19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
Natalya
D enis drags me from my room. I kick and scream and claw at him. I’m not going down without a fight. Mikhail may be dead but that doesn’t mean I’m going to just give up. I’m going to continue to fight, for him, for my family. I’ll never stop.
“Hold still,” Denis grunts.
“Let me go!”
He drags me down the hallway and shoves me onto the couch. A wedding dress is draped over the back of the loveseat. “Put this on. You’re going to marry Cillian today and you’re going to be happy about it.”
“I will not be happy.”
“Fine then.” He motions for his guard, Josh, to go upstairs. “Retrieve Natalya’s sisters for me.”
Denis and I glare at each other as we wait for Josh to return with my sisters. The moment I see, Sasha, Irina, and Ana, I almost break down into tears but I hold it together. For them. For myself.
For Mikhail.
He would want me to be strong in this moment. He would want to take away my pain and fear. But he’s not here so I’m the one who needs to do it for myself.
“If you’re not going to get dressed, then I’ll have to resort to this.” He walks to Sasha and punches her right in the stomach, making her double over.
“Stop!” I scream.
Denis slaps Irina across the face. He then turns to Ana. “Are you going to get in that wedding dress now, Natalya?”
“No,” Sasha says. “Don’t do this. Don’t do what he wants.”
“Mikhail is dead,” I whisper. “And I have to save you.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry, Sasha. I wanted to save you. This is how I can.” I force myself to walk to the dress.
“If you marry whoever Denis wants, you’ll be trapped forever.”
“And I can’t stand back and let you three get hurt on my watch.” I pick up the dress. “I’ll wear it. You don’t have to hurt them.”
Denis smiles. “Great. Now put it on.”
“I’ll go change in the bathroom.”
“No. Right here. In front of all of us. I don’t trust you to be alone in the bathroom after what you did last time. So you will change right here.”
“Right in front of you? You’re my uncle.”
“No. I’m the man in charge of you now. So you will do as I say. Put the dress on.”
I catch Irina’s eyes across the room. Her face is red from Denis’s hand. I know I have to do this. I have to save them.
So, with a deep breath, I slip off my dress and keep my eyes focused on Denis. He will not see my fear. “Like what you see? You’re disgusting.”
“Put the dress on.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t tell me to take my bra or underwear off. I’m not sure what I do if he had.
With shaky hands, I manage to put the dress on. It’s a simple wedding gown. Some lace on the sleeves and around the bodice. It flares out a tiny bit but it’s not poofy. It’s modest. Respectable.
And it’s the dress I’m going to be forced to marry Cillian in.
“Happy?” I ask.
“Very.” Though his sneer tells me he’s not happy at all.
“Where’s my mom?”
“Josh. Go get Tatiana.”
I watch Josh go up the stairs, leaving Denis alone with me and my sisters. I’m sure Denis has a gun on him but if we could overpower him, we could escape.
I don’t want to put my sisters in danger but I have to try something.
I run at Denis before he can even react and scratch my fingers down his face. He jerks back with a gasp.
“Get him!” I cry.
My sisters stare at me stunned but it’s Sasha who moves first. She jumps onto Denis’s back and starts scratching his face.
“Run.” I motion towards the door.
Irina hesitates but Ana rips the door open and runs outside. I kick Denis in between the legs, which sends him falling to his knees. Sasha smacks him in the head before taking my hand.
“We’re in this together,” she gasps. We follow our sisters out the door.
“No!” Denis screams, chasing after us. A gunshot fires off into the air, making the four of us stumble to a halt. “I will shoot you.” He points his gun at us as he approaches. “I will shoot.”
“If you do that,” Sasha says, “then you won’t have anyone to tell what to do. You’ll be powerless.”
“I won’t shoot to kill. I’ll shoot to hurt. I’ll shoot to stop you. So if any of you don’t want that to happen, then you will get in line.”
Josh comes running out of the house with our mom behind him. When he realizes what’s happening, he lifts up his own gun. Even though me and my sisters out number Denis and Josh, we don’t have guns. They win.
“Natalya, do you want me to hurt your sisters?”
“No.”
“What?”
“No,” I say in a louder voice. “No, I do not.”
“Good. So you will do as I say, yes?”
My shoulders slump. “Yes.”
“Good. Now get in the car. All of you. We have a wedding to attend. I don’t want to be late.”
Sasha and I share a look before we get into the car. “I know you tried,” she tells me, which only makes me want to cry harder.
Once my sisters and mother are in the car with us, Denis and Josh get in, and we leave the house behind us, heading for the wedding ceremony.
Heading to my future.
Mikhail
Sitting beside Nico in his car while we head to Lev’s house – I will never be able to think of it as Denis’s house – is the strangest thing I’ve ever done. He’s my enemy but we’re choosing to work together to stop this wedding. We don’t want Denis and Cillian gaining power over us.
I’m still sore and tired. Unable to sleep last night, I tossed and turned the entire time, thinking of Natalya. Thinking how I couldn’t save her.
And how I have to try.
We arrive at the brownstone and burst in, ready to kill any of Denis’s guards but…
There’s no one here.
We search the whole house and it comes up empty.
“They’re not here,” Nico states the obvious. “Which means that they must be at the wedding already.”
“Denis knew I’d come for him. He must know I’m not dead. Why else hurry the wedding up?”
“Who knows. But where’s the wedding going to take place? I have no idea. My men don’t know.”
I sigh. “CCTV. We can hack it. I have a man who can do it.” I text Charlie and he responds, letting me know he’ll get right on it.
“It will take a while to find. Your wife might already be married by then.”
“So, I’ll just shoot Cillian and call it a day. It won’t be a legal marriage anyway. She’s still married to me.”
“What is going to happen after you get your wife back and I kill Cillian?”
“You mean, I kill Cillian,” I say.
Nico smiles like he finds me amusing. “You’re funny. He’s betrayed me. I think I’m the one who gets to kill him.”
“Well, he stole my wife and is trying to marry her. I think that wins me the right to kill him.”
“Well, I guess we’ll figure it out when we get there.”
“Wherever there is,” I mutter.
Nico sits down on the couch as if he has all the time in the world when we don’t. But for him, killing Cillian isn’t urgent. For me, it is. Natalya could be hurt and I have to stop it.
“You didn’t answer me,” Nico says. “What are we going to do once we stop Cillian? Let each other go? Or kill each other?”
Nico knows I’m hurt. He knows he has the upper hand here. I have to be smart about this.
“Let’s just focus on finding them first and then go from there. Ok?”
“Fine. But you better not shoot me in the back.”
“And you better not shoot me in the back either,” I respond.
Nico smiles once more. “Fine. Deal. If we’re going to shoot each other, it’s going to be in the front.”
“Deal.”
We wait around in awkward, strained silence waiting for Charlie to get back to me. It takes him around thirty minutes to get me the footage which is just time we don’t have.
“Ok. I know where they went,” I say after watching the footage. “Let’s go.”
I’m going to stop this wedding before it can happen.
Natalya
The church is large and gothic and beautiful. Or it would be if I wasn’t so scared.
Denis grabs my arm, forcing me out of the car and up the steps. My sisters and mom move slowly behind me but Josh forces them to keep walking. There’s a silent message: don’t even think about running.
We go inside the church. I can see Cillian waiting at the end of the aisle for me, next to a priest. Déjà vu hits me hard. The memory of marrying Mikhail in a similar church. Him waiting for me at the end of the aisle. My future uncertain.
But then, I was excited to marry Mikhail. He scared me but I was intrigued. I’m not that way with Cillian. All I feel now is dread.
One thing is the same though: I married Mikhail to try and protect my family. I’ll marry Cillian now to do the same.
Maybe I can kill Cillian if I get the chance. Maybe I can stop Denis. Maybe I can save my family.
So many maybes and not enough definitive answers.
Josh forces my sisters and mom up the aisle and into the front pew. His gun glints in the sunlight coming through the large stained glass windows. A reminder to not do anything stupid. My sisters could have died today, trying to escape. I can’t do something risky like that again.
Denis holds my arms tightly to him. “See how fitting this is? I get to walk you down the aisle.”
“You’re not my father.”
“No. I’m better than him and you will learn to be grateful. In time.”
“You will never be as good and strong and brave as my father was. You’ll never be as powerful. Just know that. You will never be able to get me to change my mind.”
“We’ll see about that.”
His words send a shiver down my spine. Will my uncle spend eternity torturing me into liking him?
He grips my arm tightly as we walk down the aisle. There’s no music playing, which makes everything more ominous. Some of Cillian’s men are with us, including Liam. Total, he has five men here, all with guns. There’s no escaping.
Every step I take leads me closer and closer to my new fate: one that doesn’t include Mikhail.
I reach the end of the aisle.
“Who gives this woman away?” the priest asks.
“I do. Her uncle,” Denis says.
“He doesn’t,” I say. “He’s not my uncle. He’s no family of mine. And you should know that I’m being forced into this, Father. Help me.”
The priest stares down at me with pity before turning to Cillian. “Shall we begin?”
So, he’s on Cillian’s side. I’m all alone then.
Denis places my hand in Cillian’s and before I draw it away, Cillian tightens his grip. The more I tug, the harder he holds onto me. I stop fighting and give in, if only to protect my hand from more injury.
The priest begins the ceremony. The whole thing is one long monotonous wave in my mind. I can barely make out the words.
None of this matters without Mikhail.
Cillian’s hands tighten on my own, making it clear he thinks I’m his.
A glance at my sisters shows Irina and Ana are crying and Sasha is stone faced, angry. My mom just looks miserable. They know this is the end. They know once I marry Cillian, there’s no going back.
“If anyone should have a reason as to why these two shouldn’t marry, speak now or forever hold your peace,” the priest says.
“There is no objection,” Denis says. “Get on with it.”
The church doors burst open and in walks Nico. “I have a reason they shouldn’t marry.”
Nico steps out of the way and in his place is Mikhail.