Nikolai's eyes stayed fixed on the road, but his thoughts were consumed by the woman he might lose. When had she become everything to him?
The realization had crept up slowly—like dawn breaking over a landscape you thought you knew in darkness, revealing colors and textures you'd never imagined.
He remembered the first time he'd seen genuine joy in Alex's eyes while watching her with the children.
Not the practiced smile she wielded like armor at formal events, but something raw and real that had made his chest ache with a strange, unfamiliar longing.
"How can I not?" he finally responded to Liam's skeptical question, allowing himself a brief glance toward the man who had become both father-in-law and potential executioner.
"She is not a hard person to love, Sir. It just took me s
