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I lick my lips nervously and weigh the options in my head. Nazyr is making a very valid point. If I leave, a number of things could happen to me. Duarte might even try to come and take me back if he knows I’m not with Nazyr. I… I don’t trust Duarte at all. All of this could’ve been a ploy from the beginning. He might’ve been banking on Nazyr letting me go. He might’ve anticipated I’d want freedom the first chance I got it. I could be walking into some sort of trap he’s thought out over the years, kind of like the hounds going after a fox on a hunt.
I don’t want that. I don’t want to be hunted by my captor, so I truly believe staying with Nazyr is my best bet for the time being. At least I know that when I want to leave, I can without any pushback from him. I don’t know this man at all, but there’s a part deep down inside me that thinks I can trust him. At least for the time being.
“I’ll go with you,” Nazyr seems a bit surprised by my decision, but if he were in my shoes, I’m sure he’d understand where I’m coming from. Regardless of my decision, there are two devils I’ll have the choice of dealing with. Nazyr happens to be the lesser of two evils, and by God, if he shows he’s anything like Duarte, I’ll run and find another way to get my daughters back.
I just have to make this choice right now. All I can hope is that, in the end, things go smoothly, and I’m reunited with my two little girls. They’re the most important things to me in this world.
Chapter Seven
Nazyr
It’s been an entire week since we arrived in Grozny. In the last week, I’ve mainly been keeping to myself. Truth be told, I don’t know how to broach the subject of Mona with my family. My brother, Ruslan, did ask me how the meeting went, but it was over the phone, and we didn’t really get into the thick of it. I’m sure when I tell him about Mona, he’s going to have a million and one questions, all of which I’ll answer.
Lom told me that Emily would likely be stopping by, which I find a bit weird, but I’ve been rather quiet, so I’m not too shocked. They’re probably sending Emily in as a way to make sure I’m okay, but what they’re going to find out is something else entirely—my secret. I appreciate the warning, considering it’s not something my family would typically do. For the most part, they’d just show up unannounced.
I’m making my way down my stairs when the front door to my townhome opens, and sure enough, it’s Emily. Her belly is growing, and it’s a bit hard to believe how far along she is now. I think she’s a bit over six months, so she’ll be ready to pop soon enough.
“Hey, what’re you doing here?” I ask her before I’ve even hit the last step.
She has some sort of casserole dish in her hands. “Well, I was coming to see you. I brought you some dinner too. It’s super easy to reheat. You just have to preheat the oven to three-fifty and then pop it in for twenty minutes.” Emily’s thick southern accent comes out, and I know she’s using the food as a way to tell me she and the rest of the family are concerned. Still, they honestly don’t have any reason to be.
“Uh-huh,” I say, looking right into her eyes.
She waits a moment, and then it all comes out. “None of us have really heard from you since you got back from Portugal. We’ve all been a bit worried, concerned, really. I thought you might be sick or something, and I felt I should check in on you, but Lom told me you were fine,” Emily pauses and rolls her eyes. “I see now that Lom was right.”
“I appreciate the concern, but I’m okay. I really just needed some time to myself after that trip. It was a lot different than I expected,” I admit, and everything that happened runs through my mind.
“Really? How so?” Emily isn’t privy to everything we do, but she does know a bit. Just as I’m about to say something to her, I hear a set of feet coming down the stairwell. Emily looks up. I turn my head, and Mona’s staring right at Emily.
Well, this wasn’t how I envisioned Mona meeting anyone in my family.
Emily raises both of her brows as she looks at me and then looks back to Mona. “Hi, I’m Emily.”
Mona comes down the stairs and licks her lips nervously. “I’m Mona, and I’m… so, so sorry. I didn’t realize Nazyr was with someone.”
Emily bursts out into full-bellied laughter. “Heavens, no. I can barely stand him most days. I’m with Nazyr’s brother, Lom.”
Instant relief washes over Mona’s features, and she cracks a smile. I think she might even be a bit nervous that she assumed Emily was with me in the first place.
“Mona, if you want to go ahead and make breakfast, go right ahead,” I tell her, motioning for Emily to follow me into a nearby room.
“Okay, um, did you want me to put that in the fridge?” Mona questions.
Emily nods. “Sure.”
Mona comes up to Emily and grabs the casserole dish from her hands.
I want to have some sense of privacy, especially as I try to figure out what the hell I can tell Emily in the first place. Am I going to be honest with her about everything? I’m not sure. I might be… or I might not tell her every nitty, gritty detail. I feel like that’s going to be reserved for my brothers.
I don’t miss the way Mona’s looking at me as I shut the door. She’s confused, and I’ve picked up on a lot of her mannerisms over the last few days. She thinks she did something wrong, but she hasn’t. I just… I need privacy when it comes to my family.
I shut the door behind Emily, and we’re in the study. She goes over and sits on the couch, and I suck in a deep, lung-filled breath.
“Okay, what’s with you seeming so nervous? Who is that woman? Why is she here? Is she a one-night stand who didn’t get the memo, or did she come back with you?”
Emily’s shooting off her questions at a rate of a mile a minute. They’re coming so fast that I barely have enough time to process what the hell she’s saying to me.
I give myself a few seconds, and in her eyes, it’s probably a long moment of silence. “Yes, she came from my trip to Portugal. It’s really complicated, so I’m going to tell you as much as I possibly can.” I don’t think I’m going to dive into the details of what Duarte purchased or how much, but I’m certain I can skirt around that issue. “I met with a client of the family, located in Lisbon. Essentially, she was in his care.” I don’t know how to explain what Mona was to Duarte, and while I’m struggling to find the words, Emily is questioning me.
