The Nutcracker Prince — Rebecca Winters

"Are you really my daddy?"

Anna wriggled loose from her mother's grip and gazed up at Kon. "You look just like the Nutcracker Prince in my storybook!"

Meg was shaken by the stars in her daughter's eyes, shaken by this new threat to her own fragile emotions and hard-won independence. But she knew it was too late...

"My mommy told me my daddy lives in Russia and can't ever come to visit," Anna confided to Kon in a loud whisper.

"Well, your mommy is wrong, Anochka. I'm your daddy and I've always loved you, even though we've never met and I lived far away. But now I'm finally here, in America." Kon glanced at Meg. She couldn't, wouldn't, meet his eyes. "I'm looking forward to our first Christmas together, Anochka. As a family."

Meg Roberts -- She's never stopped loving her daughter's father, even though she hasn't seen him in almost seven years. Even though she believes that the handsome ex-KGB agent seduced her for political reasons…and left her pregnant. Now, six-year-old Anna is the most important thing in Meg's life -- and Meg's greatest fear is that Kon plans to take their daughter away.

Anna Roberts -- Her mother said that Anna's daddy could never come to see her because he lived far away, in Russia. But he's here and he looks just like the handsome, Nutcracker Prince in Anna's favorite book. More than anything, Anna wants her daddy to live with them -- wants them to be a real family.

Konstantin Rudenko -- The former high-ranking KGB agent has defected to the United States -- for the love of a woman and a child he's never met. His daughter, Anna. His Anochka. He's been in hiding and he now has a new name and a new identity. But he's still the same man who fell in love with a young schoolteacher visiting Russia seven years before. The woman he called Meggie!


Hero: Konstantin "Kon" Rudenko
Heroine: Meg Roberts