12. Aria #2
So I sit in the dark and cry and hate myself for being too afraid to trust the man I love.
The next day is slightly cooler, the oppressive July heat broken by a sea breeze that makes being outside almost pleasant. I’m in the garden, trying to enjoy the smell of salt air and freshly cut grass, but my mind is elsewhere, to our argument last night.
The breeze lifts my hair, carries the sound of the ocean from beyond the estate walls. For just a moment, I let myself breathe and pretend I’m somewhere free.
“Ariana. How lovely to see you alone for once.”
My blood turns to ice.
Alexander Morozov sits down on the bench beside me without invitation. He’s so close I can smell his cologne and it makes my stomach turn.
I start to stand. “I should go find Maksim—”
“Sit,” he orders as his hand closes around my wrist. “We should talk. Just the two of us.”
Every instinct screams at me to run and do anything but sit here with this man.
But making a scene might be worse. It could make him act before I can get away.
So I sit.
Alexander smiles, looking like the cat that caught the canary. “You know, I’ve been thinking,” he muses. “Eight years ago, there was a…situation at a warehouse in Red Hook. An accountant who’d been stealing from the organization. Maksim and I handled it.”
I freeze. My heart is pounding so hard I’m sure he can hear it.
“The thing is—” Alexander leans back casually. “We thought we were alone that night. We took all the usual precautions and sure the place was secure, with no witnesses. We were very thorough.”
Can humans actually live without breathing? Because I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. There’s a roaring in my ears but I’m powerless to do anything while he talks.
He taps his fingers against his leg. “But there was always this nagging feeling afterward. Like we’d missed something. Or someone.” His eyes slide to me, assessing. “You know that feeling, Aria? When you think you’re alone but you’re not quite sure?”
Don’t react. Don’t give him anything.
Alexander leans closer and drops his voice to barely above a whisper. “Did you enjoy the show, Ariana? When you were hiding behind those crates in the dark? Did you hear everything you needed to hear?”
The world tilts and it takes everything in me to not gasp. He knows. He’s known this whole time.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My voice shakes despite my best effort.
Alexander’s smile widens. “Of course you don’t.
Just like you don’t remember working at that gallery in Brighton Beach.
Just like you’re not scared every single time I walk into a room.
” He tilts his head, looking more like a predator now.
“You know what gave you away? The first time you saw me here. You looked at me like you’d seen a ghost.”
No, no, I have to stop this. I can’t let him continue thinking this way. “I had never met you before,” I start frantically.
“Please.” He waves a hand dismissively. “Don’t insult my intelligence, my dear. You were there. You saw us dispose of the accountant. And based on the timing of your disappearance—five-ish days after that night—I’d say you heard quite a bit more than you were supposed to.”
The roaring in my ears has gotten louder. Eight years of running, eight years of hiding, and he knew the whole time.
“Why didn’t you—” I stop myself, but it’s too late.
“Why didn’t I kill you then?” Alexander finishes before he lifts his head up, staring at the sky thoughtfully.
“Good question. At first, I didn’t know who you were other than some woman Maksim was fucking, but he had plenty of those.
” I flinch at that but Alexander pays me no attention.
“By the time I figured out it was you at the warehouse, you’d already disappeared.
And finding you seemed…” He shrugs. “Unnecessary. You were gone. Maksim was devastated, throwing himself into organization business. It all worked out fine.”
“Until he found me,” I whisper, suddenly wishing Maksim had just left me in the past. We would have been safer.
“Until he found you,” Alexander agrees. “That was…unfortunate. But I thought maybe you’d be smart.
Maybe you’d keep your mouth shut, play the grateful rescued girlfriend, and we could all move on.
” He turns his gaze on me and I try not to tremble.
“But then you started acting strange around me and I realized you remember everything, don’t you?
You remember what you saw. What you heard. ”
“What do you want from me?” I whisper.
He stands, looks down at me with those cold blue eyes.
“What do I want? You’re going to keep your mouth shut about whatever you think you saw or heard that night.
You’re not going to whisper one word to Maksim or to his brother.
You’re going to smile and play house and raise your babies and be grateful you’re alive. ”
Alexander leans down, his voice dropping to something deadly.
“Because if you don’t—if you breathe one word about that warehouse and what you heard—I’ll make sure that little boy of yours has an accident.
Children are so fragile, Aria. So easy to hurt.
Falls, drownings, sudden illnesses. Terrible things happen to children every day. ”
Rage floods through me, cutting through the terror. “Don’t you dare—”
“And that baby you’re carrying?” His eyes drop to my stomach, to the small swell visible through my sundress and I want to cover it from his view. “As I said before, pregnancy is dangerous. So many things can go wrong especially with the right…encouragement."
I’m on my feet now, shaking with fury and fear in equal measure.
Alexander straightens, brushing invisible lint from his sleeve. “Stay quiet, Aria. For your children’s sake. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to them because their mother couldn’t keep secrets, would we?”
He leans in one more time, his breath hot against my ear.
“I’ve killed people for less than what you know.
The only reason you’re still breathing is because killing you would upset Maksim, and I need him functional.
But children die all the time, and pregnant women lose babies.
Those deaths wouldn’t be on him. They’d just be… tragic accidents.”
Then he’s gone—walking back toward the house like nothing happened. Like he didn’t just threaten to murder my children.
I sink back onto the bench, my legs giving out. He knows. He’s always known. And now he’s threatened Daniel and this baby directly.
I sit there for five full minutes before I can move and think past the terror and rage and knowledge that Alexander Morozov won’t let me live.
Even if I stay quiet, I’m a witness. Eventually—when his plot against Nikolai is ready again and he doesn’t need Maksim functional anymore—he’ll eliminate the threat I represent.
Running is the only option. I need to take Daniel and disappear before Alexander can hurt them.
I’ve done it before. I can do it again.
I have to.
That night, I wait until Maksim and Daniel are both asleep.
Maksim didn’t speak to me at dinner. In fact, he barely looked at me. The fight from last night is still fresh between us, and I can see the hurt and frustration in every tense line of his body.
Good. Letting him be angry makes leaving easier.
I pack light—just a backpack with essentials. Cash I’ve been hoarding from the household money Maksim gives me. Daniel’s rabbit. A change of clothes for both of us. My phone, though I’ll have to ditch it as soon as we’re far enough away.
Daniel wakes when I lift him from bed, groggy and confused. “Mama?”
“Shh, baby. We’re going on an adventure.” I keep my voice light even though I’m terrified. “But we have to be very, very quiet. Can you do that for me?”
He nods, still half-asleep, and lets me dress him in dark clothes. He puts on his shoes without asking questions.
Such a good boy. Such a trusting, sweet, good boy who deserves better than this.
We make it down the stairs and through the kitchen, to the side door that leads to the garden.
I know the security patterns now. I know that the guards do a sweep of the grounds every hour, and we’re in the fifteen-minute window between patrols. The cameras in this section have a blind spot near the east wall.
If I can just get us over that wall, we can disappear into the night.
We’re halfway across the lawn when the floodlights snap on, bright as daylight.
“Fuck,” I breathe, grabbing Daniel’s hand and running for the wall.
“Mama?” Daniel is scared, his eyes wide with fear. “What’s happening?”
“Run, baby. Just run.”