Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Ilya
My phone kept buzzing in my pocket, making it almost impossible to concentrate on the men in front of me. This meeting was important. I would never have left the penthouse if it wasn’t.
Every time I killed the call without answering, it started up again. Finally, my temper snapped. "Excuse me, gentlemen." Striding towards the door, I froze when I saw the name that had come up on the state-of-the-art screen.
MILLI.
"What is it? Is Alexander okay?" I asked breathlessly. I only ever called him Alec when we were alone. It was my special name for him.
The sound of the young woman sobbing ripped my heart to shreds. A panic so violent it took my breath away lodged in my throat until I couldn’t breathe.
"Milli," I snapped, finally getting a hold of myself. "What has happened? Where is Alec?" I slipped and used his special name. Not that it mattered. I just wanted to know what had happened to make her cry like that.
"Is he hurt? Where are you?" My feet were moving towards the door already. I didn’t give a second thought to the meeting I had left behind; all that mattered was that I get home and find out what had happened.
It was ten o'clock. She was meant to take him out to the park at this time. "Where are you?" I asked again. I needed to know which way you headed.
The sound of my thundering heart was the only sound before she spoke again.
"Home."
"If he is hurt, then call 911. I’m on my way." I kept the line open as I ran. Home was just two blocks away, and it was quicker to sprint there than risk the car in traffic.
If time were running normally, it would have taken just a few minutes, but things hadn’t been normal since yesterday, and time seemed to drag on and on. I was sure at least an hour had passed, maybe even two or three, before I finally came to a stop, panting into my apartment.
Quickly, I swept my eyes around.
Nothing was out of place.
Nothing but the girl who was sobbing and wringing her hands by the window. She turned to me, a look of pure fear on her face. "Mr. Popovitch?"
"Where is he?"
Why was she looking at me like that? With so much panic in her face. Turning on my heel, I sprinted towards the playroom and froze.
There was a door open which should have been shut and locked.
"He’s gone," Milli whispered.
Every muscle locked in place as I tried to make sense of what she was saying.
Slowly, I turned. "What do you mean he has gone? Where is my son?"
"I," her hands twisted together helplessly. "I just went to the bathroom quickly, and when I came out, he wasn’t here. I’ve looked everywhere and—"
She gave a little scream as I closed my hand around her throat. "Where is my son?"
Every fiber of my being wanted to strangle her. Close my hand around her windpipe until she fell back dead. But if I did that, then I would never get the answers I needed.
"I don’t know."
Her breath wafted across my face. Bitter.
I flung her away from me. "You’ve been drinking.
It’s not even midday and you lost my child because you were too busy drinking," I yelled, my whole body shaking with anger. I had known for a while that she wasn’t working out.
I’d been working on finding a replacement.
But this was the last straw.
"You’re fired."
"Please." On her hands and knees, she crawled towards me. "Please, sir, I need this job." She clawed at my pant leg.
I fought the urge to kick her away. "If something has happened to him, I will skin you alive. I will—" Out of the corner of my eye, another open door caught my attention. Mine.
But who would be in my room? Why would they need to be?
It hit me all in a rush.
Daisy.
Her clothes were still in my room. If she had found a way to escape her locked room, then she would need clothes.
The next breath I took was deep, but it didn’t steady anything inside of me. Instead, it fanned the rage.
Daisy had taken my son.
Again I started running, back into the elevator that seemed so slow and into the garage that was exclusively mine.
"Sir?" A man straightened, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips, which he quickly tossed away. "What’s happened?"
"They are gone." I didn’t need to ask if he had seen them. He wouldn’t have been so calm if he had any knowledge. Sliding into the back of a car, I ordered him to drive, giving him directions into traffic.
They couldn’t have gone far, they couldn’t, but then I didn’t know how much of a head start they had. What would I do if—
"Sir—" the man driving slowed, his arm pointing, and I spotted them. Well, I spotted her first. Her grey T-shirt soaked with the rain and her hair flat against her head.
Daisy.
And right next to her, holding her hand and looking like he didn’t have a care in the world, was Alec.
He had his favorite backpack on his back.
I shot out of the car before it could even come to a full stop.
My feet pounding the wet pavement.
"Alec," relief flooded me as I swept him up into my arms.
"Papa!" he squealed as I swung him around.
"Where have you been, what?" I blubbered. Finally, my eyes met hers.
"Go and get in the car, Alec." I dropped him to the ground. Alexander was a good boy who always did as he was told, so it came as a surprise when he didn’t move. "Alec," I warned.
Feet planted far apart, he stared up at me defiantly. "Don’t be mad at Mommy."
I did a double-take. Mommy? Had he just called Daisy his mom? My rage tripled.
"Don’t be mad, Papa," he said again, touching the back of my fist. "I have enough 'widges for you too. We can all run away together."
Tearing my eyes away from Daisy's, I glanced down at him. He had made sandwiches? And that’s when I saw what she was wearing.
Specifically, the two left flip-flops. Why would she choose two left feet unless—
Realization hit me. Even when I didn’t want to believe it.
"I’m not mad," I whispered, trying to keep my voice even. "Go and get in the car, little man."
He quickly searched my face and then skipped away. Clearly, he didn’t see the rage in my eyes. The absolute terror.
Daisy did, though. "I—" she stuttered to a stop.
"Get in the car, Daisy."
I kept my temper under control the entire drive back. Even when I ordered Alec to be taken for ice cream, I sounded normal.
It wasn’t until I had Daisy alone in the penthouse that it finally exploded. I rounded on her, my fists clenched, and watched as her face paled.
"Ilya."
God, I hated how she said my name. I hated it because it reminded me how she used to say it. I took another step towards her, watching as she backed up and then, with one frantic look at my face, she turned on her heel and ran.
I was expecting it.
She always ran; that was her whole personality. Only here there was nowhere for her to go. I caught her around the waist before she got three steps, heaving her thrashing body up against my chest and then tossing her onto the huge sectional.
She didn’t even get the chance to bounce twice before I was on her. Trapping her much smaller body under mine, I caught her wrists and pinned them to the cushions.
"You keep running from me," I hissed, lowering my face over hers. "Don’t you get it by now, Daisy, there’s nowhere to run that I won’t find you." This close to her, I could smell the sweet smell of her skin.
God.
My body betrayed me almost instantly. Just like it always did when it came to her.
"You took my son." I couldn’t help but grind myself into her stomach, watching in amazement as her eyes widened and her lips parted.
She still felt it. The magnetic pull we always had to each other. It didn’t matter if she was afraid for her life. She wanted me.
I almost groaned.
"He’s my son too, and you kept him from me."
"Kept him from you?" I snarled, but my face drew closer to hers. "You didn’t want him. You didn’t want us. Well, guess what, Daisy. You can’t take him from me. He’s my son."
Even as I shouted the words, my body moved over hers. Because she was so damn soft and her eyes were so wide and pleading for more. I doubted she even knew she was looking at me like that.
God, I hated her.
"He’s my son, Ilya." She screamed it in my face.
Fuck, I had forgotten how hot she was when she spoke her mind, and she was most definitely speaking her mind now.
"And yet," my voice dropped to a whisper, the kind that made people wet themselves when I used it. Daisy swallowed hard but didn’t look away. "You abandoned him."
Snarling, she kneed me straight in the balls. Falling to the floor clutching myself, I had a second of white-hot pain before I lashed out and caught her ponytail and again yanked her back against me.
We fell back onto the sofa. Screaming at each other, panting. Each one of us red-faced.
"You abandoned him and tried to take him away." My fingers cruelly gripped her cheeks and squeezed. "You threw him away. Threw me away."
God, I hated the way my voice cracked.
"I didn’t." Her words were muffled because I was gripping her face so tightly.
"Yes, you did," I growled. But I couldn’t help remembering her shoes. The two left feet and the fact that Alec had made a packed lunch for them. Deep down, I knew she hadn’t been the one to orchestrate their escape. It had been my son.
My son had tried to rescue her from me; why? Did he think I was going to hurt her?
Is that what he thought of me?
He would be right.
My eyes narrowed on her beetroot-red face. I was hurting her. I spent my days daydreaming of either ending her life like she had tried to end mine or wrapping her legs around my hips and fucking her into submission.
She was all I thought about.
Twenty-four fucking seven.
Alexander had tried to save her from that. In a way, he had tried to save me from myself as well.
The thought was sobering.
I let go of her face suddenly, breathing heavily through my mouth.
"I won’t let you take him from me," I said softly. "Leave."
Slowly, she looked down at me. Her shoulders straightened. "No."
One word, but my head snapped up in shock. "What do you mean no?"
Feet set firmly apart, she glared at me. "I won’t leave him again. I won’t let you push me away. You will have to kill me, Ilya."
Pushing myself up to my feet, I invaded her space but didn’t reach for her. "Don’t push me, Daisy."
This woman was officially driving me straight into a mental asylum.
She met my eyes unflinching. "I am not leaving him again."
She all but stamped her pretty little foot. Alec made the same face when he wanted something. The thought was terrifying because I hadn’t realized until this moment how much like her he was.
"You want to be in his life?" I dropped my voice even lower so she had to lean in close to hear me. "You want to watch him grow up?"
"Yes," she almost whimpered.
"Then you will stay," I said firmly and stepped firmly away.
"You will stay as his nanny. Not as his mother. You will watch him, and care for him, and you will love him, but you will be the help."
Daisy's eyes widened as realization hit.
She always was the smart one.
"You will care for him and for any other children I have."
Her head whipped up.
"That’s right, Daisy, you will care for Alec and the children I have with my new bride."
Until that moment, I had never even thought about getting married. The only person I had ever wanted was standing in front of me with tears in her eyes. It was those tears that egged me on. It hurt her to think about me with someone else.
Good.
I wanted her to hurt because she had hurt me.
"You will stay here in my home and watch me build a family with another." I pointed to the elevator. "Or you will leave right now. And never come back. I won’t hesitate a second time. I will kill you."
I let the words hang in the air so she knew I was serious.
"What is it going to be, Daisy?" I asked finally. "Do you love your son enough to watch him be raised by another woman? Do you want to be in his life enough that you—"
She didn’t let me finish. A sob ripped its way out of her throat. But it was a sob that sounded like a yes.