Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Anastasia
I sat in my chair in silence as my fiancé stared me down from his seat on the opposite side of the armchair. His glacier eyes pierced right into my soul. Savina sat on the loveseat with her husband, looking like the cool and collected Mafia King and Queen they were. Savina had refined her previous look and now wore a suit and had her hair slicked back into a tight bun.
She was all business now, and I had to say that I admired the shift that she was able to pull off.
“I would like to welcome you to my home, Sergei. I trust your trip back to the States went well?” Savina offered the olive branch to him first.
However, Sergei ignored her and continued to look at me. His eyes roamed my body, but not in an appreciative manner. This was more like he was assessing me, to see if anything had been broken on his property.
“You've gotten fat.” His voice cut through the thick silence. “When I gave her to you to keep, I did not say you should overfeed her. I don't want a fat wife.”
His words were meant to cut me, but instead, they rolled over me like water. The girl I had been before had been ridden with depression and anxiety about failing my family. After I lost my child, I felt like I had nothing left to live for. I had been stripped of my hope and all that remained was a shell of who I was. It was easier to play the part that he wanted me to play then. But not now.
“I think she looks healthier,” Savina quipped. “Far better than the skin and bones you left to me months ago.”
Sergei scowled. “Your opinion is irrelevant, and I was not speaking to you. I was speaking to the man.”
Andres glared at the man who disrespected his wife. “Careful, Sergei. I do not take kindly to disrespecting my wife or my guests.”
Sergei rolled his eyes, unphased by the warning. “No matter. Pack your bags, Anastasia. Your brother and I agree. You will come and live with me until the wedding. I don't like having you here. Your virtue is far more important to me.”
My stomach churned.
Ladies and gentlemen, my misogynistic pig-headed fiancé.
“I can assure you that her virtue is indeed intact,” Andres spoke. “But I would appreciate it if you showed a little more composure when you address my wife and our guest. She is not some slab of meat.”
“I will speak of my fiancé how I choose.”
The tension in the room thickened.
“I will be leaving with her today. The dowry has been paid, and I have urgent business I need to attend to. Thank you for keeping her for me.”
So, this was it. This was how my life sentence began.
I turned my head to look at Savina, who gave me a curt nod of reassurance. She wanted me to be strong, but there was no strength left in me. The life ahead of me held no light. There was no end to this dark and twisted tunnel.
I understood why so many women in our world were miserable. There was no joy to be had.
Sergei stood from his seat and offered his hand to me. He stared at me with those devilish eyes that penetrated right into the very depths of my soul.
I lifted my hand, ready to seal my fate, when all of a sudden, the door burst open, and in walked the very man I had been searching for weeks. With roaring eyes and waves of vigor and determination rolling off his body, he marched in like a man ready for war.
He looked the same, but different at the same time. His hair was not slicked back like it usually was, and there was a slight stubble to his chin. But other than the rugged look he had going on, he looked the same. He still wore the black dress pants and white button rolled up to the sleeves. But the one noticeable thing that I saw was the look of determination and rage in his eyes. His stare was locked in on Sergei, who looked more than upset at Valerio’s presence.
“Sorry to intrude.” His eyes were hard set on Sergei. “Seems like I’m just in time.”
He came to stand between Sergei and me. His tall stature came toe to toe with Sergei, the two large men eyeing each other.
The air thickened, and the once tension-filled room morphed into something far more ominous and sinister. The silence that covered us was deafening. All I could hear was the heavy beating of my heart in my veins.
Thump, thump, thump…
The blood rushed past my ears quickly, morphing my sense of hearing. My eyes darted between the two men, neither one of them looking like they were going to back down.
“She goes nowhere.” Valerio’s voice filled the silence. “She is not your woman.”
“Five million dollars say she is mine. That’s how much I put down to have her. I paid her brother the dowry. She is mine legally, and she will be my wife, and I will fuck her raw until I put my heir inside of her.”
I couldn't see Valerio’s face, but his entire body tensed, and the anger rolled off of him in large waves. So much so that I could feel them bouncing off on my body.
“Over my dead body. I will have a bullet in your head long before you can even reach for her.” He coated his words with so much venom it pierced through my own heart.
“Is that a threat, Valdez?” Sergei took a menacing step toward him.
“It’s a promise, zasranets. ”
Sergei’s eyes raged. “You are calling for a bullet in your mouth.”
“Careful, Sergei. You're in my territory. That is an active threat against a high-ranking member of this Family. I have grounds to kill you where you stand right now.”
Without warning, Sergei pulled out his gun and pointed it right at Valerio. But Valerio was quicker and had his gun pointed at Sergei.
My heart dropped to the floor. My entire chest constricted as I watched the scene that played out in front of me. I stood from my seat in fear that Sergei would pull the trigger and hurt Valerio.
“Valerio,” Andres stood from his seat. “I don’t think that now is the time nor the place for this.”
“I think it is, brother. Anastasia goes nowhere. She is not his property.”
“The dowry says otherwise.” I saw Sergei's hand tighten around the gun. “Now, move.”
“I don’t think so.”
Andres and Savina jumped out of their seats and looked at the scene before them but, unlike me, they were cool, calm, and collected. I caught Savina’s eyes. She saw the fear in mine, and as if in understanding, she nodded. She stood from her seat with her head held high like the Mafia Queen she was, and stared Sergei down with a cool gaze.
“My children are in this house taking their nap.” Savina stepped forward. “I don’t take kindly to anyone who disrupts my children’s sleep schedule. So, unless both of you want me to castrate you for waking my two-year-old, I suggest you put your guns down. Now .”
The assertiveness in her voice was that of a mother. She was speaking to two grown men who headed powerful Mafia Syndicates. They bowed to no one, yet they began to lower their guns.
Savina held her ground, looking between the two men. Andres watched his brother with curiosity and what I figured was respect. I would think that his little brother actively starting an all-out Mafia war would concern the older Valdez. Instead, he looked at him with pride in his eyes.
“Anastasia, come,” Sergei ordered, but I remained rooted where I stood. His eyes pinned me like daggers. “Anastasia, don't make me repeat myself.”
There was a part of me that wanted to concede. I wanted to bow my head and do as I was told, like I had done for years. I wanted to protect my brother and preserve our family name. But then I thought of the woman I wanted to be. The woman who wanted freedom.
“I’m not leaving with you, Sergei. I won't." I jutted my chin and looked him dead in the eye. His white glaciers raged with red-hot lightning.
“I paid for you.” He raised his voice, and I would be lying if I said that it didn't scare me a little, but I held my ground. “I own you.”
“You paid for a virgin; I no longer am one. I haven't been a virgin for almost three years, now.”
It was out there now. The secret I had kept close to my chest was now out there in the open, for everyone to know. The one clause that he had been explicit on when it came to marrying me. I had broken the clause and thus made whatever agreement he had with my brother null and void.
“Whore!” He shifted his gun to point at me, but Andres pulled out his own weapon and pointed it at him. “You are a fucking whore!”
“Call her whore one more time.” Valerio clicked his gun. “I dare you.”
“Sergei, I think it's time for you to leave. You are no longer welcome in my home.” Savina spoke up looking between the three men. “You have ten seconds, and then I will have my men take you off with force.”
The fury tinted the tips of his ears red as he stared between the four of us. He was a prideful man, and I was sure that he did not take what was happening lightly.
My heart still raged in the middle of my chest.
“This will cost you your life.” He bored his iron gaze into my own. It was not a threat but a promise. “And the life of your brother.”
Sergei lowered his weapon and turned on his heel, leaving the room with a looming dark cloud behind him. When the door slammed shut, I released the breath I had been holding and doubled over in shock.
What had just happened?
I lifted my head and looked at Andres and Savina. They looked equal parts annoyed and equal parts impressed. Valerio, on the other hand, had fury rolling off him in waves. I could feel the anger bouncing off every corner of the room.
“Fucking hell, Valerio.” Andres was the first to break the thick tension. “Are you dumb or are you just reckless?”
Valerio ignored his brother and turned to me with concern painted on his face. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing about this is fucking okay, Valerio.” This time it was Savina who spoke up. “Do you have any idea what you have just done? War. You brought war to my doorstep.”
Valerio ignored them both and cupped my face. “Anastasia, are you okay?”
I blinked and looked into his eyes. All I could manage was a curt nod. My mind was racing at a million miles a minute. The shock riddled my body, locking me in place.
He patted my hair down, the concern etched on his features. “You look pale.”
“Of course, she's fucking pale. You just walked in here and ruined her fucking life!” Savina’s voice was the next one I heard. “Well done, Valerio. Well fucking done!”
“Will you both stop? I didn't just do this without reason or a plan.” Valerio helped me down into the armchair I had been seated on. When he was sure that I was fine in my position, he stood to his full height and addressed his sister-in-law and brother.
“I know you both think I have gone mad, but I can assure you that I am of sane mind, here. My mind has never been clearer, actually. I sent you a file with everything you need to know about why I did what I did. But right now, I don't have time to sit down and explain, because I need to get her out of the country. Shit is about to get very real, and I need her as far away from the blast zone as possible.”
I didn’t hear the response back to his words. I just sat on the couch, my mind going back to my brother and the fact that he was now in the firing line.
“I need to get her out of here. I have the jet ready for Spain and we will lay low in a…” Valerio’s voice faded into the background and my internal voice took center stage.
My brother had asked me one thing. It hadn’t been a small thing, but it had been just one. He wanted us to retain our honor and rebuild our Empire. But I had chosen this exact moment to be selfish. The one time in my life when I wanted to choose me, it cost me the last remaining family I had left.
Had it truly been worth it, or had I just made the worst decision of my life?