AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Arsen, no! You have to hear this! Stop!”
Leave me? I’ll never allow it. I can’t ...
I can’t lose her.
Ulyana wrenches at me with all her might. Whiskey spills from my glass, but I hardly notice. I’ve forgotten about the drink entirely. My focus is on getting to Galina. Sprinting in front of me, Ulyana jams her hands into my chest, feet braced on the floor.
“Out of my way,” I snarl.
“If you do this, she’ll never forgive you!”
“Out of my way.”
“You can’t force her to stay, Arsen.”
“Of course I can,” I laugh.
She hesitates, then pushes again, sending me back a step. “Listen to yourself. If you get in the way of her escape?—”
“Her escape?”
“She will never forgive you.”
“What does that matter? I don’t need her permission to keep her here. My home is where she’s safe!”
“She’s scared of you!”
That stops me in my tracks. “Why would she be …”
Ulyana is breathing heavily from her efforts to keep me in the hallway. I’ve never seen her work so hard to shield someone else. And it hits me then that Ulyana is protecting Galina.
Protecting her from me.
As a cold chill washes up my back, I stop trying to shove my way around Ulyana. She backs away, watching me closely, trying to read my face. I don’t think she can. Nobody could. “You were helping her get away from me? That’s what was happening with the van?” I ask.
“She begged me for help.”
The wound that’s begun to open in me spreads apart further. Soon, I’ll be rotting down to my marrow. “You’d risk her life by letting her out into the open, where that bastard Yevgeniy can reach her?”
Ulyana’s eyes spark with accusation. “You’re worried this will be a repeat of Kristina.”
That hits too close to the mark. Visions of Kristina coated in blood merge with the nightmares about Galina lying limply in my arms. Her pale face and blue lips haunt me while I’m wide awake.
Unable to deny what Ulyana has said, I quit trying. “Of course I am!” I growl, running my fingers through my hair. “If Yevgeniy discovers that she’s pregnant, he’s sure to use it against me. She needs to stay here, Ulyana! I’ll lock every door—no, I’ll chain her to her bed if it keeps her and that baby alive.”
“You can force her to stay,” she says slowly, “but you must know you can’t force her to love you.”
I draw myself up, bristling with offense. “I’m not trying to do that.”
“You are. And the harder you work to keep her from leaving, the more she’ll fight you. At every turn, Galina will battle with you until her heart hardens over with scars. Then she will be lost to you forever, even if she’s trapped under your roof.”
Heat laces my words. “But she’d be alive!”
She points a thin finger under my nose. “Your theories and fears aren’t enough to justify keeping her a prisoner any longer.”
I start to argue, but whatever I want to say dissolves on my tongue. The idea of Galina hating me … It saps the last of my energy. My arm is heavy.
I notice the whiskey glass. Tilting it to my lips, I drain it until the last drops burn my taste buds.
