Once Upon A Lie

Sixty:

Sixty:

"Do you know how much trouble you've caused for me, boy?" Magnus Opjer looked down at Aleksander. Aleksander wasn't sure how many days he had been in the man's captivity. But it had been long enough that he was going slightly crazy. During that time, he'd been left with Zoya, Ivan, and Fedyor. This was the first time the man responsible for kidnapping him had come to look him in the eyes.

"Me?" said Aleksander. "You and your son have been harassing the woman that I love by stalking her and threatening me. I was never going to tell about Tatiana's affair or Nikolai's parentage. I wouldn't do that to a friend."

Magnus snorted. "Nikolai said you were secretly soft. I guess he was right."

"I'm not so soft that I won't kill you once I get my hands on you. Why don't you untie me?"

The older man laughed. "Not a chance. No, see you're one of the few people that know about my affair with Tatiana and about my son. A scandal like that could ruin my company. Could ruin Nikolai. I can't let someone like that stick around."

Aleksander raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

He grinned. "I'm talking about killing you, of course. Going to do it the old-fashioned way. Taking you out to Ketterdam canal, and drown you like a street rat."

Aleksander stiffened. "You could use me. Marry me off to Zoya, and I'll do whatever you want. I'd be responsible for The Fold and The Little Palace then."

Magnus laughed. "No. Letting you live would be a kindness. I'm not a kind man. Of course, to make sure that your son isn't a bastard, I will let you marry Zoya before you die. After all, I'm going into business with the young woman. Smart girl. She's going to control The Fold and The Little Palace."

"You clearly don't know Zoya," said Aleksander, "if you go into business with her without a buffer, she'll eat you alive. She doesn't play well with others. She wants everything to herself. If she's going into business with you, you'll lose everything."

He shrugged. "She just turned eighteen. She'll need a protector for her son, especially since her child's father will be dead and she'll be a widow. I can offer her the protection that she needs. If she wants to run the company, she can run the company. As long as I have money, that's all I care about."

Aleksander glowered at him. The only man more loathsome than Magnus that he had met was Petyr Lantsov. "What about Tatiana?"

"Oh," said Magnus, "Tatiana was a mistake. Always so dramatic. I never should have gotten involved with her. Don't worry. She won't be a problem either."

"She's the mother of your son!"

"She's an indiscretion. One that I'll make sure never gets out. The same way that I'm going to make certain that you never get out, Aleksander. Perhaps I'll drop the two of you at the bottom of the same canal. Let the newspapers come up with some inventive little story about the two of you. Anything to push The Fold's Heiress further into my son's arms."

"You're not going to get away with this!" Aleksander shouted, although even as he said it, it sounded helpless. 

Because it was.