Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Amy
What was I doing? The plan had been to never see Alexei again, so why was I brimming with happiness? Why had I let him kiss me? Why had my body come alive and wanted more just because he was close to me?
He seemed sweeter than ever, but that didn’t mean things had changed for the better. It didn’t mean he had got rid of her. If Violet were still in his life, then I couldn’t be.
I didn’t think highly of myself, but I knew I deserved better than that, and so did my baby. My sweet little Alessia. Not even a minute had gone by before I heard the sound of the door opening and then clicking closed softly.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Back to stealing those kisses already?” I asked softly, and my smile only grew. “Or are you ready to talk?”
“Not quite.” The voice was instantly recognizable, but it wasn’t Alexei.
I tried to push myself upwards, and something pressed against the back of my head, causing me to freeze.
“Sit back down, little dove.” Violet’s voice was dripping with venom and more than a little threat. Reluctantly, I fell back into the threadbare sofa. My heart was beating so fast and hard it felt like it was going to smash through my ribs.
Violet was here, but I didn’t know why.
I took a small breath, and my arms curled around my stomach protectively. Actually, I did know why she was here. The gun pressed against my head told me exactly why.
“Maybe I should call you little rat instead,” she snarled, the gun moving across my skull as she walked around the sofa to face me. “Yeeah, little rat seems more apt. You are vermin, Amy. And left unchecked, vermin always gets out of hand. “
I lifted my eyes to her, trying to focus on her face and not the muzzle of the gun that seemed like a massive black hole this close.
“You have teeth, don’t you? Sharp little teeth. I didn’t realize before, but I can see them now. You’re not a placid little dove. You are a fucking rat, and you are trying to steal Alexei away from me.”
I wanted to scream at her that Alexei was my husband, not hers. I hadn’t stolen him away.
“Answer me, you fucking bitch,” she screamed. The gun came crashing down. Smashing into the side of my jaw and rocking my head to the side.
Pain radiated through my face, and blood trickled from my mouth, but I didn’t cry out. I could take this, I told myself, as long as she kept hitting my face and didn’t take aim at my stomach. A beating I could and would happily take.
“I left him,” I said through my split and bleeding mouth. “I—”
She raised her hand to hit me again, and I tried to shy away, but her other hand came and tangled in my hair, yawning it up and pulling it out by the roots.
“You can’t have him. I need him. He will find you, and you will ruin everything.” She was breathing so heavily that she was almost hyperventilating. “I have to do this, you understand.”
Violet’s voice dropped to an almost sincere whisper, and that was scarier than her screaming. I didn’t like the tone of her voice at all. It sounded apologetic.
“I should have done it before, but, well, I thought he would come around, and now I see that he will never love me again when you are still alive.”
Fuck, she was going to kill me. I clenched my legs together to stop myself from urinating.
“Get on your knees, Amy,” Violet said softly. “Face me. I want the last thing you see to be my face so that you know I’ve won.”
I didn’t want to do that. It was like I was frozen to the spot.
She brandished the weapon again. “Now, Amy, I don’t have all day.”
I shuffled to the edge of the sofa and fell on my knees, my huge stomach hindering my movement as I turned to face her.
“Faster,” she snapped.
“I’m going as fast as I can,” I snapped right back because if I was going to die, I wouldn’t do it as a snivelling, crying wreck of a woman.
Setting myself down, I craned my neck up at her.
She had changed a lot since the last time I had seen her.
The ungodly polished good looks were gone.
She looked gaunt, and her skin was blotchy.
“Ah, yes, the Petrovov heir.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at my bump, and I wanted to curl my body around myself to protect it.
“You know we did discuss cutting it out of you and passing it off as mine, but then that wouldn’t have worked because you had to go and pull me with you down the stairs didn’t you? ”
Defiantly, I lifted my chin. “It wouldn’t have worked because I know Alexi never touched you.”
I didn’t know what made me say it. I knew no such thing for certain, but it felt like the truth.
Violet’s face fell, but only for a second.
“You’re right, he didn’t. But I didn’t need a man in my bed to get him to do what I needed him to do, Violet.
I need him to love me again. And believe me, he won’t say no forever.
He’s mad at me now, but everyone knows Alexei can never stay mad at me.
” Her smile was dazzling. She believed that with her whole heart, and so did I.
Alexei had proved time and time again that he would always forgive and choose her.
I pushed those thoughts down. It didn’t matter about the past. All that mattered was keeping myself and my baby alive until Alexi got back. He’d only gone across the parking lot. He should be back any minute. I just had to stay alive long enough.
My eyes darted around the room. And for the first time in my life, I cursed my cleanliness. There was nothing left out, nothing I could use as a weapon to defend myself.
Violet’s smile grew as she watched me look around. “You know I would shoot you before you could even start moving, Amy. So don’t even try it.” To prove her point, she pressed the gun between my eyes.
My nose wrinkled. She stank of stale alcohol.
“I mean, I’m going to kill you anyway, but I want you to know why before I do it. I want you to understand.”
Because you’re an evil bitch, I said silently. “Then tell me, Violet,” I hissed. “Tell me what I don’t understand.”
I just had to keep her talking for long enough, that’s all. Just a few more minutes…
“He never loved you.”
Tears swam from my eyes as she pushed the muzzle of the gun more firmly into the skin of my forehead. Wildly, I looked towards the door.
Where was Alexei? Where was he? Panic began to set in with my calmness.
Was this going to be another time where he didn’t choose me?
For all I knew, he had brought her here.
But no, I didn’t believe that. Kristoff had seen me, and he had told Violet.
She was just here to make sure there were no loose ends.
“If you had just—” Violet’s gun hand was shaking uncontrollably. At any second, her finger might slip on the trigger, and then all of this would be over.
“You weren’t meant to be there. A girl like you was never meant to be his wife. That was always meant to be me,” she snarled.
“Then why did you leave him?” I couldn’t help but ask. “If you loved him and wanted him to marry you, why did you leave?”
A flicker of unease filtered into her eyes. “The old man.”
I laughed, cutting her off. “Nikolia saw right through your crap, didn’t he?”
The gun pressed harder into my skin. “It doesn’t matter what the old man saw or thought he saw. As soon as I’m Alexei’s wife, I’ll make sure he doesn’t get another say in my life. I’ll strip him of all his influence and—”
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a shadow move, a dark figure that seemed to block out the sun from the crack in the door.
“Alexei isn’t stupid,” I said firmly. “He won’t fall for your games.”
She threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, sweetheart, he’s been falling for it for years.
Did you really think I came back because I loved him?
Alexei is so under his grandfather’s control that it’s disgusting.
I came back because I needed him. I, hell, I don’t expect you to understand because you’re nothing but a filthy rat, but he’s powerful.
Well, he will be when the old man is gone. ”
“I want that power, that prestige. It’s what I deserve.
What I am owed,” she cackled out a laugh.
“The Petrovovs have ruled for too long. It’s time for a change of regime, and I can help bring it all crumbling down from the inside, and then I can be in charge.
I can be a god damn queen like I deserve. ”
The door behind her opened a crack, and that shadowy figure slipped inside.
“The only thing standing in our way is you, Amy.”
Our? My eyebrows shot up. Oh, shit, she wasn’t just having an affair with Kristoff, she was working with him to bring the Petrovov family down. It was Kristoff’s side she wanted to rule next to.
“See, everything was going perfectly, even if Alexei wouldn’t fuck me. I still had it under control.”
My eyes darted away from her to Alexei’s perfectly still form standing behind her. She hadn’t noticed yet.
I let out a sigh of relief. He was here. He had come. It was all going to be alright. Slowly, he lifted his finger to his lips to silence me, and my eyes darted back to her face.
“But you didn’t lose the baby, did you? And I can’t allow a Petrovov heir to live.”
“I never came back. You could just let me go.”
She shook her head, her blonde hair whipping around her face wildly. “I can’t do that. If any of his men even heard a rumor that there was his child somewhere, they would rally around it. I won’t lie and say I’m sorry, but this has to be done. Close your eyes, Amy.”
I shook my head in a firm no. “If you want to kill me, Violet, you can do it looking into my eyes.”
“Fine.”
Several things happened at once. I watched in horror as Alexei launched himself forward and wrapped one arm around her waist and another around her gun arm. He forced it to the ceiling, and a loud boom filled the room as it went off.
I threw myself backwards, just as another shot was fired, landing on my back and trying to roll to the side. Wetness coated my thighs. Had I just wet myself? Through a haze, I watched as Violet struggled in his arms. But it was weird because I couldn’t seem to concentrate.
Yells filled my ears, but they seemed to be coming from far away as well.
That’s when it hit me. The pain. Oh, God, the pain.
My body was nothing but agony. A fire burned me to ash from the middle out.
It was too much. But I was alive, and so was my baby.
Alexei had come for us. He had finally chosen us.
“It’s alright. We’re going to be—” Even my voice sounded different. I clutched at my stomach, and my hands felt suddenly wet. Lifting them, I stared in open-mouthed horror as my blood dripped from my fingers.
“Alexei,” I tried to scream, and it came out barely a whisper.
Then it all went black.