Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,13
worry about anything again.” No more stealing. No more scams. No more desperation.
His jaw twitches. “And if you break the contract? If he finds out you’re fucking your ‘brother’ before you deliver him a boy?”
My hands drop from his arms. The one tiny snag, the tiny thing that makes me nervous, and he’s found it. The “conduct unbecoming of a good wife” clause, triggered if I leave him or if I’m unfaithful. “I’ll owe him the cost of what he paid for me,” I say in a whisper. “And forfeit the five million.”
Disbelief cracks through his mask. A deep sadness oozes out. The way he stares at me feels like acid under my skin. It burns and scars. “Do you love me, Alena?”
I gasp. “Of course I love you.”
“You know I love you.”
“Of course, I—”
“Then tell me, my love,” his voice begins to rise, “how can I be okay with you marrying a total stranger? How can you expect me to stand idly by while your new husband fucks you?”
I wince. It’s just my body. Dimitri will always have my heart and my soul. Doesn’t he know that? “How is it any different from when we run our scams? You’re the one who pretends to be interested in those stupid women so we can steal from them. How is this any different?”
“I’m not marrying them,” Dimitri explodes. “I’m not fucking them and I’m not getting them pregnant.”
My heart cracks as my future cracks apart. My charmed life blurs before my eyes. Why is he trying to take this away from me? From us?
Dimitri drops to his knees in front of me. His face cracks wide open, but it’s not anger showing through, raw and naked.
It’s desperation.
“Alena,” he grabs my hand, “I beg of you, don’t do this.”
“Dimi, I—”
“Don’t marry him, marry me.” His eyes glisten with tears. “I don’t have a ring now but I will get one. I will. I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted. I promise, just…”
I squeeze my eyes shut, tears spilling out. I have imagined this moment for so long, Dimi on his knees asking me to be his wife. But not like this. Not like this. He’s only asking me to try to blackmail me into giving up my dream. Screw him, he’s spitting on our love by doing this.
I open my eyes, my heart turning to ice, and tug my hand from his. “Get up. You look ridiculous on the floor.”
He leaps to his feet, his eyes going wild and terrible. His finger shakes as he stabs it in my chest. “I took you in.” Stab. “I cared for you after you were abandoned by your mother.” Stab. “And this is how you repay me?”
“Repay you?” I slap his hand away from me. “I’m trying to make a life for us.”
“That is what I’m doing!”
“No, Dimitri, this isn’t a fucking life. This is death. We are dying, slowly. I am dying. And you. Are. Killing me.”
I see the moment when his heart breaks. I can almost hear when his pride snaps in two. Shit. I’ve gone too far. I regret everything I said. Everything. I take it back.
But I can’t. My words have done their damage. Like lightning cleaving a tree in half.
“Get out,” he spits out between his teeth.
I reach out for him. “Dimi—”
“Don’t fucking touch me, you whore.”
His words slap me across my face. “Don’t you dare call me that. I’m not—”
“Marrying a man for money? Fucking a stranger for money? Don’t kid yourself about what you will become if you do this.”
My vision blurs through tears. I’m not a whore. I’m desperate. We’re desperate. Why can’t he see that this is our way out of this bitter hell.
“Go,” he says, shoving me towards the door. “Go and marry your rich husband. Hopefully you won’t disgust him the way you disgust me.”
My heart shatters. Every broken piece of me withers. How can he say these things to me? How?
I can’t be here. I can’t be near him right now. I shove past him and grab for the door handle, scrambling for open space. For air.
“Alena…” His voice is pained and swollen behind me.
It’s too late. It’s too fucking late. He said those horrible things. Now he can’t take them back. The door slams against the wall. I fling myself out through the doorway.
“Alena. Wait!”
I aim for the stairwell. I can hear Dimitri trying to reassure our neighbours that everything is fine. Just a little misunderstanding.