Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,67
supposed to stop him from leaving, he would confess that he’d been a fool, like in all great love stories.
You silly romantic, Alena, you naïve dreamer. Life isn’t like your novels.
That’s it, then. He’s really gone.
This thin thread of hope that I’ve clung to snaps. Dimitri—the Dimitri I love—won’t find a way to fight out of the rubble of his anger and come back to me. He gave up. He’s gone.
It’s over.
It’s really over.
I collapse to my hands and knees as my body overflows with repressed anguish, painful regret spilling out as tears into the dirt. How can a heart hold this much pain and still keep beating?
65
____________
Alena
Three months later…
I still think of Dimitri every day. The sharp pain of his loss has dulled to a throbbing ache. Hopefully over time it will dull further. Perhaps dull enough so that one day, I can go without thinking about him. I still miss the old Dimitri, the one I used to know. But I no longer cling to my naïve hopes of our two souls finding our way back to each other.
Worthington Manor is all closed up. Dimitri hasn’t been back since that day I saw him drive away. I wonder if he has gone back to America. I wonder if he’s happy. I hope so.
Emily, Edgar, and I have moved into a larger two-bedroom cottage in the village nearby. I still share a room with Emily but at least the space is bigger. She has begun working at the local café.
Edgar has stopped drinking. He’s trying to put together a business deal with an old friend who contacted him out of the blue. We have a strange, amiable relationship now but no sex.
I am finally taking responsibility for myself. I don’t earn much through my administration job but I’m putting money aside. My goal is to save up enough money to convince my husband to let me out of my contract. I know a hundred thousand pounds is a lot. I’m hoping he’ll take less. Besides, I must have a goal to keep me getting up every morning.
This evening, I am at home alone. Emily is working. Edgar is meeting up with this old contact of his. I get a knock on my door. It must be Richard. He’s the only one who stops in here for me.
I fling open the door without checking through the peephole. I blink rapidly when I see it is not Richard on my doorstep.
“Javier!” Dimitri’s right-hand man smiles at me from my doorstep. He’s wearing a dark brown suit, his hair longer than the last time I saw him. I look past him, my heart skipping a beat. There’s no Dimitri to be found. I clear my throat and smile. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s good to see you again.” He looks past me. “May I come in?”
I step aside for him. He enters the tiny living room. It’s not even the size of my old bedroom, and barely a quarter as grand, but I pay rent for it so my chin remains lifted. “It’s not as nice as what you’re used to living in, but…”
Javier turns on his heel towards me, no judgement on his face. “Trust me, what I am used to…this would be considered a palace.”
My curiosity fusses inside me. Why is he here? I study Javier, standing there with his hands folded behind his back, a twinkle in his eye. I’m not sure whether I should be scared or hopeful. Did…Dimitri send him?
“You’re wondering why I’m here,” he says.
I nod. “I thought you had left England,” I say, hoping for a hint at where Dimitri might be living now.
“I did. I’ve been in America. I’m just back for a few days on business.”
Of course, they’re living back in America. The only reason Dimitri came to England was to ruin me, and he did that.
I let out a nervous laugh. “What business does Dimitri still have with me?”
Javier gives me a sad look. “I’m afraid I've come here of my own volition. He…doesn’t know that I’m here.”
Javier doesn’t even dare to say his name in front of me, as if it might cause me to have a breakdown. Well, I won’t have anything of the sort. “Oh. Right.” I sniff. Why would I care whether Dimitri sent him or not?
“Before I give you the good news, I first need to beg your forgiveness.”
“My forgiveness? For what?”
“When we were packing up the manor, I…I found your study. Your manuscript.”