Chapter 24.

NORA CARUSO "Get dressed." The command came from the doorway, I looked up from the book I had been staring at blindly for the last hour. Nikolai was leaning against the frame, already dressed. "Where are we going?" I asked, marking my page. I felt a spike of anxiety. Every time I left this room, something terrible happened. "To visit your family," he said calmly, checking the cuffs of his shirt. My stomach dropped. "My parents were just two nights ago. I don't want to go," I whispered. "They hate me." Nikolai pulled a dress from the rack, a deep emerald green that looked like liquid money. He tossed it onto the bed. "Let them hate you," he said, "Hate is better than indifference, hate means you matter." He leaned down, bracing his hands on the mattress on either side of me, trapping me. "You are Mrs. Volkov now, you do not hide. You walk into that house, you let them see the ring, you let them see the clothes, and you remind them that while they are fighting for scraps, you own the tab