I’m on pins and needles. Ever since we talked last night and opened up with each other about how we’ve been feeling about this mission, something inside me has shifted.
Last night, I lay in bed wondering where the anger that used to burn so brightly was.
I couldn’t find it.
I’ve…forgiven him.
And I’m starting to trust him. I can tell that he’s trying to do right by me, even at a great personal cost.
Yesterday in the kitchen he confessed he wants to call off our plan because he’s worried for me.
And yet, he didn’t. Because he listened to what I want and need.
My heart clenches.
It’s getting harder and harder to keep my walls up when Nero shows me with each passing day that he’s not the man I thought he was after he revealed his true identity to me.
He’s not my father. And he doesn’t treat me like my father treated my mother.
But this still isn’t the life I want. I don’t want to live in the shadows, where everything could be torn away from me by cruel hands in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to be in a marriage that I wasforcedinto. How can anything beautiful grow on such a rotten foundation?
It can’t. Which is why I have to leave, no matter what I’m starting to feel for my husband.
“Blake, I heard you were born in a small town somewhere in Missouri?”
My head snaps up.
Ekaterina is looking at me with a mean glint in her eyes. Nero warned me they’d done their research on me, but her comment still catches me off guard.
It’s a bit concerning how quickly they were able to figure out who I am.
“That’s right. Born and raised.”
“Missooouri,” one of the women, Frida, exclaims with a weird drawl that’s a poor attempt at the accent. “I don’t know anything about it.”
I smile. “It’s the birthplace of Mark Twain.”
Ekaterina purses her lips. “Did I forget to mention that Blake is a big fan of literature? She’s one of those bookish types,” she says with a dismissive wave.
She’s trying to make me feel uncomfortable, but I don’t think my love of reading is anything to be ashamed of, so I just smile. “It’s true, I love to get lost in a good story.”
Ekaterina narrows her eyes. “Moving from Missouri to New York is quite the fairytale. Has it been everything you expected it to be?”
A fairytale. Yeah, maybe one of those dark ones where the children get lured into the witch's hut with sweets. The kind where dreams twist into nightmares, and the prince is as likely to be the villain as he is the hero.
“It’s been an adjustment. For both me and Nero.”
She perks up at the mention of Nero’s name. “Your husband used to be a well-known man in certain circles.”
“It seems he still is.”
“It must be devastating for you to watch him lose it all.” She taps her fingertips against her chin. “Then again, you didn’t know him when he held his old position, so maybe you haven’t noticed the difference. I’m sure he feels it though. Fate can be such a cruel thing.”
My teeth clench even though this is what we wanted. We wanted Ekaterina to dig her claws into me so that she can judge if I’m the kind of person who’d support Nero going rogue.
“I don’t believe in fate, but I believe in my husband. Whatever challenges he’s facing now, he’ll find a way to overcome them.”
“Will he?” Ekaterina takes a sip of her drink. “His situation seems to be quite tricky.”
