Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
“I would like to help you, Liliana. As soon as I heard your voice again—”
“Stop. Stop saying that. You sound like a fucking stalker talking like that.” I can’t help my anger. I can’t tell if it’s hormones or the sheer exasperation of this day and night, but I snap without my usual filter.
Now that he’s repeated that bit, though, the detail shifts through my mind again.
He heard me on the phone while Markus took his call.
Markus called him sir, because he works for Anton, as a member of the Sokolov Bratva.
But I’m wrong.
I am making the mistake of thinking Anton dispatched Markus to find me because he’s stalking me and keeping tabs on me. But that’s not it. Markus isn’t anyone new. He’s been coming to the bakery for a while now because of the loan.
My jaw drops as it clicks.
It all adds up to one shitty conclusion.
Anton is the one who owns the bakery now. He’s the one I’m repaying.
That’s the final straw. The ultimate blow.
He owns me, in that regard. He has a hold over me with that loan I have to pay back for my parents.
But now, with the positive pregnancy test in my pocket, it’s almost like he owns and has another hold on me in a different, more life-altering way.
Intimidated and pissed that I’m losing control of my life to this man in two ways, I clamp my lips shut. Then I turn and run, fuming, wanting absolutely nothing to do with him while I figure out how to move forward with the child I’m carrying.
The child I’ll have on my own.
Because there’s no possibility that I’ll ever allow myself to let a man decide anything again.
16
ANTON
Viktor steps out of the driver’s seat just as Liliana turns and dashes off.
The driver, who ran after her with me as backup, moves to give chase.
“No.” I hold up my hand to stop him, watching her go.
She’s not going to talk to me. Nothing about her attitude is welcoming or encouraging. It reminds me of how we met, when she walked into the vacation home upstate all nervous and cold and caught off guard. Bewildered, even. Underneath all of that, though, she stayed stubborn and independent.
She hadn’t wanted to stay back then.
She doesn’t want anything to do with me now, either.
I furrow my brow, hating that letting her go this time feels like defeat, and I wonder what’s going on. I can’t be the only one missing what we shared. It felt too good, too right. I refuse to believe I’m the only one who wants more of what we found in each other’s arms.
Maybe it’s pride. Maybe it’s some kind of rejection I don’t want to endure.
But it’s not. Something in her gaze hints at a secret—a fear, something I need to figure out.
“I’m sorry, sir. If I’d known she was important…”
I turn at the sound of Markus’s voice. He exits the passenger side of the car, shaking his head and genuinely looking sorry.
“But you didn’t know,” I say, turning to get in the car with my men.
“No,” Markus agrees as he gets into the back when I gesture for him to get in with me and Viktor while the driver takes the wheel again. “I didn’t know that you have a, uh, woman in your life.”
I huff as the doors close. The warmth of the backseat soothes me, but it does nothing to chase away the question of why Liliana ran from me. “You saw the same thing I just did. She ran from me. She wanted nothing to do with me. Can’t say that makes her a woman in my life.”
The driver hesitates, glancing in the mirror. “Want me to track her down?”
I shake my head. I am nowhere near quitting on her, but this is a game I’ll need to play carefully.
To my surprise, Markus answers for me. “No need to track her down. I know exactly where to find her.”
“How?” I give him all of my attention.
“She works at that bakery.” Leaning forward a little, he points at it as we are driven past it. “Her parents, the Baranovas, own it.” He shrugs. “I think the mother fell and the father’s been helping her at the rehab place.”
I raise my brows, not expecting a rundown of her whole family.
“I’ve been talking with her the most. Her and the other worker, some mouthy woman named Jenni.” Markus smooths down his tie. “Between the two of them, I’ve been getting some payments on the loan we made them.”
I blink. “Loan? They owe the Bratva money?”
Markus nods. “Yeah.” Then he smirks and glances to the side for a second. “You can thank your son for that business.” He says it wryly, more annoyed than amused.
“Why, because he dated her?” I hate asking that, but I can’t go back in time and change that my son had her first.