Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,51
of dust in his wake.
He hadn’t seen me.
Anger slithers through me. Why was he here? What business of his was it to come here? This is my place, the one good thing in my life that he hasn’t tainted.
Yet.
The blood drains from my limbs and I almost drop my basket. Surely—surely—he wouldn’t be so cruel as to destroy a school just to punish me? He couldn’t hurt all these children. Oh God. What has he done? What has he done?
I run, ignoring the basket slapping against my hip. I keep running until I reach the headmaster’s office, bursting through his door without any announcement.
Richard starts in his chair, looking up from behind his desk. “Oh, Alena.”
I heave in breath, my lungs struggling to suck in enough air, cramped by my effort and fury. “Dimitri Wolf was here.”
He blinks. “Why, yes—”
“Why?” I stride up to his desk and drop my basket to the floor. Richard is a kindly man in his mid-forties. He’s been headmaster of this school for almost a decade, having attended this very school as a child. He would never let Dimitri destroy this place, would he?
Dimitri is good at sniffing out people’s weaknesses and using them. Just like he did with my husband and his failing company. Just like he’s doing with Emily and her silly crush on him.
Richard and I are friends, or at least, I thought we were. Now as he squirms in his chair, avoiding my eyes, I have to question it.
Dimitri is messing with my husband’s company, he’s driven a wedge between Emily and me, and now here… My blood boils. He can’t mean to take everything away from me, can he?
After what you did to him five years ago? I shove this guilt-thorned thought aside.
“Why did Dimitri come here?” I lean over the desk, my palms flat on the surface. “Tell me.”
A frown appears between Richard’s brows as he meets my gaze. “I’m sorry, Alena. The purpose for Mr Wolf’s visit is confidential.”
“If it has something to do with me, I have a right to know what he’s done,” I squeeze out through gritted teeth. “If you were ever a friend to me, you have to tell me.”
“You?” Richard’s frown deepens. “Alena, you’re mistaken. His visit had nothing to do with you.”
I straighten up behind his desk. “Then why was he here?”
Richard sighs and gets up from behind his desk. He walks over to the door that I left wide open and shuts it, turning to me. “What I’m about to say hasn’t been announced yet, so you’ll keep it to yourself.”
“I… Of course.”
“Dimitri Wolf has donated enough money for us to refurbish our library.”
“What?”
He nods, his face bursting with the joy of being able to share such wonderful news. “He came here to ask what needed to be done to the school. I told him about our recent need to raise funds for the library.”
I had tried to help with that. I had begged my husband to let me donate the money they needed. He refused me. I have no money of my own to give. I’d secretly gotten the help of the cook and the kitchen staff in baking an array of cakes for a bake sale. It had been a success but it had raised less than five hundred pounds. Not nearly enough.
Richard grips my arm. “Alena,” his voice lowers to a hush, “Mr Wolf just handed over a check for ten thousand pounds!”
“What?”
“It’s more than enough for the library upgrade. We’ll have money left over to upgrade our science lab and our gymnasium. Oh, Alena, he is a Godsend. Is he a friend of yours?”
I sink into one of the chairs in front of Richard’s desk. I can scarcely believe what he’s saying. Ten thousand pounds!
Why did he do that?
He did it for you, Alena.
I shove that thought away. “Did…did Dimitri say why he donated all that money?”
Richard shrugged. “Only that he was inspired to do it after he drove past the other day and saw our grounds.”
I have misjudged him. Completely. I have to thank him. I have to apologise…oh God, the names I called him. The accusations I hurled at him. How nearsighted I have been. He is still the same Dimitri underneath. He’s just hurting on the outside. He let himself get close to me and he got scared.
“Alena, you can’t tell him you know he was the one to donate the money.”