Chapter 4 #5
The sadness in his smile was impossible to ignore.
I became painfully aware of the estate guards standing several yards away.
They weren’t looking directly at us.
Professional men never did.
But they had undoubtedly heard every word.
Thankfully, they were loyal enough to carry secrets to their graves.
“This...”
I gestured helplessly toward the ring.
“...should never have happened like this.”
His hopeful expression began to crack.
“We’ve known each other for a few months, Egor. A few months. We have never dated. We have never had a conversation about becoming something more. You skipped every step that was supposed to come before this.”
I took a slow breath, choosing my words carefully.
“I do care about you. I value you. But I don’t love you the way you want me to. I can’t force feelings that aren’t there.”
I shook my head gently.
“I’m sorry, Egor. But my answer is no.”
For a moment, his face gave nothing away.
Then his expression shifted into something I couldn’t quite read.
“So that’s what this was?” he asked quietly. “The conversations... the late-night calls... the trust we built between us...”
His voice lowered.
“All of that meant nothing to you?”
I blinked.
“You can’t honestly tell me you never felt it,” he continued. “You never felt something changing between us?”
Something changing between us?
Was that what he thought this had been?
That all those moments had been leading somewhere I never agreed to go?
He took a cautious step closer.
“I know this isn’t the perfect moment,” he said. “But life rarely gives us perfect moments. I don’t want to lose another day pretending we’re only friends.”
He lifted the ring slightly, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I could give you stability. A normal life. A future far away from the constant pressure your family puts on you. You deserve peace, Juliet.”
His voice softened.
“You deserve someone who chooses you every single day.”
A pause.
“And I want to be that man.”
I stared at him for several long seconds, allowing his words to settle between us.
Then I shook my head.
“Egor, you’re not listening.”
My voice remained calm.
“No is my answer. I am not accepting this proposal. Not because you aren’t a good person, but because this is not what I want.”
Slowly, he closed the velvet box.
The sharp click echoed through the quiet driveway, strangely loud in the silence between us.
“So...” His voice was barely above a whisper. “You’re rejecting me.”
“I am.”
I nodded once, refusing to look away.
“And I think it’s better for both of us if we end this friendship here. This isn’t something we can pretend didn’t happen.”
His brows tightened slightly.
“I think we should stop contacting each other.”
For several seconds, he simply stared at me.
Then something shifted.
The disappointment disappeared.
So did the warmth.
The easygoing, cheerful Egor I’d known for months seemed to dissolve before my eyes, replaced by someone colder.
Someone I didn’t recognize.
“No woman has ever rejected me, Juliet.”
A chill crawled down my spine.
He looked past me toward the estate gates, staring into the darkness for several moments as though wrestling with himself.
When his eyes returned to mine, they carried an intensity that made my instincts immediately scream at me to step back.
“I’ve always gotten what I wanted.”
He smiled again. “This is... new.”
I folded my arms.
“Egor. I suggest you leave.”
He ignored me completely.
“You should understand something about me. I don’t accept defeat. And I certainly don’t accept rejection.”
Every word landed with quiet menace.
“You can say no today, Juliet. You can say no tomorrow. You can fight this as long as you need to. But I know what I want, and I don’t walk away from the things that matter to me.”
His voice lowered.
“One day, you’ll understand that this was never about forcing you. It was about waiting until you realized what we could be.”
He turned on his heel without another word and strode toward his car, his shoulders squared with the confidence of a man who believed his will alone could shape reality.
There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his steps.
He walked away as though he hadn’t just issued a threat, but announced an inevitable future.
I remained rooted to the driveway.
The warm Florida night suddenly felt colder against my skin.
What... the hell had just happened?
I stared after him, trying to reconcile the man disappearing down the driveway with the one I thought I had known over the past three months.
The Egor I knew had been easygoing, charming, endlessly talkative.
He remembered the smallest details about people, made strangers laugh within minutes, and somehow convinced even the most reserved guests to join conversations at gatherings. He had always seemed safe.
Tonight, that carefully crafted image had shattered.
Behind the friendly smiles had lurked entitlement.
Behind the patience had been possession.
And beneath every kind gesture, perhaps, had been the expectation that he would eventually be rewarded with me.
The realization made my stomach twist.
How many moments had I misunderstood?
How many smiles had carried hidden expectations?
How many invitations had never truly been about friendship?
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly aware of the dried blood stiffening the fabric of my blouse.
“I was never yours,” I whispered into the empty driveway.
The words disappeared into the night.
For several long moments, I simply watched the taillights of his car shrink into the distance before finally vanishing beyond the estate gates.
Only then did I notice the unmistakable feeling of being watched.
The sensation crawled across the back of my neck.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
On the second-floor balcony stood Yarina.
She leaned lightly against the wrought-iron railing, illuminated by the warm glow spilling from the hallway behind her.
Our eyes met.
Neither of us smiled. Neither of us spoke.
There was something unreadable in her expression.
Curiosity? Suspicion? Satisfaction?
I couldn’t tell.
After several tense seconds, she turned and disappeared back inside without a single word.
A chill slid through me despite the humid evening.
I continued staring at the empty balcony.
A thought crept quietly into my mind.
Yarina knew Egor.
Not well, but well enough.
They had exchanged greetings at family dinners. Shared conversations at charity galas. Even laughed together once or twice at larger Bratva gatherings.
Nothing unusual.
Yet...
After Yarina’s threat earlier today, after she discovered I needed to marry Romeo—the man she believed belonged to her—in order to claim my inheritance, one thought wouldn’t leave me alone.
Could Egor’s sudden proposal really be nothing more than a coincidence?
My pulse quickened.
What if it wasn’t?
What if Egor’s proposal had never been entirely his own idea?
What if Yarina had encouraged him?
The possibility settled uneasily inside me.
It certainly wouldn’t be beyond Yarina to manipulate someone emotionally if it served her purpose.
But Egor hadn’t seemed manipulated.
He hadn’t looked like a man following someone else’s plan.
He had looked convinced.
Consumed. Obsessed.
His words replayed inside my head.
‘You can say no today, Juliet. You can say no tomorrow. You can fight this as long as you need to. But I know what I want, and I don’t walk away from the things that matter to me.’
I forced myself to exhale slowly.
I was exhausted.
After everything that had happened today, maybe my mind was simply trying to connect pieces that had no connection at all.
Maybe I was looking for enemies where there were none.
Maybe Yarina had nothing to do with it.
I pressed my fingers against my temples, trying to silence the chaos in my mind.
Then my phone rang.
The unfamiliar number made me hesitate.
I almost ignored it, but something compelled me to answer.
“Miss Juliet Sokolov?”
The voice on the other end was calm, formal, and completely unfamiliar.
“Yes?”
“This is the Civil Affairs Office. I am calling to officially notify you that your marriage registration to Mr. Romeo Flynn has been approved and scheduled. The ceremony is set to take place this Saturday. All required documentation has been processed, and the final proceedings will be completed at that time.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
“Excuse me?”
My fingers tightened around the phone, but the line had already gone dead.
I stared at the screen, frozen.
If they hadn’t addressed me by name, I would have dismissed the entire conversation as some bizarre mistake.
But they knew exactly who I was.
And they knew exactly what they were calling about.
A marriage scheduled?
This Saturday?
My jaw dropped.
I had never agreed to marry Romeo.
We hadn’t even had a single conversation about it.
So how could the Civil Affairs Office be calling me to inform me that I was getting married in three days?