Page 28 of Obsession of the Bratva

Chapter 6 - Vera

The moment the front door closed behind Nico and that woman, something inside me shattered completely. For several seconds, I remained exactly where I was. Motionless and silent. I continued staring at the space he had occupied moments earlier. I hated that my chest hurt. I hated that seeing him leave with another woman had affected me at all.

Most of all, I hated that he had seen exactly how much it hurt. And he had enjoyed it. A bitter laugh escaped me. I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that he hadn’t been with anyone since I had broken up with him. I knew Nico’s past rather well, and he had always been very active when it came to women and sexual relationships. Love had never existed, but there was never a shortage of available women in his life.

Which only meant that after I had left, they must have returned, and Bianca was proof of that. What I didn’t know was that he was having dinner with them now before fucking them. It seemed as if I had at least managed to teach him manners during our relationship.

“Congratulations, Nico.” My voice sounded strange in the empty penthouse. “You finally got your revenge.”

I knew the pain I felt was nothing compared to the pain I had given him with my news of cheating, but it hurt just the same. The silence that followed felt unbearable, so I turned abruptly and marched toward the hallway. I needed distance, and I needed air. I needed something other than the image of a beautiful blonde woman touching him as if she belonged there.

The thought made fresh anger surge through me.

I wanted nothing more than to talk to Ava right now. Only she could calm me. But that was not possible.

I am not going to think about this. I am not going to think about this. I am not going to think about this.

I kept chanting the mantra in my head, forcing myself to think happy thoughts, but it felt rather impossible. Without wasting any time, I quickly marched to my room and lay down, determined to go to sleep at once. Although it only took me a few seconds to realize sleep was not going to come easily. I kept thinking again and again about Nico and Bianca, and how he might be fucking her right now. The very thought boiled my blood. Hours passed by, and I knew I needed to do something, anything, to feel better.

“Oh, Nico, you have woken up the devil inside me,” I whispered in the empty room and got out of bed with a determined plan in my mind.

By the time I reached his home office inside the house, I was practically vibrating with frustration. I shoved the door open, and the room greeted me with the same immaculate order it always maintained. Everything had its place, and everything was controlled and perfect.

Just like Nico.

The sight only made me angrier. I grabbed the first thing I saw, which was a pen holder, and threw it hard at the wall before me. It hit the opposite wall with a satisfying crack, and pens scattered everywhere. For a moment, I simply stared at the damage. Then I grabbed something else and something else after that. A file. A paperweight. A stack of reports. They hit walls and floors with an increasingly violent force, but I didn’t care. I was angry and definitely not afraid to show it.

My breathing became uneven. Hot, sharp, and definitely furious.

“You don’t get to do this,” I snapped at the empty room.

My voice echoed back at me.

“You don’t get to kidnap me.”

Another file flew.

“You don’t get to lock me in here.”

A notebook followed.

“You don’t get to disappear for days.”

The desk lamp narrowly missed a bookshelf.

“And you definitely do not get to parade another woman through your kitchen right in front of me, knowing fully well it is going to hurt me a lot!”

The lamp toppled onto its side with a loud thud. I was surprised no one had shown up yet, asking about the ruckus I was creating, but the house was clearly asleep in the early hours of the morning. The room looked considerably worse now. Good. I hoped it got worse. I rounded the desk, and just then my gaze landed on the photograph.

I froze.

The picture rested partially beneath a folder. It was me. I frowned and picked it up slowly, confused about how it had gotten there. The image had clearly been taken from a distance. I was standing outside a bookstore downtown with a coffee cup in one hand while my phone was in the other. The angle looked wrong and rather unnatural.

Like whoever had taken it hadn’t wanted to be seen.

A strange feeling settled in my stomach, and I flipped the photograph over. There was nothing at the back. My gaze shifted to the folder beneath it with my name scribbled on top. Something felt off about this because I knew the picture had only been taken a couple of months ago. After Nico and I had already broken up.

“What is this?” I whispered to myself, almost scared of finding out more.