Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,9

closed. Perhaps it’s time to share my secret shame, my hidden grief. Perhaps it’s time to unburden myself to someone.

Perhaps I can trust Emily with my greatest mistake.

I take a step towards her. My footing goes as something sharp lances through my lower belly. I gasp, pressing at my stomach.

Oh God. Please, no.

“Leni?” she says, leaving the box now forgotten on the table. She stretches her hands out towards me. “Are you okay?”

The ache throbs again, this time sharper. I let out a cry and double over, clutching at my stomach. This feels just like the last time. “No,” I gasp, my lungs seizing as panic grips me.

“Leni!”

Pain lashes through me in waves. My vision blurs behind tears. Breathe. Can’t breathe. I feel myself falling into a well of pain.

Everything goes black.

6

____________

Alena

Five years ago…

“Abso-fucking-lutly not.” Dimitri’s voice grinds out between his clenched teeth.

After we leave the Kempinski Hotel bar, I wait until we get back to our apartment to tell him about Isabelle’s offer. I know this is not a conversation we should have in public.

“I know it’s unorthodox,” I say softly. “Just think about it.”

Dimitri begins to pace across our threadbare carpet, his hands yanking through his hair. “I can’t believe you’re even entertaining the thought of marrying some stranger for money.”

“It is not for money, it is for us.” I grab his shoulders, causing him to stop pacing, forcing him to look at me. “For us, Dimi.”

He pushes my hands off me, as if my touch burns him. “Don’t you dare say this is for us. I don’t want this.”

“You don’t want this?” I yell back, frustration turning in my gut. Here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, handed to us on a platter, and he isn’t even considering it. “You don’t want a better life? You want to starve? To freeze to death?”

“Of course I want a better life. But not like this.”

“Then how—?”

“You are not a fucking whore!” he screams, making the window panes shudder.

His words slap me in my face. That was one aspect I hadn’t really thought through. If I married a stranger, I’d have to…

I shove that thought down into the dark pit of my mind. That is something I can deal with later. I hadn’t even been made an offer from any potential wealthy husbands yet. I have just been given the offer to sign up with Isabelle’s agency. Even if I sign up, I may not get chosen by anyone.

I only realise I’m shaking when Dimitri wraps his strong arms around me. “Oh, Alena,” he whispers in my hair, “I’m sorry for yelling. Just the thought of you with another man…it kills me.” He presses a kiss to my forehead and sighs.

I melt into his arms, letting his warmth wrap around me until it’s just him and me. We are stronger than anything.

“It’s just an offer, Dimi,” I say. “Just something for us to consider.”

“The answer’s no.”

Resentment swirls around in my gut. He hasn’t even considered it properly.

“Promise me you won’t go back to Isabelle,” he says.

I squeeze my eyes shut as the backs of them sting. Visions of a better life that Isabelle had built up earlier crumble before me—of a life of never being cold, of never feeling the angry gnaw of hunger in my belly, of never having to beg or steal for what I want. I want a better life so badly. So, so badly. Desperation tears me up inside.

“Alena?”

What’s the harm in just seeing what could come of this? It’s not like I have to say “yes”…

Dimitri pulls back to look at me. I don’t want to fight with him right now. I can’t tell him I’m going to sign up. Not yet. I’m doing this for us, I tell myself. He’ll come around once he sees the real opportunity on offer. If there even is an offer…

“I promise,” I lie, fingers crossed behind my back.

7

____________

Dimitri

Alena is lying to me.

I know because her school called me at the factory yesterday to tell me that she has missed school for the third day in a row. They think I’m her guardian because we forged the papers.

I should have known something was up. She’s been distant these last few days, her eyes skipping past me to stare into nothing more often than not, her lips moving as I kiss her, the fire behind it as low as coals. I’ve just been so busy…

She’s been distant…since the run-in with Isabelle. There’s a hollowness digging a pit in my stomach. She’s never