Chapter Twenty-eight
Inna Grace
“Wait. Dmitri, hey!” I called out to Dmitri as he dragged me through the back exit of the building.
The music and laughter dulled into a distant pulse.
My heel caught against the uneven ground, and I stumbled forward.
He didn’t slow down until we were far enough from the crowd, far enough that whatever this was wouldn’t have an audience.
I pulled my hand from his grip the second he stopped, steadying myself, and pushed my hair back into place.
My heart was still racing, though now it had less to do with his sudden reaction and more with the way he stood there.
He stood half-turned to me, his body rigid as if he were holding himself together.
“What the fuck was that?” he asked, one hand braced against his hip while the other pointed back toward the building.
I blinked, still trying to catch up. “What?”
“Romeo?” he scoffed, the name sounding bitter in his mouth. “How do you know him?”
It clicked what this was all about, and I let out a breath, brushing invisible dust off my dress. “Is that why you nearly broke my leg?” I lifted my foot slightly, gesturing at the heels. “I’m wearing these, in case you didn’t notice.”
“I asked a fucking question!”
The shift in his tone snapped my attention back to reality. I looked up properly this time, and the irritation in me paused, replaced by the realization that he was angry. I had never seen him angry.
“He is an old friend,” I said. “We met back in New York. I’m surprised he’s even here. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. I mean, can you imagine—”
“He lives in New York City,” Dmitri cut in. “You used to stay in Utica. Don’t fool me.”
The words sounded odd, not because of what he said but because of how he said it. I stayed quiet, trying to understand where this was coming from. Did he know him? “How do you even know where he is from?”
He dragged a hand over his face, then looked back at me. “What was that back there?” he asked. “With his hands all over you.”
“It’s called a hug,” I corrected him because he didn’t sound right there. “I was happy to see him. He’s my friend. I told you that.”
“Oh, a hug.” He let out a dry laugh. “Look at you explaining it to me like I should have stood there and enjoyed it.”
“I don’t understand what the problem is,” I said, and this time I meant it. The anger in him felt misplaced, like I had stepped into a fight that had nothing to do with me.
He stepped closer, and instinctively, I took a step back. The space between us shrank anyway. His presence swallowed the distance.
“You let another man touch you,” he said, his voice dropping more dangerously, “and you’re asking me what the problem is?”
I swallowed. “It was a hug! Stop twisting it like I’m some…” I stopped myself, then finished anyway, “like I’m some cheap girl.”
“Well, stop acting like one,” he snapped.
The words landed harder than I expected. For a second, I just stared at him, the night air suddenly feeling colder against my skin.
“You are my fucking wife,” he went on, his jaw tight. “Behave like it. You don’t go around letting men put their hands all over your body.”
Everything slowed after that, like my mind needed a second to process what he just said. Everything faded, leaving only the sound of my breathing and the way my pulse thudded in my ears.
“I stole your money.” The words felt heavy, but I didn’t stop. “I lied, and I know that’s why I am here.” My throat tightened, but I pushed through it. “I do everything you ask because I don’t have a choice.”
At that moment, I looked at him not as the man who controlled everything around him, but as the one standing in front of me and insulting me.
“And maybe you don’t see it,” I continued, my voice trembling despite myself, “but every single day I wake up hoping this … whatever this is doesn’t end yet. Just so Cole can have a little more time. Just so I can breathe without feeling like the ground is about to disappear under me.”
His expression shifted, just slightly.
“I respect you, and I know what you’re capable of. I know you can destroy us if you want to. But I am not that desperate.” My chest rose and fell unevenly. “You don’t get to insult me like that.”
He attempted to step closer, but I moved back.
“You would rather throw us out and make me pay for the rest of my life than talk to me like I’m nothing.”
I wiped a stray tear and waved my hands.
“Everyone else disappeared,” I sobbed. “My parents, my old life. Everything.” The memories were already pressing in.
“But seeing Romeo reminded me of when my parents were still there, when I was just a girl in a family that made sense. When I wasn’t a thief, a liar, a fake wife, and a desperate woman running around with no future.
” I hated that I cried, and that made me look away. “He reminded me of that girl.”
I wiped at my cheeks again and breathed. “You wouldn’t understand. You have everything. I’m just your fake wife. If all you’re going to do is insult me, then let me go. I’ll work and pay you back for the rest of my life if I have to.”
Silence followed. It stretched long enough that I realized it was time to leave. “I’ll be with Caitlin.” Without waiting for a response, I walked back toward the door.
The music swallowed me when I stepped inside, but I moved through the crowd without really seeing anyone.
My thoughts looped back to the same moment over and over.
It stung more than I wanted to admit. I didn’t understand him.
One moment, he was touching me in the bathroom like I was someone worthy of touching, and the next, all he saw was a slut.
Did he think I allowed him to touch me because I was a slut?
I was happy seeing Romeo. He made me feel like the past had reached out and found me. But Dmitri took that and crushed it in seconds.
That hug carried years in it. It carried my mother’s voice in the cafe, the smell of coffee and bread, the sound of laughter that didn’t feel forced.
Romeo was part of that world years ago. He used to sit in the corner of my mother’s cafe with his laptop, busy working.
I used to watch him, curious at first, then comfortable enough to talk.
We became close, and he was even close to my parents. And Dmitri thought I shouldn’t have hugged him?
“Inna.”
I blinked, the memory snapping apart as Caitlin’s voice cut through. I turned toward her, and the moment she saw my face, her smile faded.
“Were you crying?” she asked, stepping closer.
I exhaled. “I’m fine.”
She didn’t look convinced. She reached for my wrist and gently pulled me away from the crowd, guiding me toward the back, where it was quieter. “What happened?” she asked, lowering her voice.
I hesitated before answering. “I don’t understand men,” I said finally, letting out a frustrated breath. “Does he not know what a hug is? I can’t hug anyone now?”
Caitlin stared at me for a second, then laughed as she tapped my shoulder. “When you hugged Roman?”
“Exactly,” I said, throwing my hands up slightly, “and Dmitri has the nerve to get mad.”
She shook her head, still smiling, and I glanced around instinctively, trying to spot Romeo again. But realizing Caitlin knew Romeo’s real name caught up with me.
I turned back to her. “Wait. You know Roman?”
“Who doesn’t?” She lifted a shoulder slightly, tilting her head towards the far side of the room. “There he goes.”
I didn’t realize Romeo was that popular. The Romeo I knew was a quiet guy who loved sitting in a corner of a cafe, buried in his laptop. But people change. It’s been over nine years since we met. He could be famous. But in Florida? How?
My eyes drifted to the side Caitlin had pointed, but instead of seeing Romeo, it was Dmitri.
He moved through the crowd, his shoulders straight, and his presence impossible to ignore. Akim walked beside him. They were discussing something as they headed down the hallway.
Our argument replayed in my mind, but this time it settled differently. His anger and the way he reacted pulled me back to reality in a cruel way. He made me so comfortable in this life that I forgot none of it was real. That I was just playing a role that could end the moment he decided it should.
“He must have been jealous,” Caitlin said beside me, her eyes focused on the direction Dmitri disappeared into
I let out a quick scoff, shaking my head. “Jealous? Why would he be?”
She turned to me, brows lifting slightly. “What do you mean, why? He’s your husband. He stood there and watched you hug another man. Everyone saw how excited you were to see Roman.” She smiled. “I’d be jealous too.”
I went still for a second. Jealous? The word sounded strange in my head. I almost told Caitlin that I was a fake wife and that Dmitri wasn’t my husband on paper. But the words stayed where they were, caught behind everything else.
He couldn’t have been jealous. People don’t get jealous unless they care.
My thoughts hadn’t settled when I caught Romeo moving toward the same hallway Dmitri had gone. The black suit fit him too well, clean along his frame, nothing like the boy I remembered who used to drown himself in oversized shirts.
I stared.
Back then, Romeo was quiet in a way that made people underestimate him.
He always wore ridiculous glasses, always typing, and always thinking.
He barely spoke unless it was me. I used to think he lived inside his screen.
Now he walked like a man who had stepped out of it with confidence.
The kind that didn’t need to prove anything to anyone.
People moved slightly when he passed, not obvious enough to notice unless you were looking for it, but it was there.
That same invisible force I came to associate with Dmitri.
A quiet authority that filled a space before anyone spoke a word.
What were they going there to do? Was Dmitri going to start a fight with him as well?
A part of me wanted to follow them. Not because of curiosity alone, but because Romeo was one of the few pieces of my past that still felt real.
He knew my family. Not the surface-level details people picked up and forgot, but the ordinary parts of my life.
He was the only person I could speak with freely.
He would be surprised to hear that my mother never came back from the hospital after giving birth to Cole.
She walked out of our lives without a goodbye, leaving behind a silence that stretched for years.
And my father didn’t last long after that.
One day, he was there, the next, he was gone too.
Everything faded until there was nothing left but me and Cole.
I thought some parts of my life were gone, and yet here he was.
Akim returned, and he wasn’t with Dmitri anymore. Which meant he left him back there with Romeo. I couldn’t just stand there and pretend I wasn’t curious about what was happening. I needed to see it for myself. But I had to get there without drawing attention.