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“That is not an excuse as to why I’m only learning I have a son, four years after he was born.” I could sense the frustration in his voice.
“What did you want me to do, huh?” I fired back, suddenly feeling the need to air it all out. My chest swelled and everything—the hurt, desperation, and pain—came rushing back. My eyes stung and all I wanted to do was tell him exactly how I felt. How broken I’d been all these years. “Alexei, you don’t know how hard it was for me. You don’t have the slightest idea what I went through. Can you imagine the hardships? Raising him all alone?”
“You did not have to go through any of that!” He seethed through gritted teeth. “If only you had—”
“If only I had what, called you? To say what, huh? Oh, hi, Alexei, I just wanted to tell you I’m pregnant with your baby. Is that it?” I shook my head. “And do you really think I would have let our child grow up with a father who brought home a different woman every other night, huh?”
“I haven’t … I wouldn’t … He stumbled over his words, which fueled my courage to throw it all at him.
“Take a good look at yourself; you don’t exactly give the best first impressions. I mean, I ran away from you. I wasscaredof you and still am, Alexei. What made you think I’d go running back because of a pregnancy? Plus, so much time had passedalready. Would you have believed me? And even if you did, what difference would it have made?”
His eyes darkened. “What the fuck does that mean?”
I chewed on my bottom lip and lowered my head. If I said this now, there would be no going back. He’d see right through my vulnerability with those eyes of his and prey on it. But I was tired of keeping it all locked in.
I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled. “It means, it wouldn’t have changed anything. To you, I’d still be some virgin slut who was too naïve to be on the pill. A whore. Nothing more, nothing less.”
In a flash, his hands gripped my throat, forcing my head up to look at him.
“What?”
The question sounded like acid dripping from his tongue. He looked even madder now, with blazing eyes and a clenched fist.
“A whore?” He released my neck, and his fist went flying. Straight into the wall next to my head. I gasped and muffled a scream. I turned my head to the side. Red splattered on the wall behind me and, when he pulled back, the skin on his knuckles was torn.
“You thought...” he straightened his fingers and released a sardonic laugh. “You thought that night... I thought of you like you were some fucking whore? Well, here’s the answer to what I think about that: Hell, no!You’rethe one who ran away, Vanessa. If you stayed...”
He trailed off and stayed quiet.
If I stayed...
If I stayed...His voice repeated in my head, and I wondered about his unspoken words. Would he have treated me any better? I knew the answer: a solid no. Why would he when I was nothing but a liability?
He turned around and I watched him roll his shoulders when he said, “Thirty minutes.”
“Huh?”
“You have thirty minutes to pack everything you consider valuable. You andmyson will be coming with me.” He faced me again, and the fire in his eyes had dimmed. “Don’t even think about arguing; just go in there and get your things ready.”
Somehow, I didn’t even want to argue. I didn’t find the willpower. It didn’t matter that I had designs to send in at work the next day, or that I’d promised to call Juliana after Xander and I had safely landed at our unknown destination.
In that moment, nothing else mattered, except keeping my son alive. And the only way to do that was not to anger Alexei.
Quietly, I moved forward, and his hand held my arm.
“One more thing.” His voice was strangely low and soft. “I know you don’t know much about me or the kind of stuff I’m into, but I’ll tell you: if there’s one thing, we stand for in theBratva, it’s family. No Bratva man would ever abandon his child or the mother of his child. We always take care of them. No matter the cost. Know that.”
My gaze swept over his large hand on my arm, past the brown scruff on his jaw, to the sober look in his eyes. It was foolish, or a mere grasp at a sliver of hope. But I believed him. I believed every word he said.
I felt light, like I had offloaded something from my chest and now, all I could see was him. Not the sins of the past—the burning house, the locked bedroom, or my escape. It was just him.
With a curt nod, I brushed past him.
Neither of us acknowledged it, but in that moment, the air shifted.
Something had changed between us.
Chapter 15 - Alexei
