Chapter Nine
Sofiya
Katya’s question catches me off guard. “I’m… I’m Dimitri’s wife. Sofiya Smirnov. Well, Ivanov now.”
Her eyes widen. “His wife?”
“Did he not tell you this?” My heart is pounding. I don’t even know how to deal with this situation. Katya is inside a hidden room. The door wasn’t locked but could she still get out on her own? Has Dimitri truly been keeping his sister prisoner here? This whole time?
A shiver creeps down my spine. My own husband did this. The husband that I have complicated feelings for. The husband who I let pleasure me. The husband who has shown me pain.
“No,” Katya answers, looking me over. It’s not a critical look, nor is it an admiring one. It’s just… a look. One of curiosity.
“Are you a prisoner in here?”
Finally, she gets up from the bed but she keeps her distance from me, remaining by the far wall. “Not exactly.”
“Can I come in?” Do I even want to? This entire situation is strange.
“Yes. If you’re truly Dimitri’s wife.”
“Who else would I be?” I try to take a step inside but I can’t get my legs to work. It seems better to stay in the doorway. The last thing I need is to be locked up inside a hidden room too.
“Dimitri has told me that people will try to hurt me. Get to me. How do I know you’re not one of those people?”
“I am his wife. We had a wedding. A honeymoon in Greece. I’ve been living in this house for days now. You can ask him. I’m… assuming he comes and sees you every day.”
She wraps her arms around herself. “Yes. He brings me food and we talk.”
“Is there a bathroom in here?”
She points to a door that’s cracked open behind her. From here, I can just barely make out a toilet in the darkness. So technically another room. How many secret rooms does Dimitri have in this house? I’m not sure I want to know.
“Why does he keep you in here?”
“He doesn’t keep me in here,” she says in a hard tone that surprises me.
“Then what does he do?”
“He protects me. People in the outside world want to hurt me. If I stay in here, then no one can hurt me.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he’s told me,” she says like it’s obvious. But to me, it seems that Dimitri has only locked Katya away to control her. Not to actually protect her.
But then again, I was kidnapped in Greece and almost sold to a stranger before Dimitri saved me. So anything is possible.
“So you’re in this room… willingly?”
She doesn’t hesitate as she says, “Yes.”
It’s a blow to my stomach. Katya truly believes she deserves to be in this hidden room. She wants to be locked away. How much fear has Dimitri instilled in her?
Or has she been hurt in the past to make her think this way?
“Are you scared of anything specific?” I ask. “That would make you want to be in this room?”
“I’m scared of everything. Dimitri protects me. He always has.”
“From who?”
“From his enemies. He has a lot of them.”
“How long have you been in this room?”
With a sigh, she sits back down on the bed. The one that is so young and childish with stuffed animals. It reminds me of my own bed at my parents’ house. But now I’ve been forced to grow up when I was thrown to Dimitri. Katya seems to be in a stasis of innocence.
“For years,” she admits.
“Were you always kept in this room?”
“No. When I was younger, I wasn’t. But then…”
“But then?”
Her eyes flick to me and she looks me up and down again, this time with suspicion. “How do I know you’re truly Dimitri’s wife? You could be trying to get information out of me. Try to use it to hurt me and Dimitri.”
“If I had wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would have done it already?”
“Maybe. Or someone has sent you here to be nice to me and you’re going to kidnap me eventually.”
“I was kidnapped. Not that long ago. I know how terrifying it was. I’m not going to do that to another person. And I really am Dimitri’s wife. Why did he not tell you that?”
“He likes to protect me. He must have thought it would protect me if I didn’t know.”
An unsettling idea settles itself in my stomach and it’s one I don’t want to ask but I have to. “Does Dimitri hurt you? Does he…touch you?”
She scoffs. “No. My brother has never hurt me. And he’s never touched me. Why would you even ask that?”
I look around the room. This entire situation is strange and weird. “Well… I mean, you can understand why I would ask.”
She continues to look at me like I’m crazy. “No. Dimitri has been my protector. There’s nothing… sexual going on.”
“Ok. That’s good to know.” And it is good to know. But it doesn’t help my nerves. Dimitri still kept Katya locked away in here. Why exactly? He didn’t want me to know. How much else does my husband not want me to know?
“How did you find me?” she asks.
“I found the blueprint to the house in his office. I saw the extra room. I managed to find the door. It’s not locked, I noticed.”
“No.”
“Does that mean you can leave this room if you want?”
She ducks her chin to her chest. “I don’t want to answer that.”
“Why not?”
Katya throws me another hard look. “What do you not understand of ‘I don’t want to answer that’ means?”
“Sorry,” I mumble. “It’s just… this whole thing is weird. I want to make sure you’re ok.”
“Why do you care? You don’t know me.”
“Well, you’re my sister-in-law now. And you’re a woman kept in a hidden room. That makes me worried. I want to help. That’s just who I am.”
“I don’t need your help. I never asked for your help.”
Finally, I step into the room. Her eyes zero in on me and I freeze in my spot. “Katya, I can help you. Please. Why do you not want to leave this room? I’m assuming you can?”
“I am not my brother’s prisoner.”
“So you can leave this room.”
She sighs and turns her head away. “I am not my brother’s prisoner.”
“And yet, you don’t want to leave? Why?”
“I owe you nothing,” she snaps, pushing herself to her feet. “I don’t know you. I don’t have to answer your questions. I like it in here. Ok? Is that good enough for you?”
“Ok,” I whisper. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Well, you did. You came into my room, uninvited, and are asking me all these questions. And I still don’t know for a fact if you’re Dimitri’s wife. You could still be someone who wants to hurt me.”
“I know about your parents,” I say. “How your father murdered your mother. Dimitri told me that.”
Her eyes go wide. “He did?”
“Yes. After we got married. That must have been hard on you. How old were you when it happened?”
“Eight.”
“Dimitri was eighteen. He told me that too. Big age gap between you two.”
“I was a miracle baby. An unplanned one. From what Dimitri has said, our father became more angry after I was born. He never wanted another child.”
“Is that why Dimitri put you in here? Did your father try to hurt you too?”
She gives me a hard look. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“Sorry. But you have to understand why this is strange for me. Why I need to know.”
“I have questions of my own. Who are you exactly?”
“I told you. I’m Sofiya Smirnov.”
“And? I don’t know who that is.”
“My father is Ivan Smirnov and my mother is Polina. They’re Bratva members. Like your brother is. My father made a deal with Dimitri to gain power by marrying me to him. Dimitri and I had an arranged marriage. You can ask him all of this the next time you see him.”
“I will.”
“Why would Dimitri not tell you any of this?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
“I will.” Assuming that Dimitri doesn’t lock me back into the cage before I can ask him. The cage that I willingly closed myself inside after he didn’t give me my release in the basement. Is that what’s happening with Katya? He’s playing mind games with her?
Has he broken her down so much that she’s terrified to leave this room?
Will this happen to me?
Maybe Dimitri wants us to be like dolls that he can dictate what we do and can’t do. But that still doesn’t make sense. If Dimitri truly wanted to keep Katya locked away, he would have locked the door. But the door was unlocked, meaning Katya could leave whenever.
Yet, she chooses not to.
Will I become like her one day? So dependent on Dimitri that I’ll never want to leave him? Do I even want to leave him now?
“I didn’t mean to barge into your room like this,” I tell her. “I am sorry for that. But I just have so many questions. Do you like it in here?”
“I do. I have everything I could need. A nice bed. A nice bathroom. A place to exercise.” She motions to a yoga mat near the bed. “A TV. A computer. I have it all.”
“But you stay in this room. Aren’t you lonely?”
“I have Dimitri.”
“Only him?”
“Why do you say it like it’s a bad thing?”
Because it is. But I don’t think Katya would appreciate me telling her that. “It’s not,” I lie. “Do you have agoraphobia?” I remember reading a book once where a character had it. The fear of leaving one’s house.
“What’s that?”
“Where you’re afraid to leave. Are you afraid to leave, Katya?”
“Will you stop being worried for me? I didn’t ask you to be. I don’t know you.”
“Would you like to get to know me?”
“No.” Her blunt tone makes me step back.
“Why not?”
“Because you came into my room and started asking me all these questions. You’re not treating me like a friend. You’re treating me like a science experiment. I’m not an idiot, Sofiya. I was given an education. I have access to the internet. I know how the world works.”
“I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it seems that I can’t say the right thing. I truly didn’t mean to offend you. I was worried when I heard that Dimitri was keeping his sister locked away. I had to find answers.”
“Why? Why does my life matter to you?”
“Because Dimitri likes to lock me in a cage. He likes to control me. I thought that’s what was happening here but I can see that I was wrong.”
All the fight leaves Katya’s body and she slumps back onto the bed. “He’s locked you in a cage? That doesn’t sound like my brother.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No. This” – she motions to her room – “is not a cage. It’s not a prison. Whatever my brother has done to you, you must be mistaken.”