I finished teaching my last lesson. Packed my papers. Reached for my coat. Then two men walked in— no masks, no explanations, only my name and an order to come quietly.
They bound my hands, covered my mouth, dragged me from my classroom into a stranger’s world. I woke in his home— a locked room, a terrified boy I knew. Sasha. My student. Begging me not to leave him.
And behind him— Fyodor Gravitch. Tattooed. Silent. Dangerous. A man who stole me because he didn’t know how to raise his son. I defy him. Correct him.
Teach him to hold the child he barely understands. But then I learn the truth— he’s Bratva. Enemies hunt us. Safehouses burn. And the man I should fear becomes the one I can’t escape.
But the night he leaves, the door crashes open— hands seize me, Sasha screams— and all I can think is: what happens if Fyodor never makes it back?
