44. Skye #2
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Papa signed, his hands shaking. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
For the first time in a very long time, I cursed my lack of hearing because I didn’t know what was said. I wanted to spare Papa any pain, but it seemed to be a moot point now. The ghosts hidden in the shadows of the past came to light, raking hell on everything.
“ What did she say ?” I asked, my hands surprisingly calm.
“That she had her filthy paws on you.” Papa’s expression was gutting me alive. “We failed to protect you.”
The words barely left his mouth when the door opened and Nikola came into view, wheeling himself into the room. For a heartbeat, the world stopped spinning and my poor, aching heart started beating again.
Sasha came up right behind him, both their pale eyes surveying the scene.
“What’s happening here?” Sasha demanded while I stared at Nikola, my heart pounding in my chest. The tremor moved up my body, creeping through every vein.
My lungs tightened, every breath closing them a little more, and tears blurred my vision as images of Papa and the Nikolaev men swam all around me.
Nikola. Papa. Sasha.
Nikola. Papa. Sasha.
I shook with emotions as cold fingers touched my cheeks. They were Alexei’s.
“Kid, focus on your papa. Nikola. Sasha.” His expression burned with cold fury that I oddly found comfort in. “Focus on anything but the past.”
My eyes darted around. Black suit. Broad shoulders. Straight lines. Despite being in a wheelchair, he had never looked more like his father than today.
Nikola’s pale blue gaze locked on me and I inhaled slowly.
His eyes darkened, his jaw tightened, and his mouth moved. “I failed you.”
It was another self-inflicted reason to deny me.
“No, I failed you,” Papa claimed with a wretched expression.
“We should have found you earlier,” Sasha hissed.
“ No ,” I signed to all three. Scared of another rejection by Nikola, I took a step closer to my papa, shaking my head fiercely and speaking to all the men in the room.
“ You protected me. All the years outweigh those days I spent handcuffed to the radiator. ” I glanced around Papa to find the woman staring at us with a curl to her lip.
Despite her advanced age and frail state, she still had hate in her heart.
“ I want you to tell her that I forgot all about her. In all the years, I never thought of her once. She never mattered enough to think of her. ”
A heartbeat passed, then another, and then Papa related my words.
The woman glared at him, then me.
I faced Nikola, struggling to find the right words to say.
My heart squeezed in my chest, and somehow I felt small and vulnerable even as he sat in the wheelchair.
I wanted to be his shield as much as he was mine.
This woman hurt him, and while I wanted to make her pay, I knew Nikola probably needed this more than I did.
“You shouldn’t witness what comes next,” Nikola said.
“ I can handle it, ” I signed.
His jaw tightened as he watched me with the kind of longing I felt deep in my soul.
“I know, but you shouldn’t have to. I’ll take care of her.” He looked over to Kostya. “Don’t let her stay.”
My heart dropped, and I bit my cheek as I stared at the man who was my entire life. My oxygen. My nirvana.
Before I could say anything, Papa kissed my cheek. “It might be for the best.”
Sasha kissed my cheek next and I blinked, having missed him moving my way. “Princess, it is for the best. This witch doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you.”
Kostya took my hand and nodded to the men. “Sure, I’ll take her . ”
Alexei and Papa escorted us out of the room, my heart dragging behind me on the ground. Once outside the room, Papa kissed my cheek again just as vibration crept up my legs.
The two men shared a look, then with grim expressions, they disappeared behind the closed doors.
I turned to Kostya. “ What was that ?”
He looked toward the shut door, conflicted, before replying, “Your great-grandmother’s torture has begun.”
“ I guess it’s a good thing I have a therapy session today ,” I signed, the color draining from my face.
“She deserves it.” There was no arguing that one. “I didn’t know you were seeing a therapist.”
I shrugged both shoulders. “ It was Papa’s idea. ”
“That surprises me even more. I’d expect that from my aunt Isabella, definitely, but Dante?—”
“ It’s ironic, you know. ”
“What is?”
“ Nikola told me months ago that women who mess with him end up needing therapy. I guess his prediction came true. ”
“It doesn’t hurt to talk to someone, especially if it’s a good therapist.” Kostya rolled his eyes. “Nikola definitely needs one.”
The throbbing ache that had become my constant since he got shot flared. It’d only been weeks, but it seemed like a lifetime. I made a point to push myself forward and act as if the world kept spinning as normal and nothing was amiss.
Yet everything was.
I yearned for Nikola like my lungs yearned for oxygen.
“ How are his legs ?” I dared to ask. “ Any news on recovery ?”
Kostya and Marietta were the only ones I felt comfortable asking that question. Damien would be the other one, but he was already back in Siberia. He preferred Russia to New Orleans and the States, and his classes started, so it was the perfect excuse to go back to what he considered his home.
“He’s started physical therapy, but that’s not the oddest thing.”
“ What do you mean ?” I questioned, not following his line of thinking.
“Strangely he’s been less crazy and more like his father. Reasonable, albeit more stubborn.” He pinned me with a knowing stare. “Aside from just now, is he still ignoring you?”
“ Yes. ”
“Seems dumb considering the wedding that’s bound to happen.”
I sighed, rubbing my forehead tiredly before I replied, “ If it happens. ”
Kostya chuckled. Not much got him rattled. “It’ll happen. Everyone knows it.”
“ Well, everyone seems to be missing the point. ”
Kostya’s light blond eyebrows pulled together. “What point?”
“ He’s supposed to want to marry me. Honestly, at this point, I’m probably dreading this wedding as much as Nikola. ”
“You could always not marry him,” Kostya suggested, the words enough to cause my eyes to burn with unshed tears. “You could marry me.”
It took several heartbeats for his words to sink in and my eyes widened. “ What ?”
“You could?—”
I waved my hand, shushing him. “ I know what you said, but why would you say it ?”
He shrugged. “Remember how jealous he got when he saw us in the restaurant?”
“ As if I could forget. ”
Kostya smiled smugly. “Well, just imagine what he’ll do if he thinks you’re marrying me.”
I tilted my head. “ And if he doesn’t react ?”
“Then we marry.”
“Kostya, I?—”
“It would just be a marriage of convenience, and we can dissolve it when my knucklehead cousin comes to his senses. But I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
“ You can’t be sure .” I couldn’t believe we were even discussing it.
“Oh, I’m sure. As the wedding date approaches, we slip in a hint to his father and tell him we’ll do a switcheroo.”
“ But— ” I shook my head at the crazy idea, yet it sounded so tempting. “ Nikola doesn’t want to marry me, so the groom switch could be exactly what he wants .”
Kostya rolled his eyes.
“I’d bet anything that Nikola won’t let the two of us get married if he gets wind of it.”