Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
AVELINA
I can’t move.
My body is locked, muscles trembling, fingers gripping the edge of the table at my side—like I’ll drop to the floor if I let go.
Viktor’s actions should terrify me. But they don’t.
“You’re safe now,” he says, even softer this time.
My gaze darts to his. My throat works, but no words come.
Safe.
It feels like a made-up word.
My hands are still shaking and clammy with sweat. “He’s gone?” The words sound like they’re coming from someone else.
Viktor looks at me, his brow deeply creased with concern. “Yes.”
A whoosh of air leaves my lungs, and I slide down to the floor.
The dam breaks, and my tears flow down my cheeks like a flood. “He w-was…” My voice cracks. I can’t even speak now as my crying takes over.
“I wouldn’t have let him.” Viktor’s words are so sure. So solid.
The adrenaline is wearing off fast, and shock is taking its place. I start to shiver. Ice crawls through me, turning the sweat into a cold blanket around me.
Viktor sinks down beside me. “Come here,” he murmurs.
And he wraps me in his strong embrace. Not hesitating. Not flinching. Even though I know he still finds touch hard. But he doesn’t care about any of that. Because all he wants to do is comfort me.
He speaks soothing words into my hair. “You’re safe. You’re safe now,” he whispers again and again.
And he lets me cry against his chest.
Footsteps echo in the hallway outside, and two men with tattoos, black shirts, and dark jeans come sauntering in. It’s Matvey and Nikolai.
Viktor looks over his shoulder at the two men. “Matvey, hack into the system and make it look like he was stealing money from the company.” He barks the command. “It’ll mean he can’t change his mind and come back here. This place needs to be safe for when Avelina comes to work here.”
Safe. There’s that word again.
“Nikolai, call your contact at the police department in case he tries to report what just happened.”
They both nod and get to work, Matvey getting to work on a laptop, while Nikolai gets on his cell.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he says to me, gently finding my elbow and lifting me up.
We stop outside the conference room. “I—” My voice is barely a croak, and I swallow hard.
“He was going to hurt you.” His jaw tightens. “I won’t let that happen to you. Ever.”
The words slam into me. There’s no bravado in his voice. He’s just stating a fact—like the way someone would state the sky is blue on a sunny day.
My knees feel weak, and I drag in a breath that doesn’t quite feel like enough.
Without another word, Viktor guides me toward my little desk and sits me in the chair.
Minutes stretch.
My pulse hasn’t slowed.
The guys approach where Viktor stands in front of me like a guard. “Done.”
Viktor nods.
Matvey shoots me a small smile. “Glad you’re okay, Avelina.”
Then they leave, and it’s just the two of us once more, the silence thick enough to choke on.
Viktor steps closer before kneeling in front of me. “Did he hurt you?”
I shake my head, though my chest feels tight enough to crack. “No,” I rasp.
His eyes narrow, scanning me like he’s trying to find proof.
“He…he grabbed my wrist a little and my hip. That’s all. You showed up before…” Bile burns the back of my throat. “Before he could…” I feel the burn of tears again.
“Let me take you home with me,” he says, his voice soft. “If you’ll let me.”
I should argue.
Say that I need to go back to my own place.
But the truth is, the thought of being alone right now makes panic race through me. I nod.
The street outside is cool and damp, the sidewalk shining under the streetlights. His black SUV is at the curb.
“Were you already here?” I ask, my eyes widening in surprise. I’m suddenly wondering how he got to me so quickly.
“Yes. I wanted to protect you. Had to protect you. This was the only way I knew how to.”
I should question this more. But I find that I don’t want to...
It’s a short drive but quiet. I keep my gaze on the glass, but I can feel him watching me.
The tight knot in my chest has shifted into something heavier by the time we pull up to my apartment building. The babysitter is inside with the kids.
Neither Viktor nor I move as the engine shuts off.
I should thank him. I should say something.
“I don’t know what to say,” I admit.
“You don’t need to say anything.”
But I do. Because if I don’t, I probably never will. “It just…it reminded me of before.”
“Before?” he bends his head slightly to meet my eyes, but I can’t look at him.
“When another…man did that to me,” I whisper. “When he slammed me against a wall. And trapped me…” I swallow, tears spilling over. “And then h-he did other things…”
“What man?” His voice is deadly calm, though I know he’s anything but. “Was it Gennady?”
My lips tremble.
“And what did he do to you, Avelina?”
I finally look up at him, full of terror and a secret that feels like it’s ripping me in two.
“Yes, it was Gennady,” I croak before a sob escapes me. “And the other coaches. But Gennady was the worst.”
He gives me time to compose myself.
My fingers twist in my lap. “It was from before. Before I came to the States. Before I met Geliy or you.”
I know he’s listening, so I carry on.
“I was eleven…” My voice is distant, like I’m telling someone else’s story and not mine.
“Living in an orphanage just outside Moscow. But one day, these men came… They said they were taking us for a treat. A treat. That’s what they called it.
” I let out a humorless laugh. “We piled into the luxurious car, a few of us. But the rink they took us to wasn’t about skating for fun.
They were selecting us. They picked me. And two other girls.
They told us we’d be living at an academy from then on. ”
I look at Viktor, and he looks at me. The air feels heavier now.
“It wasn’t what I thought it’d be,” I continue.
“They called it training. But it was…something like punishment. Every fall made you a complete failure in their eyes. Every mistake meant even longer hours on the ice and drills until your legs shook so bad you couldn’t stand.
And if you still couldn’t do it right…” I swallow, my insides aching with the memory.
“They made examples of you. The beatings were so…brutal that I’d be left unable to breathe without pain. ”
Viktor’s hand clenches.
“You learned fast not to cry or show your tears. That meant you were weak, and weakness was something they…broke out of you by force.”
The muscle in his jaw tightens.
“The scars behind my shoulder… One is from when Gennady shoved me back against a rusty locker. The metal from a broken hinge tore through my skin like a blade.”
“That’s why the scar is ragged and not a clean slice like from a knife,” Viktor murmurs.
“The metal was dirty and rusted. The wound got infected, but they wouldn’t give me antibiotics.
They only gave the antibiotics after I got a fever so bad that I couldn’t even stand.
” I take a deep swallow. “Two of the other scars are from when Gennady threw me up against a full-length mirror in the locker room. He threw me so hard that the glass smashed behind me.” A shudder rushes through me.
“I can still hear the glass shattering in my mind. There were embedded glass fragments in my skin. But he just left me lying in the broken glass as he carried on kicking me in my ribs. Because he thought I wasn’t trying hard enough during training…
I still have some nerve sensitivity there.
Those scars stayed red and angry for a long time.
I wasn’t even given a tetanus shot—but they did give me stitches that time because there was so much blood.
” I shake my head, trying to get rid of the bad memories.
“And then they made me pay for the damage to the mirror. But we weren’t paid except for being given a bed in the academy dorms and food, so…
” My voice drops to a whisper. “So, they gave me a lot less food every day for the next month until they said I’d paid off my debt. ”
Viktor is horrified as he listens.
My gaze shifts to my hands. “For the next few weeks, I was so hungry every single day. But I still had to train through the pain and the hunger. And they strictly controlled our food rations and drastically cut our calories when they said we were…too fat and needed to lose weight. By eighteen, I just…I couldn’t do it anymore.
I had a breakdown on the ice in the middle of a competition. They threw me out.”
The ache in my throat burns. “There was one coach who sought me out afterward. She was the only one who was ever kind to me, although any kindness had to be shown in secret so that she didn’t get into trouble.
She bought me a one-way ticket to the States.
She said I could pay her back after I found a job there.
So, I came. I found job after job, and after a while, I met Geliy.
” I pause, my chest clenching tight. “When Eric cornered me tonight, it wasn’t just him.
It was all of them. All the men who ever touched me.
Who told me I didn’t get a say in my own body.
I hate that it still lives in me. That after all this time, I still froze up.
And I—” My voice breaks, but I have to get it all out.
It’s like the dam has broken. “I know I’m too curvy.
Too…everything. My thighs are chunky, my boobs are huge, and my hips and ass are too big—it’s all too much.
And it’s been worse since I had the children.
I wobble in places I shouldn’t. I have stretch marks that weren’t there before.
And I’m way…heavier than when I was training at the skating academy. ”
“Hey.” He tilts my face up so that he can look me in the eye. “Don’t ever say that again.”
I blink, startled. “But I know I’m not beautiful. Gennady said I was fat—”