Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Maybe it’s better this way. Die having made my own decision. Die having gone my own way. All I regret is that I couldn’t have brought my baby into this world. I glance down at the ring glittering on my finger.
“No!” Alex shouts, struggling against the three men holding him back.
“Dad, don’t,” Lev yells and gets between me and Dad. “Put down the fucking gun.”
“Move,” Dad says, trying to push Lev aside.
“Just stop it.” The two of them struggle for a moment, and I’m sobbing as I watch my family crumble before my eyes.
Then Lev’s phone starts ringing. It’s shrill and cuts through the chaos, and it’s enough to break the spell. The two of them stop struggling over the gun, and Dad’s seething, breathing through his teeth, but he gestures for Lev to answer.
“Take it. That could be the fucking Italians.”
Lev pulls out his phone and puts it on speaker. “What’s going on?” he barks.
Katerina’s voice comes through in a panic. “The shop,” she says, sounding breathless. “Some men showed up, Italians I think, and they started messing it up.”
Lev looks alarmed. “What do you mean, messing it up?”
“They’re breaking everything!” she screams and the sound of shattering glass can be heard in the background. “Oh, shit, they’re taking the watches now. Lev, you gotta get down here! Please, they’re going to burn the place to the ground!”
The line goes dead. Then Lev’s shouting and Dad’s yelling, and they’re rushing out with Dad’s soldiers, and I’m left alone with Alex in the silence that follows.
Chapter 15
Alexander
Fed Jeweler is a burned-out husk. The ground’s still steaming as small fire pockets smolder underneath the wreckage. The building is cordoned off, but a teary Katerina waves me through and throws her arms around me.
“Oh, Alex, it was so bad,” she says, crying against my shoulder.
Fire fighters and members of the Bratva mill around. I spot Lev picking through some of the ashes. He lifts a gold watch with the end of a stick and stares at it before flinging it down onto the ground.
“I’m sorry, Kat, but you did good calling us.”
“It happened so fast. I couldn’t stop them.”
“Nobody expected you to.”
She smiles and sniffles as she pulls away and wipes her face. “Dasha told me what happened.” She glances over at where Lev is kicking through the remains of a filing cabinet. “It must be bad.”
“It’s bad,” I confirm. “But I’m working on it.”
“Just don’t get yourself killed, alright?” She gives me another smile and goes back to talking with one of the fire fighters still hanging around in case something flares up.
I step through the rubble and head toward Lev. He doesn’t glance up as I stand there and watch him combing through the wreckage.
I can’t guess how he feels right now. After Step died, family became his everything, and I consider him more of a brother now than he ever was before. I’m not sure how I could’ve processed the grief around Step without Lev.
“Are we going to talk about it?” I say and he doesn’t look over.
“Fuck off.”
“Come on. I know you’re mad and you have every right to be—“
“You don’t belong here anymore.” He kicks at a watch chain and it skitters over the floor.
“She came to me last night.” I step into the back room and start coming through the ash for anything that looks salvageable. “She had a pregnancy test with her. At the time I told her to forget about me and to marry Adriano anyway. Maybe they do the math, maybe they don’t think the baby looks like him, but chances are everything would be fine. But as soon as she left, I felt wrong. Deeply wrong.”
Lev’s not moving. He stares at the ground, his jaw working. He looks angry enough to kill me.
But I keep talking.
“I thought about it all night and in the morning, I knew what I had to do. We had a moment of weakness in Paris and it shouldn’t have happened, but it did. I got her pregnant, and I couldn’t let her marry into a dangerous situation like that, not when it’s my baby she’s carrying. I had to do something.”
“You could’ve talked to me.” Lev stares at me. There’s hate in his face, but there’s also a deep sadness.
He feels betrayed, and I can’t blame him. Maybe I did betray him, but mostly I feel like I’m making the hard choice because it’s the right one.
“Would you have understood? Really, would things be different?” I shake my head when he doesn’t answer. “I knew the only way I could make sure that my baby is raised by its own father was by marrying Natalya, and she knew it too. We didn’t do this to hurt you. We did it for our child.”
Lev takes a deep, slow breath, and blow sit out. “Fuck you, Alex.” He lets out a hard, sharp-edged laugh. “That’s the thing with you. Everything’s got to be fucking right. You always walk around acting like you’re the moral authority on absolutely everything, but here’s the fucking truth. You’re just as fucked up as the rest of us. You slept with my god damn sister, with fucking Step’s sister, knowing full well she was arranged to be married to another man. You did that, Alex. You made that choice. So don’t stand there telling me you’re doing what’s right for your family. Fuck you and fuck what you think is right.”