Chapter 3

Andrey

The bitch in front of me was cunning, calculating, and beautiful. Not young, but she knew how to dazzle men, that was a fact. The men in the corporation practically drooled at the sight of the tall brunette with impressive curves, which she had no intention of hiding under her clothes despite the company's business ethics. Just as, from day one, she had no intention of hiding her interest in me whenever I caught her looking.

Kupriyanov's assistant. A super-specialist in market analytics. If my cousin was to be believed, an absolutely irreplaceable employee.

I cannot say I was particularly surprised when I failed to find her personnel file in the company archive. No information, no references, no professional history. Later, I was able to see for myself that Nelly Prigozheva had no analytical skills either. Not to mention any real understanding of why she was here from the standpoint of the position she supposedly held.

She appeared at Sezam almost at the same time I did, and the only thing she proved capable of was making sure I noticed her.

I noticed her. I simply was not impressed by the beauty, as Valerka had hoped I would be. I do not like women for sale, regardless of how much they cost or what they are being used for. I do not like crude calculation either. Of all people, my cousin, had he been smarter, might have guessed that I had long ago stopped being a snot-nosed boy eager for free charms. And unlike him, I was not a gambler who would snap at such obvious bait.

"He's afraid, and he has something to hide," was the first thought that came to mind the moment Kupriyanov introduced Prigozheva to me and the brunette had trouble answering the direct question of what had brought her to Sezam and what the purpose of her work at the company was. Something here was dirty: in my cousin's wary look and the showy friendliness with which he greeted me. In those mournful tears he shed over what had happened to Granddad while pressing himself to my chest.

Yes, seven years had passed since we had last seen each other, but even after all those years, I was in no hurry to comfort myself with the hope that Valerka had changed. I was not wrong. If he and I had been made from the same dough, then our batches were definitely different.

One look into my cousin's eyes was enough to make it clear that at thirty-six, Kupriyanov remained the same as ever: the same selfish bastard, still living exclusively for his own interests. Capable of stepping over anyone who got in his way.

And no, he could not simply swallow the fact that Sezam would come to me when Granddad died. I was no fool and understood that I had crossed my cousin's path, but Granddad's decision did surprise me.

I did not need his company. I had enough ambitions of my own to make something of myself in this life without anyone's help. And so far, I had managed it. Valerka was the beloved grandson, not me. The firstborn, whom Granddad had willingly spoiled and forgiven for a great deal. First the money stolen from the house, then the wrecked car and the lies my cousin did not know how to live without.

I do not know how their relationship had developed in recent years, but as for Granddad and me, we had certainly not grown closer lately.

By sixteen, I had no intention of dancing to his tune and knew what I wanted. Not to become someone's puppet heir, the child on whom great hopes were placed. I was an egoist too, but of a different kind than my cousin, and in all matters I was used to relying only on myself.

So from the first day I returned to the city and took charge of Sezam, I kept asking myself the same question: what was Kupriyanov planning? And what had really happened to Granddad Matvey?

Little was known.

Granddad had fallen ill shortly after a conversation with Valerka. The two of them had been at the elder Voronov's country house alone when Granddad suddenly had an attack. And Kupriyanov swore that he had been asleep at that moment and had only found Granddad on the floor in his study an hour later. He swore it knowing it was almost impossible to dispute his words.

I did not get into the house right away, but by the time I did, I already had suspicions that not everything in the company was running smoothly. However, I found no important papers among Granddad's things to confirm my doubts. Nothing that might shed light on his last conversation with his grandson or provide any kind of lead.

Something at Sezam was wrong. And to understand exactly what, I began studying the documents more and more deeply and getting to know the world of the corporation, relying on my intuition. In the end, it did not fail me.

The scale of the fraud was staggering. So was the involvement of leading people in the company in illegal deals.

I understood that Kupriyanov was unlikely to have organized such capital-theft schemes on his own, but there was no longer any doubt that he had betrayed Granddad's life's work.

I was prepared for a great deal. I would have to stir up a hornet's nest, and it would be foolish to hope the hornets would not sting back. But I was not prepared for Valerka deciding to murder me… No, I had not expected that.

So when Rooster ran into my office with her eyes wide in terror and started chirping about the crime my cousin and his accomplice were plotting, about the danger threatening me, I was stunned. Not so much by the news itself or the fact of the lovers' agreement as by the regret that everything was happening too fast.

They had started moving too early; I needed time. I had already hired people and begun an investigation. I had managed to figure out a great deal myself… but not everything. Not everything, and then Rooster.

Her fear could blow all my plans to hell. This Redheaded Witch had enough sense to blurt out to someone what she had heard and seen. And although I did not want to believe it at first, it turned out to be hard to find anyone more guileless and devoted to the company than my secretary.

Or I was a poor judge of people.

When I first walked into the reception area of Sezam's general director, angry and confused by what had happened to Granddad and by his decision, my gaze caught on the slim figure of the girl by the window. I had not intended it at all, but I noticed the beautiful line of her shoulders, her pale-skinned neck, and… the stranger's wavy hair, twisted at the back of her head into a heavy rope: dark red, the color of a low flame dancing over tawny coals on a dark night.

Only a second had passed since I crossed the threshold, and I had not yet had time to get a proper look at her, but an unexpected thought already pushed its way into my head: "Give a flame like that freedom, and it will blaze into a fire you will never put out."

Nonsense!

I entered quickly, and the girl did not have time to turn around, but it was not hard to guess who stood before me. The rumors about her and my grandfather, who had supposedly gone mad in his old age and hired some girl off the street, had reached me before I even entered the corporation's building. And of course, they could not help stirring dissatisfaction in my soul.