal. I'm busy."
"I'm not marrying her. I've called it off. The engagement." I stepped into the light so she could see me. "And there are no lawyers. He took it all." My face felt stiff. "The accounts, the cars, the name. Everything. I'm an exiled prince. A ghost in this building now."
The music stopped. The silence that followed was heavy, like a physical weight. She lowered the violin, finally meeting my gaze. Her Silver eyes searching mine for a trick.
"Why?" She whispered. "You knew he'd do this."
"Because you were right," I said, I walked closer, my shoes clicking too loudly on the floor. I stopped just out of her space. I didn't want to do it but I wanted her to see. I wanted her to see my weak side. The part I spent so much time hiding was because I was the demon prince. A Volkov. A weak Volkov has no use and my father spent so much time erasing that side away from my life.
I rolled up my sleeve, showing the jagged white line of my forearm. Then I pulled my collar back to show the small, round burn mark near my neck. "You thought I was born like this. I wasn't. I was trained, programmed to be perfect, to never show a weakness."
I sat on the edge of the stage, the old wood groaning. I couldn't look at her, I didn't have what it takes to face her at that moment, I felt so ashamed and I failed to do the one thing I promised her, protection.
"My mother was sick," I said. Old painful memories are crawling into my mind again. "She needed constant care. Expensive medical stuff." I gripped the edge of the stage until my knuckles turned white. "My father… he called it operational inefficiency. He decided that if something couldn't be fixed, you just cut it away. They'd stopped the treatment. He let her fade out in a pretty room because she wasn't worth the 'resources' anymore.
I heard her catch her breath. I still couldn't look up.
"I was fifteen. I begged him. I promised to be whoever he wanted if he'd just help her. He told me to grow up."
"After her death, I couldn't find the purpose to live anymore and I tried to end it. Hence the scar on my arm. The servants were there in time to rush me to the hospital. When I finally healed and got back home. He threatened to throw me into a worse hell than hers and burn me with his cigar near his neck. Maybe for me to understand he doesn't actually care at all."
I finally looked up, my vision getting a little blurry. "I decided then that I'd never care about anything again. If I didn't care, he couldn't take it. And then I met you. And for the first time since my mother, I couldn't bear to see something break."
Isabelle's Pov
The room felt too cold. I looked at him, really looked at him and saw the broken kid he had to kill to survive his father. The anger I'd been holding onto just… vanished. It left me feeling hollow and exhausted.
He'd throw away an empire for me. He was a prince of ashes, standing in a dusty hall. And that was the problem. I wanted to hug him and tell him, it's totally okay to feel that way and that doesn't make him less of who he used to be.
I walked up to him and took his arm. My fingers traced the jagged line, feeling the raised tissue beneath my fingertips. He flinched, before resting his head on my shoulders. I shut my eyes so tight to stop myself from crying. The tears won't help the situation, it will worsen it.
"Dmitri," I said. He lifted his head to meet my gaze and our eyes met. Time stopped at that moment and we held our gaze like we were both looking for a way out. Our eyes carried the words we wanted to say but our lips couldn't. We are two broken souls who are leading each other into destruction.
I let go of his arm as I took a step back, my heart aching for what was about to follow. "This has to stop. Right now."
He frowned, that old defensive mask trying to slip back on. "What? No. We have them. The Maritime Trust, the account—"
"No!" I shouted, the words echoing off the high ceiling. "Look at you. You're an exile. He's going to keep cutting until you have nothing left to stand on and he's doing it to get to me."
"Is this about the engagement? I called it off! I don't care about the money or the name or the stupid status, Isabelle!"
"Well, I do!" My voice broke and the tears finally spilled over. I swiped at them angrily. "You have a life, Dmitri! A future! Without me, you can go back, marry Emmeline and be safe. You can take that power, actually do something good with it and fix what your father broke!"
I saw the look in his eyes, the confusion, the hurt. It felt like I was kicking a wounded animal but I couldn't stop.
"You're giving up," he said. He sounded like I'd punched him.
"I'm saving you!" I screamed, my throat raw and tight. I grabbed my violin case, my hands shaking so hard I nearly dropped it. "This revenge... It's a poison. It won't bring anyone back. I won't be the reason you lose everything. I won't be the chain that keeps you in the dark."
"You're lying," he said, taking a step toward me. "You're just scared. Look at me. I know you are angry about the coun—"
"No…No. I'm terrified for you!" I sobbed, shaking my head as I tried to get his voice out of my head. "You're making yourself small for a war you didn't start. Emmeline is your world. I'm just an orphan girl you met at a gala. Just go back. You'll be fine."
I turned for the door. I didn't want to see his face. If I saw him cry, I'd stay and then we'd both be destroyed.
"Just let me go," I choked out. "It's the only way."
I walked out. Every step felt like walking through deep water. The sound of the door closing behind me was the loudest thing I'd ever heard.
Dmitri's POV
The door clicked shut.
I stood there in the dark. The moonlight had moved, leaving me in the shadows. Her words kept replaying in my head. An orphan girl you met at a gala. Just a shadow.
She thought she was doing something noble. She thought she was pushing me back to safety. She didn't realize there was no safety to go back to. That bridge was burned the second I chose her.
A weird, dry sound came out of my throat. It was close to a laugh. She thought by surrendering, she'd end the war. She didn't understand. If she stopped fighting, my father would win. He'd take her and he is taking the only real thing I had left.
I walked over to the window. The school lights were glowing down below. I felt cold but it was a different kind of cold now. It was a certainty.
She walked away to save me. So now, I have to win to save her. Not for the money. Not for the name. Just to prove to her that I'd rather be in the dirt with her than anywhere else.
The game wasn't over. I was the only one left playing.