AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Zak
Every instinctinside me screamed not to leave her side. If I let her out of my sight, who knew what she might do—where she might go. But the way her eyes were so vacant, her tone so devoid of the passion that was typically present even when she was giving me hell, told me louder than any words that she was too fragile for me to risk doing anything to push her further toward whatever abyss she was teetering on the edge of.
Scrubbing a hand over the scruff on my jaw, I exited her room. As the door shut behind me, I turned to look at the steel barrier that separated me from my entire world. Without Sofia beside me, the pressure of reality nearly felt too much to withstand on my own.
Someone clearing their throat behind me had me jerking my head around. Surprisingly, Olena and Yulia both stood in front of me, but they weren’t alone. Sofia’s mother and aunts, along with the blond woman I’d met the night before at the rehearsal dinner, Raven Reid, were standing there. Six women looked at me with varying degrees of emotion on their faces, and I actually took a step back from them, feeling the sensation of…danger.
I’d dealt with bad men all of my life. First, my father and brother, and then Oleksandr, who had thrust me into a world that ensured you came out the other side a strong man—or dead. Growing up with Oleks as a mentor, I’d been in positions that had taught me to read a room and pick out the most dangerous person there. Right then, it was hard to pinpoint where the sensation of danger was radiating from the strongest, but if I had to take a guess, it would have been Anya.
I didn’t know much about Sofia’stetka, but since arriving in the States at the beginning of the summer, I’d heard rumors. Whispers that suggested Anya was more than she seemed. I’d asked Oleksandr if he knew of her since she’d been a Volkov before marrying into the Vitucci family, but I should have known he wouldn’t. To Oleksandr, Anya or any other woman would never be on his radar. He was of the mind-set that women were only important for two things. Coming from the right family and producing heirs to strengthen the bloodlines.
He’d scoffed when I’d told him the whispers I’d heard of Adrian Volkov’s younger sister. It had amused him that any person would think anyone other than Adrian himself, and maybe his son, was worth even a moment of his time.
Olena, the only mother figure I’d ever known, stepped forward and embraced me. I allowed the hug, but it didn’t last long. She stepped back and glared up at me. “We need to talk, Zakhar.” She glanced over her shoulder at the other women. “All of us.”
Anya lifted her hand, indicating the corridor to my left. “I’ve secured a room for us to have our chat.”
No one said a word until the door was closed behind us. Raven stood with her back against the door, her blond hair braided along one shoulder as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a dispassionate once-over. She wasn’t big enough to barricade the door. If anyone wanted in, she wouldn’t have been able to stop them with her slight weight leaning against it. But I got the feeling she stood there more to keep someone in.
Whether that person was me or someone else, I wasn’t sure.
I remained silent as the other women shifted, Yulia uncomfortably, while everyone else watched her and Olena. But Olena had a look in her eyes and a tilt to her chin that told me she was comfortable in her own skin and what she was about to say.
“I have a confession to make,” she announced after only a few tense moments had passed. “Yulia, I knew you were pregnant when you were at university in Russia. I had better eyes on you than your father did, and when you became with child, I put people in place to guide you in the right direction.”
Yulia gasped and dropped into one of the chairs that were spread around what must have been a waiting room. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” she whispered, tears in her eyes.
“For the same reason you never spoke of it.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “If Oleksandr had found out about the child back then, he would have killed both you and the baby. I did what had to be done to secure your safety and that of my grandchild.”
“All these years, I’ve lived with this guilt,” Yulia choked out, letting her tears fall unchecked. “It would have been comforting to have had someone to speak to about it. Someone I could trust.”
“There are ears everywhere at home,” her mother reminded her. “I didn’t trust that we wouldn’t be overheard and the news get back to your father. I’m sorry you had to suffer in silence, but I did it for you.”
A sob left her, but Yulia nodded. “I understand. I just wish…”
“As do I,” Olena told her with a sad smile. Mother and daughter shared a long look, but after a moment, the older woman cleared her throat. “My people guided you to use the orphanage you did. I’d heard that Adrian and Victoria were looking into adoption, and I…” She glanced at Anya. “Well, Anya owed me a favor.”
“Anya owedyoua favor?” Victoria repeated incredulously. “How the hell did that come about?”
“That’s not important,” Anya told her sister-in-law. “And it wasn’t any hardship to repay this particular favor Olena asked of me. You wanted to adopt a daughter, Sofia needed a family, and Olena needed her grandchild safe. It was a win-win for everyone.”
“Sofia should be hearing this,” Victoria said with a sigh. “She deserves to know about all of this.”
“And she will,” Olena promised in her soothing voice. “We can sit her down and tell her everything once she’s stronger. But from what Anya has told me Adrian said to her, Sofia is a bit…fragile at the moment.”
Victoria’s shoulders slumped. “Yes.” Then her brown gaze landed on me, and her spine turned to steel. “No thanks to you. It’s a wonder she didn’t miscarry. Theo found her running. She was miles from your place, the rain soaking her through. The doctor said she burst a few blood vessels, but it’s a miracle nothing else happened.”
Her words were like a gut punch with a wrecking ball. Somehow, I locked my knees and stayed upright, letting her land blow after blow with each accusation that flashed from her eyes at me. She was right. It was my fault.
And I didn’t know how to fucking fix it.
“I think the question we need to ask Zakhar is—does he love Sofia, or is all of this, in fact, just because of Oleksandr Davydov’s ambitions?” Scarlett said, placing an arm around her twin’s shoulders.
All eyes turned to me, waiting.
Sucking in a harsh breath, I answered honestly. “It started out to give Oleksandr what he wanted. I thought I owed it to him.”
Victoria took a menacing step toward me, and I would have welcomed the physical violence she was about to inflict on me, but her sister tightened her hold around her. “Let’s hear him out,” Scarlett urged, but her brown gaze was just as fiery as her twin’s.
