Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
I search Saka’s face for answers. When I get stonewalled, I shift my focus to Matvei. His glare switches from deadly to remorseful when he returns my stare. He was hard for me to read before we exchanged vows, but now he is an open book.
“The marriage license application wasn’t fake, was it?”
My breath hitches when he shakes his head. “But I put a stop to it when I learned it wasn’t your choice.”
When confusion bewilders me, Saka endeavors to smother it. “Bastian wasn’t your mother’s first choice. The Fernandez name was nothing without Ivanov connections. She wanted status more than wealth because she has wealth in abundance.”
“Then news swept the nation that my father had a new bride-to-be and that she promised him the money he’d steal from my mother would give his name the status it once had.” Matvei waits for my focus to be back on him before finishing. “I didn’t know she was you until you entered his room.”
“So you killed him and framed me for his murder. How chivalrous of you.”
“No.” His jaw is rigid when he pushes out, “I killed him, then went into hiding so my family wouldn’t be affected by my decision to protect you. My father was—”
“Untouchable because of mafia law,” I interrupt when the truth smacks into me. “So you legally couldn’t touch him.”
Matvei nods. “And I didn’t make my decision lightly. I tried to walk away when you escaped, but he forced me to respond.”
“He placed the first bounty on her head?” Saka clues in as his eyes flicker like he’s recalling a memory. “I thought it was her mother.”
With Saka’s gun no longer pointed at his head, Matvei shifts on his feet to face me. “I didn’t know you were charged until toward the end of your court case.” Saka completely lowers his gun when he murmurs, “Then I answered a heap of questions on an ex-military long-range rifle forum a week out from your conviction.”
I remember Saka telling me that week not to worry, that he had evidence to get me off. It was the same afternoon my father agreed with him that I should run.
“The officials handling your case were corrupt,” Saka confesses. “Nothing I gave them changed their mind. They were planning to find you guilty no matter what.”
“So I returned to Rome to clean up my mess.”
“And I hid you from everyone,” Saka murmurs at the end of Matvei’s confession. “Including the person who supplied proof you were innocent. Keeping you alive was more important to me than proving your innocence.”
Since I agree with him, I nod instead of grilling his overprotective ways.
There’s just one matter that won’t stop popping up.
“Why did you show up years later? Why didn’t you just leave things as they were?”
“Because—”
Matvei silences Saka by waving his hand through the air. He contemplates how to pull the Band-Aid off without causing any additional pain. When he can’t find a way, he gets straight to the point. “When Maksim purchased the hotel, the financier announced unease about placing it in the Ivanov Industries name. He didn’t like backing investments where the majority shareholder was an anonymous entity. During that meeting, our mother admitted our capital had dwindled from billions to barely anything because it was all awarded to you.” Shame fills his eyes. “That was when I mistakenly believed the rumors. I thought—”
“I was a money-hungry gold digger who took your mother to the cleaners?”
It hurts more than I could ever explain when he bobs his chin. “But you soon proved me wrong—”
Matvei’s heaving chest stills when I interrupt, “Before or after you tried to trick me into signing an annulment?”
Matvei’s eyes shoot to Saka, who once again raises his gun, before they return to me. “I made a mistake.”
“Yeah, you did.” I yank out of his hold, too hurt to care that I almost sprain my wrist in the process. “Because you also married me without a prenup, so that pittance your father left you will be even less by the time I’m done with you.”
In his shock about the bitterness of my words, Matvei lets me leave.
That hurts even more than the numerous truths I’ve faced today.
35
MATVEI
Three months later…
“Will that be all?”
I jerk up my chin at my new assistant’s question, my movements as stiff and hideous as the ties he wears on the daily. Maksim thought he was hilarious when he replaced Ivanka with a man, but this one hasn't backfired in his face yet, unlike all his other riles in the past four months.
Blake knows his shit and stays the fuck out of my way. I can’t ask for more than that. I’m a grumpy bastard in general, but I’ve been worse the past three months. I let my woman walk away from me under the belief our relationship was nothing but a sham, and the man who kept her off my radar for months has upped his game since knowing an ex-military officer is searching for her.