Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,58

the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

He came after me. He put his hate aside. My heart warms. “Harder than becoming a millionaire investor, Mr Wolf?” I tease. I haven’t had a chance to dwell on this accomplishment until now. Dimitri did everything he set out to do and more. I’m so proud of him.

“Yes.” His eyes are serious. There’s no trace of bragging. “Making money is just about numbers.”

“And you know numbers.”

Dimitri says nothing. The silence swells with missing time, with the five years that we’ve been apart. I want to know everything about that time. What he did, where he’s been. I want to stitch our lives back together again, starting from when he left Russia.

“Where did you first live in America?”

His lips twitches before he answers. “New York.”

New York. Like he always planned. I imagine Dimitri as a nineteen year old arriving without me in that strange foreign land, only the simplest of English words to his name, and my heart twinges. “Did you—?”

“I don’t want to talk about that, okay?” He slides out from under me and stands, flashing me a view of his perfect rounded ass, before tugging on his briefs.

I sit up, clutching the sheets to my chest, a strange feeling scraping out my chest. “Where are you going?”

He turns to face me, his glorious chiselled body on display. I think I see a flash of something dark cross his eyes. It’s gone before I can even be sure. “I can’t just lie here. There are things that need to be done first.”

“Of course.” He’s right. What we just did was disrespectful to my marriage, sham as it is. I need to end my marriage before Dimitri and I can start our lives together properly. We need to tell my husband and…Emily. My stomach pangs. I toss aside the sheets and reach for my clothes. “I’ll pack so we can leave—”

“No. Stay. Relax.” He pulls me into his arms and kisses my head. “I’ll go first. I’ll explain everything to Emily and your husband. I’ll send the car back for you tomorrow.”

I melt into him, chewing my lip. “They’ll be mad. Hurt.”

He nods against my hair, swaying with me a little. “I’ll take the brunt of it.”

My heart lets out a flutter. “You don’t have to face them alone.”

“It’s better this way, Alena. Trust me.” He leans in, claiming my mouth in a deep kiss. A kiss that has my toes curling and wild heat dancing in my body again. He pulls away before we can get carried away again. “Soon everything will be right.”

I smile up to him. “Everything will be perfect.”

53

____________

Alena

The car arrives the very next morning as Dimitri promised. I’m ready, my single suitcase packed. On the long drive to Worthington Manor, I can do nothing but think about how Edgar and Emily reacted when Dimitri broke the news to them yesterday. I am achingly happy Dimitri is mine again. The rightness of it has me beaming so hard that my cheeks hurt. Underneath are tangles of regret.

My husband’s pride will be hurt, but he will move on quickly. I’m not his great love, not even a little love. I’m nothing more than a vessel for an heir for him.

But Emily…

I should have told Emily about Dimitri. I should have told her long ago. Perhaps her heart might have been spared. I was too scared that even speaking his name would unleash the tight control I had on my hurt. I was scared that she’d tell her father and expose me. And I was embarrassed at my mistake. Ashamed at myself. I could not bear for sweet little Emily, the only friend I had, to gaze upon me with disgust or pity. I’m no fool. I know women judge each other more harshly than they do men. It’s easier to forgive Dimitri for all his faults than to forgive me for a foolish mistake I made five years ago when I was just a child.

My palms are sweating when the car pulls up in front of Worthington Manor. I let out a shaky breath as I gaze across the familiar structure. I didn’t think I’d be back so soon.

The front door opens. My heart leaps.

It’s not Dimitri. It’s Javier. His face is dark, his lips pressed thin and white like a lightning strike.

I tumble out of the car without waiting for the driver to open my door. “Javier, what’s wrong?”

He calls to the driver to take care of my suitcase