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 would never fucking hurt her.” I drop my eyes to Saka, aware he is the only person I need to prove my point to. “I would never hurt her. I did everything I could to protect her. You know this. I gave you proof.” Proof that could have me arrested. “You need to tell her that. Show her I’m on her side more than anyone’s.”
“I’ve tried—”
Saka is silenced by the lawyer, who I fucking hope doesn’t mind having “death by a chicken bone” written on his headstone, because I’m about to ram one down his fucking throat. “With the divorce settlement not being contested, and Ms. Lefevre—"
“Mrs. Matvei Ivanov,” I correct, my words spat out of my mouth like daggers.
He continues as if I never spoke. “The court has no reason not to grant your application for divorce.” He dumps the pen onto the paperwork my lawyer is perusing. “You just need to sign on the dotted line, and you’ll be free to go back to being you.”
“Free enough to ram your fucking pen through the flab on your neck?” Ignoring my lawyer’s advice to calm down, I look him up and down. “You’ll drop like a bag of shit. Serves you right, too. What lawyer with any sense of self-worth would encourage their client to take this route?” I stab my finger on the monetary amount that shows Natalya isn’t getting a fucking dime from either of her marriages. “She is walking away with less than what she came into our marriage with.”
“At her choice—”
“That’s not a fucking choice! It’s a sacrifice. She’s too scared to fight, too petrified to put herself first.” I lock my eyes with Saka. “She is running… again.” I push the paperwork back to his side of the desk, ripping it since I have to pry it from my lawyer’s hands. A settlement like this will make him millions, but I refuse to let anyone benefit from Natalya’s loss. Even Maksim agreed to let Natalya keep everything she was awarded after our father’s death because nothing she did puts her at fault. Not a single fucking thing. “This isn’t living. Giving up isn’t living, so you go back to Mrs. Ivanov and tell her the only way I’ll sign anything is when she brings me the document herself and tells me this is what she wants.”
“Ms. Le—”
“Did anything I say sound like a suggestion?”
Stealing his chance to reply, I snag my coat off my chair and hotfoot it outside.
Maksim follows hot on my tail. “What happened?”
“She flipped the fucking coin on her head. My stubborn, stubborn girl.” My last four words are only for my ears. “She’s not contesting a single thing. She gave it all back. Every single dime.” When Maksim’s mouth opens and closes but not a peep seeps through, I say, “I told you it was never about the money for her. She wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t know him. She didn’t want neither him nor his money.” She’s only ever wanted me.
My spine stiffens like a rod when our exchange is interrupted by Saka and Natalya’s lawyer. They burst through the rotating doors of my lawyer’s main headquarters before racing through the snow-dotted grounds to an idling SUV.
“What me to put a tail on him?”
I shock myself when I shake my head.
“You sure?”
My headshake shifts to a nod because I know something Maksim doesn’t.
Natalya can’t be ruled by money or her libido. Her heart has all the control, and she handed that to me months ago, so it will only be a matter of time before she tries to force me to return it.
It could even be by the end of today.
36
NATALYA
“Were you followed?”
Saka shrugs off his thick winter coat that’s covered with snow before shifting on his feet to face me. “No.”
“Are you sure?” When he glares at me, I say, “What? You know what he’s like. He’s cunning, sly, and…” I miss him more than I ever thought possible. I crave that man like a drug, and not a single thought I’ve had the past three months hasn’t involved him in some way.
I am just too stubborn to admit that.
Saka will never let me off so easily. “And?”
“And every other derogative term in the dictionary under his name.” I scoff at him before spinning to face the view from my window. I’ve heard of hiding in plain sight, but this is ridiculous. I’m in a hotel I technically own, an alias not needed since my access was granted by scanning my eye into a state-of-the-art security system meant to keep bad people out.
I didn’t even need to change my name on the booking because the penthouse apartments are booked out in Matvei’s and Maksim’s names year round, even with Matvei spending the last three months at our home in the foothills of the forest.