Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“You didn’t think to just ask?”
“People lie, Adelaide. That’s what I know.”
“Or they keep the truth from you,” I said. “Will you divorce me?”
Andrei cups my face and tilts my head back. “What?”
“I wasn’t able to give you a child. Do you even want me anymore? I know you and Ivan have a deadline for getting me pregnant.”
“Stop it,” Andrei said. “There will be more babies. You are not damaged or broken.”
“Why do you even want to have kids with me?” I sniffle. Shaking my head, I pull away from him. I feel the loss so damn hard, and it’s a struggle to hold myself together. I need to get away from him.
He reached out for me again, but I step away and move toward the edge of the pool. I grip the edge and haul myself up, but I feel so fucking heavy.
I had been pregnant. Pregnant and then shot. I wanted children when I was a lot older. I thought I’d feel relief, but I didn’t. Sadness consumes me.
I’m not even able to lift myself out of the water and Andrei is there, once again. He is not my knight. He is my forced husband, but his arms surround me and I sink back against him, as the enormity of what I lost hits me.
A baby.
I was going to be a mother.
A tiny bundle of happiness. That’s what I could have had, and like always, Bethany couldn’t even stand for me to have that. Did she know? How could she have known? I didn’t even know, so that meant she just wanted to kill me. There was no other reason to attack me. I hated her.
“Have you killed her?” I asked. My voice is distant, cold, and I’m shocked by it.
“Not yet.”
Andrei carried me out of the pool, and I wrapped my arms around his neck as he walked to the house. No one is around so I feel I can speak freely with him. “Will you kill her?” I asked.
He paused and looked at me.
Our gazes meet but I don’t look away. I don’t back down.
“Do you want her dead?” Andrei asks.
I open my mouth and close it. Do I want her dead?
Pressing my lips together to stop them from wobbling, I nod. “She won’t stop until I’m hurt or dead. She killed my child. My baby.”
“Adelaide.” He coughed.
“I … what if I get pregnant again and she has a temper tantrum? What if she kills my child? What if I can’t protect her? I know Bethany is my sister but she’s a monster. I can handle her, but I will never allow a child of mine to deal with her.” Just the thought of it made me feel sick.
“You are already protecting our child,” he said, and a smile curled his lips. It wasn’t forced, natural, and this time it wasn’t scary.
I put my palm to his cheek, and he turned to look at me. Andrei was handsome. He was the kind of man who would create wars, finding out all the secrets by bedding women.
He was my husband but I didn’t consider him mine completely. Nothing and no one was ever mine. People were not things to be possessed.
“Always,” I said.
****
Andrei
The first week of our honeymoon didn’t exactly go as planned. There was business at home to take care of, and I had no choice but to be available for it, at a moment’s notice. Ivan was handling everything, and I think his presence was scaring the fuck out of everyone. He did have a way about him that terrified most people.
Rage had been reaching out, and as per Ivan’s instructions, I hadn’t responded, ignoring the calls, and then focusing on my wife.
Adelaide had cried that first day, for our baby. Seeing those tears had broken my fucking heart. The desire to kill Bethany was strong, but seeing the pain on my wife’s face helped me focus. What I needed was to wait for Nathan to get close to Oleg. My suspicions were that Bethany had reached out to him, or possibly Demon, and in doing so, she had put Adelaide in danger.
I stare down at my sleeping wife. Today had been a good day. We’d spent it together, playing some chess, which she was bad at. She had no strategy for winning. She loved moving the pieces around the board, and making up names for them. I loved this woman. She had no idea how fucking much, but I had a feeling Ivan did. It’s why he meddled, why he changed Bethany to Adelaide.
I hadn’t slept with Bethany, not once. She had tried so many times. She knew a baby would have cemented her place as my wife, but I’d not been able to do it. I fucking hated the slut.
When Ivan first told me of the arrangements, I’d been fucking terrified of seeing Adelaide again. The first time I saw her after she’d helped me, I thought she would remember, but she hadn’t noticed me. Not that I blame her. That day on the streets, I’d been dirty, looked homeless, and I’d been cut up. She had helped me, no questions asked, and it was the first time in my entire life anyone had ever given a shit about me.