Chapter Fifty
Inna Grace
I stared at the ring between my fingers, the small piece of metal that started everything and apparently wasn’t done causing problems. A maid found it in the backyard and took it to Grandma.
Grandma recognized it immediately and summoned me for questioning.
I watched her face change as we talked. Her eyes moved from confusion to understanding, then to hurt.
The next thing I knew, she passed out because her blood pressure spiked.
That was the disaster Dmitri created after throwing the ring away. Now I was sitting on a couch at eleven in the evening, waiting for him to come home. I wasn’t even sure he would. But Dmitri always came home. He had to show up tonight because we needed to explain everything to Grandma.
Grandma has done nothing but take care of Cole and me since the moment we arrived here. She fed us, worried about us, and treated us like family before we earned the right to be considered one. Yet today, she looked at me as if I had taken part in a deception.
She wanted this marriage so badly that it lived in every small thing she did.
She always ensured that our places were set together at the dining table.
Whenever Dmitri and I were in the same room, she observed us with quiet satisfaction.
She built hopes, plans, and expectations around something temporary.
The guilt settled in my chest.
Leaving was supposed to be the easy part. People left me all the time. My parents did it. So why was it so difficult for me? Why did walking away from something temporary feel like I was trying to tear everyone apart?
I looked down at the ring again. Nothing about this made sense anymore.
The door opened, and I stood. I smoothed my dress and watched Dmitri walk in. He closed the door behind him, and his eyes found me right away. Confusion flickered across his face at finding me awake.
This was my conversation to start. I was the one who waited for him. I crossed the room before I lost my nerve. He slipped his hands into his pockets.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I looked down at the ring in my hand. When I lifted my gaze again, he was already looking at it too.
I held it out toward him. “You threw this into the backyard.” I swallowed. “A maid found it and gave it to Grandma.”
He didn’t take it. His eyes lifted to my face instead.
“Grandma recognized it and asked me about it. She wasn’t happy,” I continued. “She got sick, and now she’s upset with me. So I waited for you because we have to talk to her together. We need to explain that this was an agreement. That it was always supposed to end.”
Dmitri was quiet for a moment before his gaze dropped to the ring again. “Okay,” he said.
Relief settled in my chest. He agreed. I had prepared myself for an argument, for one of those conversations where every sentence became a battle. Instead, it sounded simple. I was glad he accepted that leaving was something I had to do.
“You can have the ring back,” I said, and he took the ring back.
He turned toward the door, and I followed him out.
We walked together to Grandma’s room. The door was slightly ajar when we arrived.
Dmitri stepped inside first, and I hesitated at the doorway, looking through the gap.
The doctor was there. Apparently, he had returned to check on Grandma after she woke up.
A maid stood beside the bed as well. She stayed with Grandma all day, just as Anita stayed with me when I was sick.
The moment the doctor and maid noticed Dmitri, they straightened, bowed, and left the room.
I stepped into the room, and Grandma looked at us. She sighed and adjusted the pillow behind her back. “If you two are here to stress me further, just leave.”
“Looks like you’re doing well,” Dmitri said. “Inna said we had something to explain.”
I turned to look at him. He sounded calm. It was as if he had quietly picked up the entire conversation and set it back in my lap.
“That you ended your marriage and threw the ring away?” Grandma asked. “I know.”
I moved closer to the bed. “Grandma, ask Dmitri. We agreed this would end after a while.” I looked at him. “Tell her.”
“You heard her,” Dmitri said.
Grandma nodded, folding her hands over the blanket. “It doesn’t matter.” Her voice softened. “Maybe I didn’t make you feel comfortable enough in this house. I’m old, but I tried because I saw you as my granddaughter.” She paused and looked away. “I was wrong.”
My chest tightened. This was exactly what I was afraid of.
“Don’t say that.” I sat beside her on the edge of the bed. “I’m not leaving because of anything you did. You know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
My eyes found Dmitri again. His silence was beginning to feel deliberate. He stood there watching while Grandma built a case against me, and he contributed absolutely nothing.
“Can you say something?” I asked. “I wasn’t the one who came up with this marriage. Tell her it was an agreement.”
Dmitri sighed and took a few steps closer. “I’m confused. What exactly did Inna tell you?”
“What else?” Grandma asked. “You threw the ring away. If you didn’t want to be married, you could have said so from the beginning. I wouldn’t have wasted my hopes on the two of you.” She shook her head. “Rodion is better. I’ve decided to move to California and live with him instead.”
My stomach dropped. This conversation was somehow getting worse.
“So she didn’t tell you it was a fake marriage?” Dmitri asked.
“I told her that,” I said immediately. “Grandma, I told you, didn’t I?”
“Why are you two here, to rub it in my face?” Grandma asked.
“Darling,” Dmitri’s voice smoothed. “You didn’t tell her we wanted to make it official?”
The room went still.
Grandma and I both turned to look at him at the same moment. His hand moved into his pocket. I tracked the movement. He pulled out a small box, and my heart skipped a beat.
What was he doing?
“At least next time,” his voice carried that voice he used when he found a situation entertaining, “explain things properly to this old lady. We ended a fake marriage.” He stared into my eyes. “Because we are starting a real one.”
I stopped breathing.
What was he actually doing right now?
I opened my mouth, and nothing came out.
Grandma sat up straighter, and I noticed the immediate change on her face. “Really? You could have said that earlier. Why did you wait for me to get angry?” She reached over and took my hand. “I knew Dmitri couldn’t let you go. You are lovable.”
Dmitri was fixing me into this again. What was I supposed to do exactly? I couldn’t correct him in front of a woman who wasn’t feeling well yet.
Grandma touched my cheek as if she were glad to have me. “I’m just old. Don’t mind me wanting such a lovely lady as my granddaughter.” She smiled at me with so much warmth that my throat tightened.
I said nothing. I couldn’t trust what would come out.
Grandma exhaled and settled back against her pillow. Her eyes moved between us, satisfaction written plainly across her face. “Now I can sleep well.” She pulled the blanket higher. “Goodnight, you two.”
I nodded and got to my feet. On my way past Dmitri, I gave him a look. The kind that promised this conversation was far from over. Then I led the way out of the room.
Upstairs, I paced across the sitting area while waiting for Dmitri to come in. The moment the door closed behind him, I pushed a hand through my hair and turned to face him.
“What was that?” I asked. “I told you we were going to tell her we were ending things. You had the chance to confirm it. Instead, you trapped me like that?”
Dmitri stepped further into the room, completely unbothered by my frustration. “Was I wrong?” he asked. “You said we needed to end the marriage because it was fake.”
“Yes. I didn’t ask for another one.” I exhaled slowly. I didn’t want to argue with this man anymore. “Now I’m the one who has to explain my way out of whatever you just told her. You make me look like the problem every time. I just want to leave. Why are you making it this difficult?”
“You can leave.” He said. “Leave, Inna. It won’t change anything because we’ll leave together.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You’re not comfortable in this house?” His gaze moved briefly around the room. “Let’s go somewhere you’re comfortable then. Is it your old apartment? I can make that call.” He pulled out his phone and started tapping the screen before I could even respond.
He was actually calling someone.
“Get us the apartment my wife used to stay in,” he said into the phone. “Actually, get the entire building. Immediately.” He ended the call and tossed the phone onto the couch. “Happy?”
I stared at him, struggling to follow whatever was happening.
“What are you doing?” I asked because I was confused.
“What you want.” His voice shifted, and I knew he was angry.
I had heard it once before, at the party, when he got angry about the hug I gave Roman.
He rarely showed this side of himself. “Because it looks like you forgot you’re the one who came into my life first, rearranged everything, and made me think about nothing else.
I adjusted my life, my business, my sanity, without even realizing it was happening.
” He paused. “Do you think I didn’t want this to end?
I did. But I couldn’t, because I always looked forward to coming home to my wife.
I started finding calm in your stubbornness.
” He let out a breath that sounded almost like a scoff.
“Now you want to leave? Then leave. But you’ll have to take me with you. ”
I swallowed around the lump forming in my throat.
“You don’t understand.” My voice barely came out.
“You don’t understand because you’re not standing where I am.
It’s easy for you to say these things because when you decide to walk away, it’ll come easy to you.
You act as if I matter, but eventually you’ll leave.
That’s what people do. That’s what my mother did. ”
“I’m not your mother.”