Chapter 10
“It’s Anya Ivankov now, if you please, your Honor.” Anya says confidently as she rises to stand.
My eyes drop to the swell of her stomach. Alek squeezes her hand affectionately before she sidles out of the bench she was sitting on. She holds her head up high as she heads for the stand and she doesn’t even so much as glance at me. I knew this moment was going to come, but I didn’t think that I would feel like this. I know that she and Alek aren’t officially married yet, but the sparkling ring on her finger tells me that it’s going to be coming as soon as all of this is over. Good for her. I couldn’t be what she needed. Some part of me hopes that she will find happiness. Though, guilt isn’t an emotion that I’m familiar with.
I don’t like to look back on the past. There’s nothing good waiting for me there.
If my father were still alive, he would have made sure to tell me the same thing. He was not a man who had any sort of tolerance or understanding of weakness in a man. Emotions like remorse, guilt, love weren’t to be tolerated. I swear, he had a sense for sniffing out those ‘bitch emotions’, as he liked to call them, and he sure as fuck had no issues beating them out of me when he thought that I was being weak.
I have absolutely no idea how Kate convinced Anya to go along with all of this. Every one of those people, including young Henry, have lied through their teeth for me. I just don’t understand why, after all the pain I caused all of them. She had to have done something, struck some sort of deal. I owe more to the stunning woman beside me than I’ve ever owed anyone in my life. It makes my skin itch. One way or another, I’m going to have to make this up to her. There’s not going to be any getting around it. Kate might be the only person that I’ve encountered to have the upper hand on me – and I don’t know how I feel about it.
Anya takes her seat and begins her testimony.
She chooses to describe our marriage by actually talking about her experience with Alek. The way things ended between us was nothing short of brutal. I know that. I lost what little control I had when I realized what was going on between them in that basement and I held on entirely too tight. I practically forced her into Alek’s arms. I was so busy with the need to possess her that I didn’t her as a person but rather as an object that needed to stay in my house. I wanted her to obey me. I wanted to own her. For a while it worked… it was something that both of us needed after how our relationship had begun, while she was in captivity. It was never designed to last. Maybe I just don’t know a healthy relationship if it hits me in the face. It’s not like I’ve ever had anything to model it after.
If I’m being truly honest with myself, something that I rarely do, it’s for the best that Alek absorbed my Bratva. It was going to swallow me whole. I was too caught up in the power of it… the things that I could do that made me feel invincible. Clearly, that’s not quite true.
Henry was convincing, that is true. After today I will likely never see him again. Why would they allow such a thing after what I’ve done? I can’t even blame them. It’s not like Henry is really my son. I’ve offered him nothing beyond my genetics and those don’t stand for much now that my father’s empire is gone. Aside from money, what could he ever want from me that he doesn’t already get from the two other father figures standing in the room with us now? Even Anya is having another child. I don’t think that I ever gave much thought to having a family of my own outside of the knowledge that someday I was going to have to pass things down to an heir. A legacy had to be passed on. Now that the two women of my life are having families of their own? I feel… conflicted. It’s like I’m standing outside of a window looking in on the life that I could have had. Opportunities that I’ve ruined for myself.
Seeing a child grow? That’s never going to be on the cards for me now.
I didn’t think that I wanted to have a son of my own, not until right this minute. No future with Henry, and no future with Anya’s child. It’s almost making me feel even more powerless than I already do inside of the walls of the prison. I don’t stomach things like that well. It’s uncharted territory for me. I’ve always been the one in control. Even when my mother was alive, I was the one who handled everything.
Leaving my fate in anyone’s hands was impossible.
Letting go of control like this… it’s uncomfortable to say the least.
If things keep going in my favor, in just a few short hours I’m going to have to disappear. I’m going to have to run like hell with my damned tail tucked between my legs or else Daniel and Alek will come for their pound of flesh.
Every part of my instincts says to stay and stand my ground, but to what end? What good would come of that? If I win, somebody will die and one of the children in this room will be left fatherless. If I lose, then all of this was for nothing. I have to go and start over somewhere else. We have an understanding.
“Just one final set of questions, Ms. Ivankov.” The opposing attorney starts to ask her. There’s a smug look on the man’s face that I would love to smack the hell out of. What right does he have to look so arrogant? I could see it the moment that I walked into the courtroom earlier that he thought he was going to be the one to sign my death warrant. He clearly didn’t know who he was up against.
I glance to my right where Kate is sitting, looking as collected as ever. I don’t think that I properly appreciated the notes of jasmine in her perfume before. Or was it her shampoo? Either way it’s damned intoxicating. Sitting this close to her, even with my hands bound, there are quite a few things that I could think of doing to her. Hell, I would like to put these cuffs on her and have a little bit of fun. I wonder if she would let me? Thinking of her is just about the only thing that’s been keeping me sane these last sleepless nights.
It’s a damned travesty that I won’t ever have the chance to figure it out with her.
“Yes?” Anya asks and pulls my focus back to reality.
“Could you describe your roll that day? Your emotions? The fear that must have consumed you?”
“Objection, leading the witness.” Kate says lazily as she picks at her nail bed. Her nails are perfectly manicured, she’s putting on an act to unnerve the competition and it’s working like a charm.
The opposing attorney grits his teeth and rephrased the question. “Can you tell us about the events of the day in question?”
He even foes so far as to look back over his shoulder to make sure that Kate isn’t going to object again before turning his focus to Anya.
It’s hard to look at Anya directly. I know full well that the last time I was this close to her I had left physical marks on her. I had gotten carried away. Something that I can’t afford to do again if I’m going to live any kind of free life. It’s going to be something wholly new and uncomfortable for me. It was my mom and I against the world before my father came back into the equation. And then, it was my father the moment he realized that he could gain something by naming me his heir.
Now what?
That’s the looming question, isn’t it?
Slowly, almost against my will, my eyes roll to the woman feigning disinterest beside me. If this all goes to plan, today will be the last time that I see her as well. All of the things that I’ve been distracting myself with will never come to fruition. There’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t do well without options.
Maybe I will just have to make a few of my own.
“What do you mean? Nikolai picked Henry and me up in the morning, like Henry told you already. We were heading out of town back to Houston to go to the philharmonic. Henry loves music. We thought it would be the perfect first chance to get to know each other without too much pressure,” Anya explains. She even looks directly at me and smiles. “Nikolai isn’t always the best conversationalist and this way they would have something to talk about built right in.”
It sounds for all of the world as if she’s simply teasing her ex-husband.
Guilt settles heavily in my gut.
But I do the only thing that I can do - I wink back at her like this is all just some big misunderstanding.
Anya winces, but I don’t think that anybody other than myself notices. I hate that I’ve made her fear me. That was never my intention.
Her smile doesn’t falter. “Henry was so disappointed that we missed it. Couldn’t get a refund on the tickets either.”
The judge scoffs but keeps writing whatever notes that he’s making on the legal pad in front of him. Kate sits more upright in her chair, suddenly seeming to pay attention. I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I have no choice but to trust her. My fate is in her hands.
“If your relationship with the accused is as amicable as you present, Ms. Ivankov, why did you want to divorce Mr. Volkovich? You first claimed fear for your wellbeing and that of your unborn child.” The attorney asks. His eyes narrow like he’s magically got her cornered now.
“And how would you know about her personal paperwork?” Kate asks with her confidently bored drawl. “I don’t suppose that you’ve been tampering with evidence. Everything that you use should be made copies of in discovery. I’m sure that I don’t need to remind you of that. And if it wasn’t made available… then you’re not only grasping at straws, you’re breaking the law.” She grins. I can see why she got her little nickname. When she speaks again it’s in a tone so syrupy sweet it’s practically dripping out of her. “You aren’t breaking the law now, are you?”
It was a trap dripping in sarcasm.
“I rescind the question, your honor.”
The judge smiles at Kate and she appears to preen under the perceived approval of him. I see the game now. She does it so effortlessly that it looks like a dance. I have no doubt that she could eviscerate the opposition with her words alone but there’s something almost funny about the fact that she isn’t having to do such a thing.
“I cheated.” Anya says, venom lacing her words. It’s technically the truth. Even though I was the one who practically forced her into Alek’s arms. “That’s why we’re divorced, if you must know. Nikolai found out that I was pregnant with another man’s child and graciously agreed to let me have a divorce. I ruined that marriage, not him. I was only afraid of facing the truth that I cheated. As anybody would be.”
Her hands fall to her rounded belly.
Hell, she’s making me seem like a damned saint.
“No further questions for the witness, your honor.”
The judge turns to look at Kate, and she only smiles. “No, your honor. I don’t see the point, do you?”
“No, this whole thing is becoming a larger waste of my time by the minute.” the judge murmurs. Kate laughs and the opposition looks like he is about to burst a blood vessel in his eye. There’s no case without witnesses. Now that everything he has built his case and evidence around is simply gone, there’s nothing to hold my charges.
“Thank you, Ms. Ivankov, you may take your seat. Mr. Volkovich, take your place on the stand please.”
I am escorted forward. The way that I am presently restrained makes it hard for me to place my hand on the bible and swear my oath, but we manage it. I’m sure that both Daniel and Alek are taking a great amount of pleasure out of seeing me in this horrible jumpsuit and chains. My entire wardrobe is nothing but black so this garish orange? It’s not my favorite. Insult to injury. Just another slice of my humble pie.
I settle into the wooden chair, chains rattling as I make myself comfortable.
The judge doesn’t even bother looking at me directly.
Kate rises to her feet delicately and smooths her skirt down over her legs. Her hips sway when she walks in a way that I can’t help but focus on. Just eye contact with Kate alone and I swear I have to adjust the way I’m sitting. Oh, the things that I would love to do to her.
“Mr. Volkovich, I just need you to confirm that, to the best of your knowledge, the testimonies that we have heard today are true?” Kate asks.
I swear I’ve never seen such a sumptuous, sinful mouth on a woman in my life.
“Yes, I swear it.”
“Under threat of perjury, Mr. Volkovich, the trip that you took Henry on was planned and all of this was simply a misunderstanding?”
“That is correct.”
“And finally, the reason for your divorce was due to Ms. Ivankov’s infidelity.”
I nod. “I swear it.”
Only then does my gaze start to stray to Anya. It might be the very last time that I ever get to see her, no matter how this goes. I have so many regrets for how things ended up, but she wound up with who she was supposed to be with. “She’s found her happiness. I’m sorry that it wasn’t with me, but she’s where she needs to be. Their child will grow up very loved.”
Anya wipes her eye with the back of her hand, brushing away the single tear there.
I did think that I loved her, at the time. Maybe monsters like me just don’t deserve to know what love actually is.
“No further questions, your honor.” Kate says and walks back to her seat.
The judge heaves another long-suffering sigh and stands with his notes to head back into the deliberation room, muttering to himself.
Damn, Kate makes victory look effortless.