Chapter 16 - Artur
There is a happy buzz of energy around the breakfast table.
Benedikt and his sister have been joking around nonstop since we sat down. Their friendly banter is grating on my last nerve.
Leila, Joseph’s sister, is cheerful and sickeningly in love with every single one of her husbands, who all gush over her.
This is a fucking disaster, and all I want to do is get up and leave the table.
It’s too much.
It’s too cozy.
I fucking hate it.
Glancing across the table at Maria, a thick vein of nostalgia burns through me like fire.
It aches in my veins because all I want is to be able to go back to the past, before all the shit happened, and to pretend like everything is okay again.
I used to sit at the breakfast table with Misha and Maria, just like this. We’d laugh. We’d talk shit. We’d share stupid stories and tease each other.
It felt like I had a family. It was the closest I ever came to understanding what that might be like.
Then it was all over like a knife in my back.
It was gone.
And after I came to Chicago, I was more alone than I’d ever been in my life. I didn’t know a single person in this city. The loneliness was absolute.
And all I could think about was why my best friend had stabbed me in the back. Why his sister had been completely fine with it.
Why did it happen?
I didn’t let the misery stop me from building a new name for myself.
From creating businesses and building contacts.
I started from nothing all over again, and here I am today with an empire.
They didn’t break me. They made me stronger.
They made me more aware of the evil in this world. They made me a better man.
But even looking at it in a more positive light, taking the good from it, I can still feel that pain. That loneliness and the endless emptiness of all those nights and days I spent without anyone around me, knowing they’d been that cruel and didn’t give two shits about it.
Maria looks up at me, sensing the intensity of my gaze.
She doesn’t smile. Her eyes linger on me, narrowing for a second. A flicker of something. She presses her lips together and then looks away as though I mean nothing to her. Because I never did. I never meant a damn thing to either of them.
“How have you been, Artur?” one of Leila’s husbands calls for my attention from across the table.
“Sorry, I missed that?” I say, pulling myself together. I was lost in thought for a while there.
“How have you been? Moving in with a bunch of other guys and all that… I remember how frustrating it was in the beginning. Took a while to get used to,” he muses.
Kolya. That’s his name.
“Yeah, it’s quite a big thing to get used to,” I smile politely and nod. I don’t want to be rude to anyone, but I also really don’t want to be here playing nice.
It’s not like I even have anything against these guys.
I don’t know them.
But this all feels awkward and fake to me.
I learned the hard way that you can’t trust people. And the more you know about them…it doesn’t actually change whether or not you can trust them.
Yes. Life truly is a bitch.
My eyes drift back to Maria. She ignores me.
“So, what have you guys been doing to stay out of each other’s hair?” Viktor asks, smirking at us.
“Working out. Working. Swimming. I think the heat is getting to us more than the added company,” Joe says, smiling at Leila, then Viktor.
Conversation flows back and forth, and I add my answers where they are required. But all in all, I only speak when spoken to, and I keep my answers short and polite. There is no reason for me not to be civil.
Life may have jaded me. It may have taught me harsh lessons. But I can still be a decent person.
Breakfast is coming to an end, and the chef comes in to clear the empty plates. I’m eager to excuse myself and get out of here, so when he announces that he also made a sweet treat to accompany our coffee, I groan inwardly and prepare for another hour of this draining situation.
“Misha called,” Joseph says out of nowhere.
My ears spike, and my heart turns ice-cold.
“He called?” I blurt out.
Maria is sitting straight up as though someone has shoved an iron rod into her spine. “My brother called?” she snaps. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he only called this morning, and I came home after the run to a house full of guests,” he shrugs. “But I guess everyone knows everyone’s business at this point, so yeah…he called. He knows you’re with us and what happened.”
“What else? What did you say? What did he want?” Maria pushes.
“I told him I would call him in a few days and arrange a meeting,” Joseph says.
“You want to meet him? Are you fucking insane?” I snarl.
Joe looks directly at me.
I swallow hard, fighting the string of curses I want to spew at him across the table.
“So, Artur, why does that bother you so much?” Joseph asks, leaning back with a cold look in his eyes.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I snap. He folds his arms across his chest.
“It means whatever you want it to mean. I’m asking you a question,” he huffs.
“If you have something to get off your chest, why don’t you say it like a man instead of stepping around the issue?” I snarl, losing my patience with this whole shitshow and standing up.
“I did say it like a fucking meant it. What the hell have you got against Misha? Why do you hate him so much that you kidnapped his sister and brought your personal issues into a new alliance?” Joseph is furious.
He’s suddenly not holding back, either. His civil and polite demeanor is gone.
I knew it was fake all along. He was never the nice guy with morals who took everything so seriously. He’s as fucked up as everyone else.
“I don’t have to tell you any of my business,” I snap.
“Yes, you fucking do! When your business becomes my business because you kept it a secret when you joined this alliance and chose her as our wife,” he comes back sharply.
“Maria is as good a wife as anyone would have been. Makes no difference. Her. Another girl. Who the hell cares?”
I glare at Maria, making a point of speaking clearly so she doesn’t miss a damn word of it.
“It makes a difference if you did it for some kind of personal vendetta that’s going to affect all of us!” Joseph is not letting this go.
“It makes a difference to me!” Maria shouts, standing up as well.
“Stay out of it, Maria,” I snap.
“I won’t! This is my life! And you’re talking about me as though I’m some tool to you and easily replaceable. But I’m a human being. I have feelings, emotions, family…”
“Fuck your family!” I shout.
“How dare you speak about my brother like that!”
“Oh, wake up, girl! Stop pretending to be so innocent!”
We shout back and forth, and the rest of the people around the table stare in utter shock as the anger rises and tensions increase. Maria storms around the table to stand face to face with me and show she’s not afraid.
“Guys, come on, we can talk about this calmly,” Benedikt says when he realizes it’s only escalating from here. He stands up, ready to come between us. But I’m not done with this argument. I’m not done with her, and it’s time she learned that I will never fall for her fake bullshit again.
“Stay out of this, Benedikt!” I snap.
“We have guests, man. Grow up!” Kaz grumbles, scrunching his nose.
Benedikt is walking toward us, so I grab Maria’s arm and drag her toward the door.
“Let me go!” she screams, trying to wiggle free of my steel grip.
“No, it’s not happening,” I huff, pulling her up the stairs to my bedroom where we can finish this conversation in private.
“What the fuck,” Joseph snaps, and I hear him and the others running after us. I pull her faster, dragging her until we reach my bedroom door. Pulling her in, I slam it behind us.
Benedikt and Kaz burst through the door first.
Maria and I are fighting so intensely that we don’t even glance at them.
“For fuck’s sake,” Benedikt grumbles.
“Let’s just lock them in here.”
“I don’t know. She might kill him,” Kaz chuckles dryly.
Maria shoves me, pushing her small hands against my chest. I grab her wrists and pull them upward. “What chance do you think you have against me, girl?” I snap bitterly.
“I think you have a lot to learn about how to treat people. I don’t know why you think you deserve any kind of respect when you never give it. You betrayed him. I’ll never forgive you for that!”
Her words cut into me. I betrayed him? Is she fucking kidding me right now?
I scoff, shaking my head.
She is such a brilliant little liar. Playing the part to perfection in front of everyone else.
Except when I glance at the door, there is no one else there anymore, and it’s closed. Good. They gave us some privacy for a change instead of trying to control every fucking little thing.
I turn back to Maria.
“There’s no one to be fake for anymore. Why don’t you cut the shit and be real for a while? It must be exhausting playing such a good little girl all the time,” I mock her heartlessly.
Maria’s brows knit, and she shakes her head in confusion.
“Why do you keep saying that stuff to me? Why are you so nasty?”
I scoff. She really is a piece of work.
Maria shakes her head and steps away from me.
“I can’t do this. I can’t try to reason with someone who has no heart and no reason,” she mutters to herself.
“Oh, I’m the one with no heart?” I snap.
She laughs coldly, then turns toward the door and storms away from me.