CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

ALEXEI

I sat motionless, my mind reeling from the revelation. For a very long time, I haven't allowed myself to think about my father.

He was somebody that I despised. His cruelty knew no bounds. He was cruel even to his own family, so what stopped him from being cruel to those he was supposed to lead?

I found myself transported back to the darkest corridors of my past. My father, a man whose cruelty knew no bounds, haunted my memories like a relentless specter.

He was a tyrant, ruling our family with an iron fist and inflicting pain without remorse.

I remembered the day he took my mother's life, the look of terror etched on her face as she pleaded for mercy that never came. She was the only light in our shadowed existence, the one who shielded us from the worst of his wrath. But even her love couldn't protect us from his brutality.

My brother Kirill and I were his favorite targets, subjected to endless humiliation and degra