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I’m forced to close my eyes for a moment, and as I open them, Nazyr’s determined stare bores into me. He knows there’s something more, something much worse than anything else Duarte has done to me.
“Whatever it is, you can tell me.” Nazyr is trying to be reassuring, but I know this isn’t going to be easy to vocalize.
I take a few moments and then finally speak. “Every year I’ve been with Duarte, I’ve been pregnant.”
I watch as Nazyr adds up how many children I have. “I had a third pregnancy. It was earlier this year, and I was six months pregnant when Duarte lost his temper. He pushed me down a flight of stairs. I broke an arm and a leg, but those didn’t matter compared to the most unimaginable loss I’ve ever had.”
“I am so sorry you had to go through that,” Nazyr tells me, and I have no doubt in my mind that he’s being completely and utterly genuine.
“Duarte said I looked at him wrong. That’s why he did it. That was the fucking excuse he gave me. He’d been beating me left and right since then whenever he felt the itch, I suppose. He blamed me for losing our son, but he always called him ‘his son’ as if I was nothing.”
Nazyr immediately stiffens, and I’m not sure how to take it. Surely, he isn’t angry with me, right?
“I’ve told you I’ll help you get your children back, and that is a promise I intend on keeping. If Duarte can do these things to you, I’m sure he can do them to your little girls as well. Now, it won’t happen immediately, but I will make sure that we get them out as soon as we can. We’ll need time to develop a plan, and I’ll need to speak to my brother and let him know the magnitude of the situation we’re dealing with.”
His brother must be the top dog in his family, so I have no choice but to let Nazyr handle things as he sees fit. “All right, so what do you want me to do in the meantime?”
“I think if you stay with me, that will be the best choice for you. I, of course, won’t force you to stay. If you want to leave, you’re more than welcome to; however, leaving comes with uncertainties and possible threats. If you choose to stay with me, you’ll be under my care and protection until we can get your girls back, and then we can have another discussion about what your future will look like. So, what will it be?”
I lick my lips nervously and weigh the options in my head. Nazyr is making a very valid point. If I leave, a number of things could happen to me. Duarte might even try to come and take me back if he knows I’m not with Nazyr. I… I don’t trust Duarte at all. All of this could’ve been a ploy from the beginning. He might’ve been banking on Nazyr letting me go. He might’ve anticipated I’d want freedom the first chance I got it. I could be walking into some sort of trap he’s thought out over the years, kind of like the hounds going after a fox on a hunt.
I don’t want that. I don’t want to be hunted by my captor, so I truly believe staying with Nazyr is my best bet for the time being. At least I know that when I want to leave, I can without any pushback from him. I don’t know this man at all, but there’s a part deep down inside me that thinks I can trust him. At least for the time being.
“I’ll go with you,” Nazyr seems a bit surprised by my decision, but if he were in my shoes, I’m sure he’d understand where I’m coming from. Regardless of my decision, there are two devils I’ll have the choice of dealing with. Nazyr happens to be the lesser of two evils, and by God, if he shows he’s anything like Duarte, I’ll run and find another way to get my daughters back.
I just have to make this choice right now. All I can hope is that, in the end, things go smoothly, and I’m reunited with my two little girls. They’re the most important things to me in this world.
Chapter Seven
Nazyr
It’s been an entire week since we arrived in Grozny. In the last week, I’ve mainly been keeping to myself. Truth be told, I don’t know how to broach the subject of Mona with my family. My brother, Ruslan, did ask me how the meeting went, but it was over the phone, and we didn’t really get into the thick of it. I’m sure when I tell him about Mona, he’s going to have a million and one questions, all of which I’ll answer.
Lom told me that Emily would likely be stopping by, which I find a bit weird, but I’ve been rather quiet, so I’m not too shocked. They’re probably sending Emily in as a way to make sure I’m okay, but what they’re going to find out is something else entirely—my secret. I appreciate the warning, considering it’s not something my family would typically do. For the most part, they’d just show up unannounced.
I’m making my way down my stairs when the front door to my townhome opens, and sure enough, it’s Emily. Her belly is growing, and it’s a bit hard to believe how far along she is now. I think she’s a bit over six months, so she’ll be ready to pop soon enough.
“Hey, what’re you doing here?” I ask her before I’ve even hit the last step.
She has some sort of casserole dish in her hands. “Well, I was coming to see you. I brought you some dinner too. It’s super easy to reheat. You just have to preheat the oven to three-fifty and then pop it in for twenty minutes.” Emily’s thick southern accent comes out, and I know she’s using the food as a way to tell me she and the rest of the family are concerned. Still, they honestly don’t have any reason to be.
“Uh-huh,” I say, looking right into her eyes.
She waits a moment, and then it all comes out. “None of us have really heard from you since you got back from Portugal. We’ve all been a bit worried, concerned, really. I thought you might be sick or something, and I felt I should check in on you, but Lom told me you were fine,” Emily pauses and rolls her eyes. “I see now that Lom was right.”
“I appreciate the concern, but I’m okay. I really just needed some time to myself after that trip. It was a lot different than I expected,” I admit, and everything that happened runs through my mind.
“Really? How so?” Emily isn’t privy to everything we do, but she does know a bit. Just as I’m about to say something to her, I hear a set of feet coming down the stairwell. Emily looks up. I turn my head, and Mona’s staring right at Emily.
Well, this wasn’t how I envisioned Mona meeting anyone in my family.
Emily raises both of her brows as she looks at me and then looks back to Mona. “Hi, I’m Emily.”
Mona comes down the stairs and licks her lips nervously. “I’m Mona, and I’m… so, so sorry. I didn’t realize Nazyr was with someone.”
Emily bursts out into full-bellied laughter. “Heavens, no. I can barely stand him most days. I’m with Nazyr’s brother, Lom.”
Instant relief washes over Mona’s features, and she cracks a smile. I think she might even be a bit nervous that she assumed Emily was with me in the first place.
