AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The room remains quiet while we both assess the situation. How can it be played to suit our own agendas? Every interaction brings an opportunity for gain. My mother is anxious that I will not become a worse man than my father.
Eva ends the silence. “When will I meet her?”
“The day of the wedding.”
Scowling, Eva displays a rare blaze of temper. “You are turning into your father! It’s like a competition, except he’s dead. I hated your father, and I know how much you hated him too.” She scoffs loudly. Defiantly. “Whoever killed Vasily … They think they hurt us … But they set us free.”
Her shoulders shake as a tear streams down her cheek. But she slaps my hand away when I place it on her shoulder. “Don’t pretend to be kind, Andrei Vasilyevich.” She spits out my patronymic like a curse. “You are just as cruel as him.”
Determined, I reach for her again and pull her into my arms. The same way she would do to me when I was a boy who needed his mother’s strength. Now, she needs mine, and I intend to protect her the way I couldn’t when I was that helpless boy.
Chapter 15
Paige
I’m no longer allowed to be left alone, but Natasha prefers to sit outside my door, tapping on her phone. Occasionally, I’ll hear Dmitri’s voice booming down the hallway through the thick wood. Jealousy makes me glare at the door when they’re laughing on the other side. How dare anyone laugh when I’m being held against my will?
Always alone with my thoughts, I worry about my father and Emma. What are they doing? Are they okay? Of course they’re not. They need me. How are they getting money? Do they have enough food? Oh God, I should be home.
Worry and guilt make me turn down the multiple luxuries I’m offered. I sit by the window in a hard wooden chair and refuse to look at the expensive things in my room. I glare at the maid who changes my bedding daily. I pick at the gourmet food served on my plate. I walk with four guards through a garden in bloom, but I keep my eyes on the path. One of the maids offers to give me a mani-pedi, and I tell her to fuck off.
They all think I’m crazy.
I overhear Natasha speak to a maid exiting my room. “She’s not as bad as the last one. Be thankful she’s only spoiled.”
Spoiled. My nostrils flare at the unfairness. It’s his fault. He brought me here. Don’t they understand I don’t want to be here? I flop down onto the bed and glare at the door. I hate him. I should be worrying about my family uninterrupted, but I always end up wondering when I’ll see Andrei again.
I was told he picked a different dress for me. The one I picked was labeled “inappropriate.” Well, it’s hanging up in my closet. Absent-mindedly, I wander into the closet several times a day and touch the long ties. Closing my eyes, I imagine what his hands felt like on my breasts. I truly thought he’d do more. I don’t think I would’ve stopped him.
It started out as a game. Teasing him was a way to get back. But it backfired and turned into desire.
There’s a tap on the bedroom door, as if I have a say in who gets to come in. The door opens, and briefly, Natasha appears, checking to see where I am. Quickly, I let go of the dress and step out of the closet. Natasha twists her lips. I haven’t been forgiven. She steps aside and an older woman enters the room.
An older woman that I recognize.
I admired her looks at that tragic wedding. She was the woman sitting near the main table beside the man who was later shot. There are soft bags under her eyes that make her look forlorn. I’ve caught glimpses of her on my walks. Up close, I can see that she has Andrei’s eyes, but she looks as if she’s just stopped crying.
She smiles. “Hello, my dear. I want to speak with you.”
Natasha gives me a sharp look. “If anything happens …”
The woman looks at Natasha, and Natasha leaves the room but keeps the door open. The woman pats the end of the bed, and I sit beside her but not too close.
“I’m Eva. Andrei’s mother.” She has a slight accent. Eva holds out her hand, and we have to shake. “How do you feel about your wedding to my son?”
And say nothing, Little Ms. Lucky.
“Honestly, I feel nothing about it.” I can’t lie, but I also don’t feel inclined to confess.
“I know you are scared,” she says. “I know because once I was sitting … locked in a room, waiting for Vasily to become my husband.”
I must look like a ghost, gawking at her with my mouth hanging open. No, that can’t be possible.
She ignores my reaction and continues. “My marriage to Andrei’s father was arranged. My father was a man of ambition, and I was the best opportunity he had to reach it … even in death. From the moment I met Vasily, I was terrified of him. And rightfully so. I lived in dread from my wedding night to his death.
“Every night after our wedding, it became progressively worse. And then, my father-in-law died and Vasily threw himself into the work of running his Bratva. He paid little attention to me other than the one reason he needed me in his bed. I was thankful when he took his first mistress. The only time he was pleased with me was when I became pregnant with Andrei.”
Eva pauses, and the sadness in her eyes is overshadowed by her wide smile.
