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It’s only a matter of time before he discovers my secret. But it has to be on my terms.
I need him to trust me first, or all might be lost.
CHAPTER TEN
Aleks
I giveHarper shit about how she velveted my paws and needed kid gloves. But she takes it all in stride and gives me shit right back.
I have work to catch up on and my sister and Aria — still hugely pregnant and due in a matter of days, which has had Mikhail hovering— have been coming by to visit. It helps that Mikhail and Aria don’t live far away. Harper isn’t alone all the time.
Three days after the wedding, Harper gets a phone call from her mother.
“Speakerphone,” I tell her, as I work at my desk on the list of things Mikhail has given me to do. Harper’s in the middle of a late afternoon yoga routine in the office, her legs crossed in front of her. It’s distracting as fuck, seeing her in a yoga outfit with those skintight leggings and that half-bra thing she wears.
She taps her phone. “Hello?”
“Harper. We decided we’d honor your marriage to your new husband by giving you time to… honeymoon, or whatever it is you decided.”
I close the browser and narrow my eyes.
“Mhm,” Harper says, rolling her eyes at me as she stands and does this thing where she lifts one leg straight in the air while steadying herself on the other. “And? Now that we’ve finished our honeymoon you have something to say.”
As if we had a honeymoon. Men in my line of work rarely do.
“What happened to your accounts?”
Harper grits her teeth and brings her leg back down. She mutes the phone. “I cannot do a yoga routine while listening to her. It isnotnamaste.” She puts the speaker back on.
“My accounts?” she asks, as if she doesn’t know exactly what her mother’s talking about.
“Your social media accounts. The ones you spent years cultivating! They’re gone.”
“The onesyouspent years cultivating,” she says, her voice a tremulous whisper. “I hated them, and you knew I did. I wanted no part of the lies.”
“Harper,” her mother says reproachfully. She releases a belabored sigh. “You know why we had you do that.”
“I know exactly why. But you decided you needed me to be married more than anything, so you pawned me off on aRomanov.” I can see the teasing glint in her eye. She’s baiting me.
I shake my head at her, but my lips tug at the edges. She’s earning herself a trip over my knee, but she’s been pushing me now for a few days, so I’m guessing that’s her intent.
“Harper, you know we didn’t pawn you off?—”
“That’s exactly what you did.” She walks over to me, the phone still on speakerphone. “And you have no idea how he treats me.” With that, she sidles her way onto my lap. I push away from the desk. Someone’s a needy little girl who wants my full attention, and I’m here for it. “So the answer is, my new husband, the one who you wed me to having no idea who he was or how he’d treat me? He made me delete them. And I won’t be doing them again.”
The phone clicks off. I’m not sure who hung up — her mother or her—but the phone sits muted on the desk.
“I’m still going to kill them,” I tell her pointedly.
“Is that a promise? And do you meanallof them?”
“Your father and brother will pay, Harper.”
She swallows. “I know.”
She bites her lip and looks away. I’m not sure why.
“Aleks, I—” She opens her mouth as if to tell me something then shuts it again. My phone rings. I look down to see Aria’s calling.
