41. Briar
41
brIAR
T he moonlight guides me as I head toward the main house.
I hide in the shadows and try to be as inconspicuous as possible. There are guards who watch over the island at night, and I can’t let them find me.
The lucky stars must be shining down on me tonight. Because as I get closer to the house, I hear the sounds of drunken revelry in the backyard. There’s rap music playing through the speakers, and the aroma of barbecue wafts through the air.
A hedge of roses lines the fence around the backyard. I peer through the gaps in the fence and see a bunch of men sitting around a firepit. They’re talking and singing, and most importantly, they’re all drunk. I scan their faces to see if Dimitri is among them, but I don’t see him.
If it wasn't for the rose hedge, I could get a better look, but the bushes are too thick and wild.
A nearby door is thrown open.
Before I can find a place to hide, some of Dimitri’s men spill onto the boardwalk.
I crouch by the rose bushes, trying to make myself as small as possible. I reach out to the shrubs to steady myself.
Big mistake.
One of the rose thorns pierces my index finger.
I yelp in surprise. And then I immediately clap my hand over my mouth.
One of Dimitri’s men turns around. I swear he looks in my direction, but his gaze is unfocused. He heard my muffled cry, but he hasn’t spotted me yet.
I hold my breath and try not to move a single muscle.
There are more loud voices. It’s his friends calling for him. He turns back around and walks to the beach with them.
My shoulders slump in relief. But there’s a heavy throbbing in my hand.
“ Shit ,” I whisper to myself, glancing down at my finger. The rose thorn really embedded itself in my finger. It hurts even more when I pull it out.
Blood gushes down my finger.
I put my finger in my mouth out of instinct.
When the men are out of sight, I stand and cross the length of the garden. There’s subtle ambient lighting around the main house, but I try to stick to the shadows.
My heart bangs hard in my rib cage.
I need to remind myself that there won’t be any horrible consequences if I were to get caught. This isn’t like how it was with my mother. The worst-case scenario is that I’ll be sent back to the guesthouse again.
But I really want to see Dimitri.
I need him.
The thought of being with him again gives me courage. As I enter through the staff entrance, I try to be as stealthy as possible, hugging the walls as I navigate the dimly lit hallways.
When I reach the main living area, I almost forget why I’m here.
Breathtaking. It’s the only way to describe it. I thought the guesthouse was beautiful, but this view is something else. There’s a long rectangular glass panel along the front of the house. It shows a panoramic view of the ocean. It’s so gorgeous that it doesn’t even look real.
When I recover from the raw beauty of this mansion, I quietly make my way up the sweeping staircase.
Once I reach the top of the stairs, I see multiple rooms down either side of the corridor.
Some of Dimitri's men stay in the house with him. I can't risk accidentally entering their rooms. These are Bratva men. I'm sure they won't take kindly to being interrupted in the middle of the night.
Before I can decide whether to go left or right, I see that one of the doors is slightly ajar. And it looks to be softly glowing from the inside.
Curiosity guides me forward.
Maybe I’ll find something there.
I walk toward the room and peer inside. It’s a surveillance room. A large monitor shows CCTV footage from various points around the house. The man seated in front of the screen is slumped in his chair, snoring softly.
I look at the live camera feed again, hoping to find Dimitri somewhere.
My eyes snag on a particular feed.
My blood runs cold.
Ice shards pierce my heart, making my heart bleed.
Because my sister, Chloe, is right there on the big screen. And nestled in the covers next to her is my nephew, Aiden.
I want to unsee it.
I want to wipe this from my memory.
I want Dimitri to come find me and tell me it's all some big misunderstanding. But this is reality.
I saw something I shouldn't have.
And now, life will never be the same again.
The stamp on the screen shows me that the room is to the far north. My feet are numb as I head in that direction. I pause in front of the door with my hand on the knob. Once I open this door, there's no going back.
What's left of my innocence will shatter right here at the threshold.
I twist the handle open.
As the room reveals itself to me, I hope this is some nightmare I'll wake up from any second now. I close the door and fumble my hand against the wall, trying to find the light switch. The ceiling lights turn on, casting a golden glow on the horror show.
Chloe sits up in bed. She winces at the light and looks in my direction.
"Briar," she says.
I swallow. "I didn't know."
"I know, sweetie," she says.
"I promise I didn't know," I say.
"Of course you didn't," she says, standing up. "He abducted you, too."
"How long?" I ask, sucking in a deep breath.
She blinks. “You mean, how long have I been here?"
I nod.
"Briar, I came to this island on the same private jet as you," she says. "But for obvious reasons, he didn't want you to know about it."
While I was falling in love, my sister was being kept captive against her will.
It's a normal room that’s been converted to a cell. Large iron bars separate the room into two halves. Behind the bars, there’s a bed, a bathroom, and what looks like a play area for Aiden. My sister doesn’t look physically hurt, but there are hollows under her eyes.
He kidnapped my sister, and he never breathed a word about it to me.
“How are you?” Chloe asks.
Broken .
“Fine. He was keeping me in the guesthouse. I can’t believe…” I trail off, unable to finish the rest of that sentence.
“Are your memories back?” she asks.
I shake my head.
Everything hurts. My heart, my throat, my head. It feels like this is something I’ll never recover from.
"Why would he do this?" I choke out.
“Vengeance,” she says. “My fiancé kept Dimitri's brother captive for a few weeks. And this is Dimitri’s way of seeking revenge for past wrongs."
"Is he torturing you?" Tears spill from my eyes.
She reaches her arm out from between the bars. "He's not hurting me physically, Briar. It just hurts to be away from Max. He doesn’t know where I am, so he must be worried out of his mind.”
The pain of being away from the one you love is something that's been plaguing me all week.
I was lovesick over this man.
My heart wouldn't stop crying for him.
But it was all a lie. It was all in my head. It was all make-believe.
"Briar, are you okay?" Chloe asks, clutching my hand.
The tears fall even harder now. "Stop. Stop being so nice to me. I don't deserve your love.”
"What are you talking about?" she asks.
"I was fucking him, Chloe," I say. "I was sleeping with him while he was keeping you behind bars. I thought I knew him inside and out. But oh my God, I was so wrong about that. I was so wrong about everything.”
It feels like I'm opening my eyes for the first time.
I'm seeing the truth now. I'm seeing things for what they are, not for what I wish they were.
Chloe reaches for my face and wipes the tears away.
"You fell in love with him again, didn't you?" she asks.
I shake my head, but the tears won't stop.
It feels like there's an endless well of sadness inside me. And no matter how hard I try, I can't empty it. There's always more.
"Sweetheart, listen to me," Chloe says. "It will all be okay. I know it hurts like hell right now, but Max will come for us. He won’t leave a single stone unturned looking for Aiden and me. He'll make sure you and your baby are safe, too.”
I stop breathing. "What did you say?"
"Max?" she says. "Max is my fiancé. You met him at the hospital, Briar."
"Baby," I say. "You said baby."
Chloe's eyes drop to my belly and then back up at me.
"He didn't tell you?"
“Tell me what?”
"You're with child, Briar.”
“What?”
“You’re probably at the end of your first trimester now.”
“Who told you that?”
“I’ve known for a while,” she says.
"And you didn't tell me?" I ask.
You'd expect to get your heart broken by a man but never by your own sister.
"It wasn't like that, Briar," she says. "I was going to tell you eventually. I didn't know then that Dimitri would abduct us and bring us to this island. I was going to tell you when the time was right."
"We talked about everything else," I say.
All of the little things start to click together. The way Dimitri never let me have alcohol, the way he limited my coffee intake, all of the doctor's visits even when I was feeling fine. Not to mention all the vitamin supplements he made me take every day.
I thought they were for my head, but it turns out that they were for the life growing inside me.
I place my hand over my belly.
I want to hate it, but I can't. The baby is innocent. But the father of the child isn't.
"I'll hate him for the rest of my life," I say. "I'll never forgive him for this."
"Don't be so quick to cast judgment."
"What are you saying?"
"Just don't make any decisions you might regret later,” she says. "I've been there before, and it's not fun."
"Are you telling me to go easy on the man who kidnapped you and your son? The one who kept you behind bars for weeks ?”
"As far as prison cells go, I've seen worse," Chloe says. "And this isn't about me. It's about you and Dimitri.”
"The man lied to me, Chloe," I say. "He never truly cared about me.”
"You know that's not true," she says. "That man loves you more than life itself.”
I gawk at her. "You must be on drugs. That's the only explanation there can be to this."
Chloe purses her lips.
"You kept a diary," she says. "You wrote about him. I know I shouldn't have, but I read some of it.And...you loved him madly, Bri. And that kind of love, it's the kind that comes once in a lifetime."
She reaches underneath the mattress and hands me the diary. "Here."
I recognize the book.
I used to write in it when I had too many things on my mind. I take it from her carefully and flip through the pages. Nearly all of the pages are filled out. These are diary entries I don’t remember writing.
As I approach the end, I see that my writing keeps getting messier and messier. It’s detailed documentation of how I lost my mind.
"Did you read all of it?" I ask, not looking up at Chloe.
"Just the parts about Dimitri," she says. “So, yeah, basically most of it.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn't have. But I had it in my purse when I was brought here, and I hid the diary before they took the rest of my belongings away. I had to find out the truth about Dimitri. About what happened between the two of you. Are you mad at me?"
"I'm not," I say. "I'd do the same if I were you.”
There are so many words inside this journal. Every sentence is dedicated just for him. It's a testament to my madness. My blindness.
"I don't want it." I hand it back to her. Suddenly, I don't even want to touch it anymore.
"Maybe you should keep it, Bri," Chloe says gently. "Just read it over once. It might help with your memories.”
"It's probably just ramblings."
"It's more than just ramblings."
I glance at my sleeping nephew. It's one thing for Dimitri to hold me captive. It's another thing entirely for him to hold my sister and my nephew behind bars.
"Do you think it's because of our mother?" I ask.
"What is?" Chloe asks.
"The reason I'm so drawn to Dimitri," I say. "It's obvious that he wasn't a good guy. I desperately wanted him to be, but he had his own agenda the whole time. He wasn't the man I built him up to be in my head."
"Trust me," Chloe says. “Things aren’t always black and white."
"I don't understand why you're so forgiving toward him," I say. "Not everyone deserves your compassion, Chloe."
"I've seen him at his lowest, Bri," she says. "I saw the way he broke down when he thought he lost you. I saw the way he held your hand in the hospital even after it seemed like all hope was lost. He cares about you. Deeply."
"It's not based on anything real, though," I say. "There's no trust when there are so many lies."
"Just read the diary," Chloe says.
"He's been playing games with me this whole time," I say. "And I might just play along."
"What do you mean?” she asks.
I glance up at the corner of the room. There's a CCTV camera that's been recording this whole exchange. I need to get out of here before anyone finds me.
"It means I'm going to do whatever is necessary to get you out of here," I say.