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When he showed up in the doorframe, and I looked at his face, I knew I couldn’t walk out of this. Whatever had happened while he was gone got Alexei into a state like I’ve never seen him before. He was feral.
“Ah, Ludmila.” His lips curved into a sick smile. “Ludmila Popova, my wife. There you are.”
“A…Alexei. You…are you ok?” I swallowed hard, trying to push the knot in my throat down, but it didn’t work.
“Oh, yes. I’m fantastic. I just got an offer to sell something for a huge amount of money.” What he was saying and the way he was acting didn’t seem to make any sense.
“That’s good, right?”
“Good?” He went to the drinking freezer and pulled out a bottle of vodka, ripping the cap off. “You don’t want to know what the deal was?”
“It’s none of my business.” He made that clear a long time ago
“Ah,” he gulped the vodka. “I’m going tell you anyways. Young Nucci, remember him? The brat Gino Nucci left in charge while he went somewhere on an island to bang that wife of his. He’s looking for an investment. He wants to give me a bunch of cash. Ask me for what, Ludmila.”
My blood turned cold like I was a snake, and I couldn’t move. He threw Enzo’s name in my face, and my fears were getting the best of me.
“I…”
“Ask me!” The roar echoed into the kitchen.
I didn’t need to ask, I already knew. Enzo did all the things I told him not to do – he tried to reason with Alexei and told him about what I did. Now, Alexei was here to make me pay.
“What did he want?” To my surprise, my voice wasn’t shaking anymore.
“You.”
Khristos! Why? Why would Enzo be so reckless after all the things I’d told him?
“Alexei…”
“No, I think this is my time to talk, zhena.” Wife. “I took you from that miserable village, I dressed you in expensive clothes and covered you in jewelry, and this is how you repay me? You would have had dirt under your fingernails all day if it wasn’t for me. Do you think your precious Enzo would have wanted you like that? No, but I did. Shlyukha!” A whore. His words didn’t hurt me, I’d heard them all before, but I was afraid of what his hands might do.
“Alexei…” I tried again, but he didn’t give me a chance to speak. Not that I would have known what to say to defend myself.
“You’ve whored yourself out to that fucking Italian bastard and embarrassed my name, Ludmila.” Before I knew it, he was trapping me between his body and the kitchen counter, my back taking most of the blows. “You’re nothing but a cheap sex toy and you’re trying to make me look like an idiot, but I’m not. I will break your fucking spirit. Nucci thinks you’re worth millions of dollars? You will sell for pennies when I’m done with you.”
His fist connected with my ribs with a force that would have brought me to my knees if Alexei’s hand wasn’t keeping me up straight. The pain made me feel nauseous, and I was afraid I might throw up on him.
“Alexei, please stop.”
“You bitch!”
He grabbed me by the hair and turned me around, hitting my head on the counter. I knew my skin cracked because I left a blood stain, but Alexei didn’t stop. He hit my head over and over, and in that moment, I knew – he wasn’t trying to hurt me. He was trying to kill me. This was it. He would never forgive the offense I’d brought to him by being with another man, and he was determined to take me out of this world. I had to do something because I knew only one of us would walk out of this alive.
Alexei was too focused on me to see my free hand reaching for the knives’ stand. They were only inches away, and I stretched my fingers, desperately trying to get to one of the blades before the pain made me pass out cold. Finally, I was able to drag one in my hand and that was when Alexei brought my face close to his.
“If Nucci wants you, suka, he’ll get you in a body bag.”
No, I wasn’t going to let that happened. Alexei controlled my life for years, he decided my fate, but I wasn’t going to let him decide my death, too. My fingers’ grip tightened on the knife, and I gathered all my force in my arm. I remember that once Alexi told me that if you want a hit to really hurt, you had to put your shoulder into it, and that was exactly what I did. I gave him a taste of his own medicine.
When I launched the knife and aimed for his head, I expected to feel fear, or be terrified of my actions, but it didn’t happen. I watched that blade connect with Alexei’s eye in the most gruesome scene of my life, and I felt relieved. He would have killed me; I knew that for sure. It was a choice between him and me, and for the first time in forever, I chose myself.
Alexei roared, blood splashing all over me and the furniture, and I tried to not give into the fainting sensation. There was so much blood everywhere, I didn’t know if my stomach could handle it. Alexei didn’t fall though, he tried to grab me again, determined to finish the job. So, to defend myself I had to be the one who finished him first. I pulled the knife out and struck again, but this time I aimed for his chest, and I didn’t stop. Hit, after hit, after hit, until finally Alexei Popov cursed me one last time before falling to the floor, choking and ceasing to exist.
Khristos, what have I done?
My hands started to shake uncontrollably, and I dropped the knife, stepping back until I hit a wall. My chest was heaving up and down, my heart was racing, and my eyes almost couldn’t believe what was in front of me. I killed a man.
