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I was younger then and honestly not in the right frame of mind. I was just missing Nate. I wanted nothing more than to hold my son. So I made a mistake. I should have thrown a knife at Richard’s smug face. I regret not doing that sometimes.
“How typical of our father,” Graham says and I can hear the smile in his voice.
Xander’s hands shake, his eyes growing darker with rage.
“He asked me to leave so I did. I didn’t really care about his threats, not really. But it was the right thing to do. It’s not like I would have actually been able to face you or Nate,” I say quietly. “Graham saw me as I was leaving the house.”
“Yeah, you should have seen her, Xan. She looked like a kicked puppy,” he says on a laugh.
My jaw clenches. I swear he acts like a little toddler. Xander still doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t speak the entire way to the hotel. I wait patiently, knowing it must be a lot to digest. When we arrive at my stop, he looks back at his brother.
“Wait here,” he orders Graham before getting out. I follow suit.
He stands in front of me at the entrance to the hotel, watching me for an uncomfortable amount of time.
“Why was it the right thing to do?” he finally asks.
“What?”
“You said it was the right thing to do. Not seeing your son. Why? If you missed him so much, why did you abandon him?”
“Xander,” I start to say gently.
“Just fucking tell me why, Katerina. I’m sick and tired of this shit. You want me to trust you. To believe in you, then you need to be honest. Something happened ten years ago. I’m not stupid, I know there must have been a reason. You left a baby on my fucking doorstep without any explanations, Katerina. I thought you were dead or dying. I thought something was seriously wrong.”
Something was wrong. But I can’t tell him. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out. Frustration lines Xander’s face. He looks away from me, running a hand through his hair.
“Do you remember our breakup?” he asks.
Of course I remember. That moment is practically ingrained in my mind. We’d been dating for a couple of months when he asked me to come home with him and spend thanksgiving with his family. My family isn’t too big on celebrating thanksgiving so I agreed like an idiot. For some reason, I never thought to look into the Steeles.
I had been deluding myself up until that moment, telling myself our relationship was nothing too serious. I was already in love with him but nobody’s better at lying to themselves than I am. I thought it wouldn’t matter and I didn’t want to invade his privacy. I already knew his family was rich, he told me a lot about them, more open than I ever was in the course of our relationship.
What I hadn’t been expecting however was that his family was a corporate group that specializes in technological advancements. They have an expanse of data open to them and an elite team of hackers. It only took Richard Steele two hours to find out my real identity. And then all hell broke loose. Literally.
I can still remember the look on Xander’s face when he realized I had lied to him. My last name wasn’t Petrov, at least not really. I was a Mincetti, daughter of a mafia Don. He had no idea how much the nickname, princess actually suited me until that moment.
“I was in shock after the truth came out,” Xander starts to say. “It was a lot to take in. Believe it or not, I didn’t care about who you really were. I cared more about the fact that you lied to me. Your family wasn’t a problem.”
I smile sadly. “It would have become a problem eventually.”
“So you took the coward’s way out,” he says eyes flashing. “After my father kicked you out, you called me and asked to meet up. I thought you wanted to explain. Instead you broke up with me, in the cruelest way possible. Do you remember what you said, Katerina?”
His eyes are hard and unflinching. I swallow softly, my hands curling into fists.
“Say it again,” he commands.
I shake my head.
“Say it.”
My eyes fall shut and I try to blink back tears.
“I told you it was all a game to me. That I never loved you, I was just bored.”
“You said our relationship meant nothing.” His voice is so icy cold as he speaks, reliving that moment.
