Chapter Fourteen
Inna Grace
Let me be clear about the full picture of what I did in less than two months.
I stole a stranger’s money, lied that he was my husband, and handed him my nine-year-old brother as a son.
As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, I stood in his bedroom and took my dress off for a man who was using me as a chess piece.
I offered him everything, and he turned me down.
The last of my dignity didn’t leave quietly. It packed its things, looked back once, and walked out without saying goodbye.
Dmitri touched me, and he knew very well what he felt between my legs. But he had looked me in the eye and lied about it. I felt how his hard cock pressed my ass, which meant he left this penthouse and went to fuck someone of his type.
I barely slept in those four days since he disappeared. Every minute had me replaying that moment. The way he thrust his finger inside me, while the pressure of his hand at my throat kept me grounded. It was an insane feeling and a new one.
Every morning, I woke up half-expecting him to show up, but only Cole’s tutor did.
Cole was in the sitting area with a book when I stepped in. I grabbed the remote just as the doorbell rang. That had to be his tutor, because Dmitri never rings the bell.
I went and opened the door.
It was the Suit guy, the man who always showed up whenever I was required to do something. He showed up with a woman I had never seen before. And she got me staring at her for a moment.
She looked bright, her pink hair styled in a way that said she chose it and would choose it again.
She wore a white dress that matched her pink heels, a shade that should have been too much and somehow wasn’t.
Everything about her showed she understood color the way some people understood music.
It was evident from the small gold pieces in her ears to the little bag hanging from one wrist,
She waved at me with a smile as if she had been looking forward to meeting me.
“Good morning, Miss. May we come in?”
I stepped back automatically. Miss? Dmitri’s people called me everything from wife to madam, and now we were back to Miss.
The suit guy stepped in first. The woman stopped in front of me and stuck out her hand. “Hi. I’m Caitlin. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Inna.”
“I know.” She smiled as if it were a delightful thing to know my name. She walked inside and stopped to wait for me to close the door so we could walk in together. That small thing struck me as considerate, given that I didn’t know her.
Cole looked up from his book when we came in. He assessed Caitlin, then looked at me for confirmation.
“Oh, he is so cute,” Caitlin said, already looking at Cole like she wanted to adopt him.
“Thank you,” I said, watching her.
The suit guy cleared his throat. “This is Caitlin. She’ll be assisting you with shopping today. The boss will pick you up here at five for dinner with Madam Regina.”
I didn’t know who Madam Regina was, but I knew she was the person you dressed carefully for. And since I was a tool Dmitri was deploying, however the day required, tonight was dinner. The dinner required shopping first, and I didn’t have any say because I still owed the man some money.
“Cole’s tutor arrives in under five minutes,” the guy continued and turned to Caitlin. “How long will shopping take?”
Caitlin’s eyes lit up. “About five hours. I know exactly which stores we need, and I already have a list.”
Five hours just for shopping?
The two of them turned to look at me as if waiting for my approval. The truth was, I didn’t know what was happening. But the suit guy looked like he would not proceed unless I said something. So, I nodded.
“Cole, we’ll bring you something back,” Caitlin said while waving at him, already turning toward the door.
Cole, who was hard to trust people, looked at me. To assure him, I gave him a knowing look, and he smiled. I grabbed my phone from the couch and followed Caitlin out. I was finally leaving the penthouse, not like I was complaining.
The drive started quietly. Caitlin was the driver while I sat in the passenger seat, running through questions I couldn’t ask yet. We pulled away from the DK Holdings building. The city passed us by, and I stared out the window and thought about shopping.
The penthouse had everything. The fridge was stocked, and the kitchen was fully equipped. It meant the shopping was about Madam Regina, and whatever version of me was required for that dinner.
“Okay, I won’t lie, this is getting awkward,” Caitlin broke the silence. “Music?”
“Yes, please,” I said, and she tapped the screen while still moving through traffic, but I reached it faster. “I’ll do it.”
“Thanks.” She concentrated on driving.
I scrolled through her playlist and selected a song. Tapping it, the car filled with sound loud enough to rattle the windows. I turned the volume down before it could do any real damage.
Caitlin burst out laughing. “Sorry. I like it loud.”
“I can tell.” I turned the screen off entirely. “Let’s just talk.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
“So, you’re Caitlin.” It wasn’t a question, but a starter.
She grinned. “You can call me Cate. That’s what friends call me.”
We had known each other for eleven minutes.
“Okay, Cate. What are we actually shopping for?”
She slowed at a red light and drummed her fingers on the wheel. “Clothes mostly. I have good taste, I promise. Did you like the dress from the auction?”
I turned to look at her. “You picked that?”
“Yes,” she looked pleased with herself. “I heard it fit well.”
“It was perfect.” It made me feel like I belonged in that room, at least from the outside, which was the closest I came to fitting in since everything started.
“I’m glad. Relax around me, I mean it. I like making friends.”
“You must have plenty.”
She started driving again as the light changed. “Not really. When you’re married, it gets complicated. My husband isn’t comfortable with me being close to most women.” She paused. “But he’s fine with you.”
Oh. “You’re married?” She extended her left hand briefly from the wheel and showed me the ring. From her looks, I had thought it was for beauty. “Oh,” I said. “I see.”
“At least our husbands are close, so let’s be close too,” she added
“Wait.” I turned to look at her again. “The Suit guy is your husband?”
Caitlin glanced at me, brows pulling together. “You mean the one I came with?”
“Yes. I mean, he is close to Dmitri.”
She laughed. “That’s Akim. He is probably the closest person to your husband. Akim and my husband both work for him.”
Calling Dmitri my husband still felt like wearing someone else’s coat, too big in all the wrong places. But I let it sit.
“So you work for Dmitri too?”
“My husband does, so by extension, yes.” She shrugged easily. “It works out.”
“I thought you were his relative.”
She laughed again, ending it with a hiss. “No. God, no. We barely cross paths. I don’t think he even knows it’s me taking you shopping today. He tells Akim, Akim handles everything, and here we are.”
That tracked. Dmitri’s employees handled almost everything. And, strangely enough, he trusted his workers with whatever he instructed them to do. And they all obeyed him, regardless.
“Akim hates me,” I said, mostly to myself, but Caitlin caught it.
“He hates me, too. I thought it was personal.” She was already pulling into the mall’s parking lot. “That man is allergic to human warmth.”
“And the worst part is Cole gets along with him perfectly.”
“Maybe he hates women specifically.” She added
We both laughed at the same time, the easy kind that didn’t need a warm-up, and we unbuckled together.
“I just ignore him entirely.” Caitlin climbed out. “I mean, who is he anyway? I give him a middle finger in my head every single time.”
“I’m thinking that’s the right approach.”
The mall opened up in front of us, and I slowed, taking it in. Every storefront had a name I recognized from the bags I never owned. The boutiques didn’t have price tags visible from the window because the price was never the point.
“You need something good for tonight,” Caitlin said, falling into step beside me. “Is it your first time meeting Madam Regina?”
“Yes. Who is she exactly?”
“The boss’s grandmother.” She tilted her head. “I’ve met her twice. She seems cool, I think. You’ll have a better read on her than me after tonight.”
I absorbed that this was a family dinner.
Dmitri was not only running this fake marriage at full speed; he was running it toward his family.
That meant it was serious, or it was supposed to look serious.
I was going to be sitting across a table from a woman who had known him his entire life and pretend I was his wife.
Caitlin’s commitment and strategy showed that she really loved shopping.
We moved in and out of boutiques for hours, bags accumulating.
Somewhere between the third and the sixth store, I stopped tracking prices and started enjoying myself.
She delivered opinions without apology. She would agree with me when she was satisfied, argue when she wasn’t, and laugh at dresses that had no business being on my body.
By the time we pulled into the next mall, I had forgotten that my life was a complete disaster.
The security check at the entrance made us open the trunk for inspection. A guard walked around the car while another approached Caitlin’s window.
“Imagine if they actually found us carrying guns in the trunk,” I said, watching the guard bend to peer inside.
Caitlin pressed her lips together, barely containing her laughter, just as the guard reached her window. “Ready to rob the mall,” she said under her breath.
I looked out my window and concentrated very hard on keeping my face still.
“Ladies.” The guard bent to look across at me, scanned the interior, and straightened. “You’re clear. Enjoy your day.”
“Thank you so much. Great work out here,” Caitlin said, and rolled the window up the moment he stepped back. She pulled forward into the parking lot, and the second we were out of his line of sight, she laughed.
“It’s a new mall,” she said, finding a space and pulling in. “Let’s see what they have.”
“I’m excited.” I meant it, because this felt like a life I would choose over working shifts just to make a living.