But he could fix himself.
“I will handle the arrangements, though I know you will not appreciate this. I do it for you, though you’d rather feel the misery of it. Perhaps at some point you will want something else. Perhaps you will not. I will continue to help where I can, and I will continue to live my life in the pursuit of something more than the misery of losing him. If you are ever ready for that, you only need contact me.”
She said nothing. Not ready yet. Perhaps not ready ever.
But Zervou was ready. Ready to turn a page.
Ari won her fight.
The one she’d trained so hard for, even while eating decadent meals and spending evenings on Zervou’s arm.
The win should have come with triumph. Delight. Excitement. The attention she would garner might be enough to get someone—asidefrom Zervou—interested in sponsoring her fight in Minsk.
Or so Lefteris said. Ari couldn’t seem to manage to care. It still came from the interest people had in her because of Zervou, and while that might not hurt her integrity any, right now it hurt her heart.
So she simply wanted to be alone with her aches and pains and this empty pit inside of her that had swept away any satisfaction or pride.
She wanted to cry.
She wished he’d been here. To see her. To cheer her on. Just days ago, that was exactly what he would have done.
She could blame him fully for the change in their circumstance except…while she had not been wrong in anything she had said, she had been wrong in keeping a few things to herself.
She should have told him that she loved him, not justenjoyedhim. She should have stood up and said that she wanted his ring to be real and their future to be for them, not to capture her father.
Perhaps the outcome would have been the same, perhaps he could only see everything as his mother’s refusals, but it had been cowardice to keep it to herself. To not go for broke.
She moved into the locker room, thanking people for their congratulations and trying to find a second alone to think.
Now that the fight was over, there was nothing else to do.
Or so she thought, because as she stepped into the locker room, eager to slip into the ice bath and forget all else, she was met with a figure she might not have recognized.
He seemed shorter, heavier than he’d been the last time he’d seen him. His hair had thinned, though he tried to hide it with creative combing.
“Father.” She looked around. How had he possibly gotten in here? She was too aware of her surroundings not to know Zervou’s security detail still watched after her. But somehow Erjon must have slipped by them.
“The time has come,malko momichentse.”
Little girl.How ridiculous. “I cannot imagine what time you mean,” she returned. He was inside the locker-room, and she was at the door. It would have been simple to step right back out. It would be simple to run.
She had too much pride for that.
“I know where your little boyfriend is. Off visiting his mother in that hovel of a village I once ruled.”
Congratulations, you win, she wanted to say to him.
But she didn’t.
“Now, with no protector, you will come with me.”
Ari laughed. Not even in an effort to offend him. It was just the most ridiculous thing in the world that he thought she would simplygowith him. “No, Erjon. Not on the list of things happening today.”
“And if I pull my weapon?”
Her laughter might have died, but she didn’t let her fear show. “I’m willing to bet, even after already fighting my heart out, I could have you disarmed before you could do anything with it.”
“You think I can’t fight?” he demanded, his cheeks already mottled red. “You think I haven’t defended myself all these years?”
