AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It felt like an eternity before she finally nodded.
“Good,” I said. “Now, tell me what he’s done.”
I’m not sure what I was expecting her to say. An arranged marriage? An argument turned violent? But when she opened her mouth to speak, I saw the shivers in her words, the horrible truth she was choosing to trust me with.
I sure as fuck did not expect what she told me.
“H-he… comes to my room at night,” she said, her voice cracking weakly over the words. “He… he…”
I jerked away from her so fast that she broke off mid-sentence, her eyes flaring with alarm. “Ilarion!” she sobbed. “I’m not lying.” Another tear cascaded down her cheek. “He made me promise never to tell a single soul. He made me promise never to tell you. He said that if I did, he would kill me.”
I jumped off her bed and headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?” she cried out, her breathing growing heavy again..
I turned to her, just so that she could see the intent in my eyes. “To kill the bastard.”
“No!”
I froze. “No?”
“No.” She stood up, swallowed, and used the heel of her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes. “I want to do it myself.”
* * *
“Hey.” I blink once. Mila’s face floats into focus in front of me. She’s left the sofa, and she’s crouched on the ottoman in front of my armchair. Her hand is on my arm and her eyelashes flicker with concern. “Where’d you go?”
“Where else?”
“Ah,” she says, her voice dipping. “I figured. It wasn’t your fault, you know. I’ve told you that before. It bears repeating.”
I shake my head in disgust. “I was supposed to protect you.”
“But not from him,” she presses. “It was not your job to protect me from him. It was his job to protect the both of us. We were his children.”
“And he died for it.”
She nods solemnly. “I thought I would feel awful after it was done. I thought I would spend my nights plagued by nightmares. But the truth is, that night, I never slept better.”
“Well, then, it was fucking worth it.”
Her bottom lip quivers. She blinks fast and grabs my hand. She squeezes hard. “Have I ever thanked you?”
“Please don’t.” I shake my head. “Don’t thank me, not for that.”
“Because you feel guilty?” she asks softly, her forehead wrinkling.
“No. Because I should have noticed a lot sooner.”
“I never cared about that. I cared that you listened when I finally decided to talk. I cared that you believed me. You have no idea how much that meant. How much it still means to me. That’s why I stuck around all these years and devoted myself to this Bratva. It was because, if I was going to spend my life on anything at all, it was going to be you.”
I bite down on my tongue. “Careful now. You just might make me cry.”
She laughs softly, but she doesn’t release her grip on my arm. “You deserve to be happy, too, Ilarion. It’s not your job to save the whole world.”
“I’m not interested in saving the whole world. Just a few people in it.”
“Is one of those people yourself?”
