Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Amy
“If I help you with this,” the older Nikoli’s voice was quiet but firm, “I need you to be honest with me.”
From the chair by his bed, I stared at him. “I am always honest with you, Nikolai.”
The old, lined eyes narrowed, but not in anger. Reaching out, he touched the back of my hand. “I know you think you are, Amy, but I don’t even think you are truly honest with yourself.”
I frowned. What did he mean by that?
Chuckling, he patted my hand. “Do you love my grandson?”
I remained silent.
“Let me rephrase that. You love him, don’t you?”
I blinked in shock. “I don’t know. Sometimes I think I do, and then he—”
He cut me off. “I know you love him. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be here and fighting for him.
You could have signed the divorce papers.
You could have started a fresh new life with your son and been a wealthy woman.
I would have made sure he left you alone if that’s what you had done.
But you’re still here. You’re still fighting for him. ”
“Because he deserves to know what a bitch Violet really is.”
”Agreed,” the old man nodded. “But if you didn’t care, you would have let him work that out for himself.
Yet here you are, fighting for your family,” he smiled indulgently.
“I knew the day you saved me that you were going to be his perfect match, Amy. So I’ll tell you what I know, but I want you to at least admit that you love him. ”
I clamped my lips shut.
How could I admit that to him when I wasn’t even sure I did? I cared for Alexei. But did I love him? Once upon a time, I had been falling in love with him, that much I could admit, but now? Too much had happened, and until it was sorted, I wasn’t sure what I felt.
“If Violet was gone for good,” Nikola said with a groan, “would you give him a chance? Would you raise your family with him?”
“Yes.” The word left my lips far too quickly.
A knowing, triumphant smile spread across his face.
” Then you love him, Amy. I’d have given you this file even if you wanted a divorce, but I wanted to see.
” He pointed to the bedside table. “Bottom drawer, manila envelope. I’ve been digging into Violet for years, but the last few weeks, more and more has come up.
There should be enough in there to make him listen. ”
“Then why didn’t you tell him?”
“Because it has to come from you. He has to know you will fight for him. Read it, and do with the information what you will. And, Amy—”
“Yes, Nikolai?”
“Don’t do anything foolish. Stay safe. OK?”
I smiled indulgently. “I promise.”
“Hello, Kristoff?” My voice shook. It was already dark outside. It had taken me that long to read through the file Nikolai had given me. He had been thorough, and there were just as many pictures as notes.
He really had been suspicious of her for years. But it was crazy to me that he hadn’t gone to Alexei himself. Alexei respected his grandfather’s wishes enough to marry me when he didn’t even know me. He would have respected his wishes about Violet as well.
Maybe.
Lips twisting, I held the cell phone a little closer to my face and glanced around. The apartment was quiet and empty. But that didn’t mean Alexei wasn’t watching my every move. For all I knew, he had cameras here.
“Sorry, is this Kristoff’s number?” I asked the silence on the other end of the phone. “I was looking for Kristoff?”
This was the number Nikolai had written in his spider-like handwriting at the bottom of the last page.
"This is he.” An accented voice said finally, and I let out a sigh of relief. “If you are looking for money, then—”
I cut him off, rolling my eyes. “This is Amy Petrivov. Alexei’s wife. I don’t need your money.”
He chuckled. And I could almost picture him leaning back and grinning. “And what can I do for you, Amy? Or would you prefer I call you Mrs. Petrovov? Although I didn’t think your marriage was working out,” more laughter, “But maybe I heard wrong."
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“So what do you want, Amy?” Again, he purposely didn’t use my married name. “What do I owe for his unexpected phone call?”
I darted a look down at the file spread out across the sofa next to me and took a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about Violet.”
His silence spoke volumes, and when he finally spoke, his voice was guarded. “I don’t think we have anything to discuss there, Amy. I know you saw us together but—”
I cut him off because I really didn’t have time for another man who couldn’t see what was right in front of their nose.
“I don’t care who you have been sleeping with, Kristoff.
I want to know if you know she has laid the blame directly at your feet.
She’s setting you up Kristoff.” I gave a mirthless laugh. “And Alexei believes her.”
“Of course he does,” Kristoff’s voice was completely emotionless. “But you don’t, I take it.”
“I believe you want him and his empire to fall,” I said quickly. “But I don’t think it was entirely your idea. I think Violet has been playing you both against each other since school. There’s enough of a paper trail—”
He cut me off. “Do you have proof?”
I took a deep breath. How much could I tell him? More importantly, how much was safe to say over the phone?
“I have proof,” I said in a quiet whisper. “I don’t know how much I can say over the phone.” Again, I looked around. Almost like I expected to be able to see security cameras appear in the corners. Of course, there was nothing there. Just the spotless paint.
“And what kind of proof?”
“I really don’t know what is safe to say. I think maybe a meeting face-to-face would be best. Can you meet me somewhere?”
“You really think I am going to meet you somewhere so your crazy husband can get a sniper to take me out Amy? If you do, then you really are as dumb as everyone says. I know the truth as well. I know that he can’t let Violet go. I think we both know that.”
I sighed. Oh yeah, I knew that, but that didn’t mean I had to stop trying. “Alexei doesn’t know I’m phoning. He doesn’t know about the file.”
I heard Kristoff’s breath hitch. “You have a file?”
“Yeah, Nikola put it together “
“Of course he did. Fine. I can meet you tomorrow. Somewhere public, “Kristoff said. “You bring your son home tomorrow, don’t you?”
Pausing, I cocked my head to the side. “Yes, but how did you know that?”
“There’s not much that happens in this city that I don’t know about, Amy. If you really want to show me the truth, then meet me in the hospital car park at eleven a.m.”
“Why there?” I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. The older Nikolai had made me promise not to do anything stupid, and this was suddenly feeling very stupid.
“Because your husband will have someone following you, Amy. And I don’t want to be shot. It will be easy for you to walk into the hospital and then out of a side door. They won’t expect it. I will be waiting.”
Yeah, this was feeling like a really bad idea, but what other choice did I have? If I had any chance of making Alexei believe me, I needed to first make Kristoff realize it.
From across the room, I heard a key slide into the lock, and a sudden panic gripped me. “I have to go,” I whispered harshly. “But I’ll be there at eleven.”
Swiping the file under the couch cushions, I had just placed the cell phone on the table when Alexei stepped through, a giant bunch of flowers in his hands. His eyes darted down to the still-lit phone and then back to my face.
“Who were you calling, Amy?”
I rolled my eyes at his jealous tone. “Just a friend. I didn’t expect you to come here tonight.”
He swept forward, closing the distance between us in only a few long strides. “I did come earlier, but you weren’t here.”
“I want to see Nikolai. The older one.” I amended it.
“I thought so, look.” Shuffling his feet, he thrust the flowers out towards me. Blocking my view of him for a second before I placed them on my lap. “I shouldn’t have brought Violet there. I realize that now. When she turned up, I should have demanded she leave. So these are for you.”
I frowned. Did he really think flowers were going to make up for everything? He hadn’t forgotten our anniversary; he had brought the woman who had tried to murder us into our son’s hospital room.
Biting my lip, I remained silent.
“The baby comes home tomorrow,” he changed the subject quickly.
“Yeah.” I didn’t know where he was going with this.
“Could we pick him up together?”
“Of course, as long as—”
He cut me off before I could finish. “Just us.” His smile was a little uncertain. “No one else. I have a crib and everything downstairs, so you just need to tell me where you want him to come home to, and I’ll get everything out ready.”
“Is here OK?” I asked. Jesus, I hadn’t even thought about that part. I had just presumed he would come back here.
“Here is fine.” Alexei’s smile grew wider. “Am I OK to start bringing things up. I should have gotten the nursery ready before.”
I stared at him in shock. Was he really asking my permission?
He was trying, I realized with a start, not with flowers or fancy gifts but with actual effort.
“I can help.” I was half out of my seat when he looked at me. “If you want me to,” I added quickly.
Slowly, a smile spread across Alexei’s face. “I’d love that, Amy, if you are feeling up to it.”
“I’m feeling up to it.” I returned his smile with one of my own. “Maybe we can talk about the future while we do it?”
Closing his hand around mine, Alexei brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it. “I would like that, Amy. I would like that a lot.”
He sounded so earnest that I almost told him about the file. I didn’t even know what stopped me. Maybe because I didn’t want to spoil the moment.
Tomorrow, when I had spoken to Kristoff properly, I would tell him everything, but until then, I just wanted to have a nice evening getting ready for our son to come home.