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“He wanted to know what was going on. My mother tried to tell him some bullshit, and he told her he asked me.”
“I bet she couldn’t have been too amused by that?” I snort.
“Not at all. I told him, and he made her sign the documents, drove me home, and told me to pack my things.” Stacy turns and gives me a watery smile. “He moved me into his apartment in Boston Center. We agreed to keep it between the two of us, and three weeks later, we were in love.”
“And you never told me any of this. You just kept quiet and made up stories about parties and your sex life.”
“All true, but just with one man.” Stacy rubs the back of her neck. “I agreed not to tell anyone I’d moved out—especially your father. Gunner was no longer needed as my brother was in college in Washington D.C. and I had Andrey’s brother to protect me.”
“And you managed to hide all this from me.” I’m in shock.
It’s surreal. I am most definitely Trueman. Living a happily oblivious make-believe life while the real world was going on behind the scenes. Anger, resentment, and disgust for my father, Stacy’s fucked up parents, her sick brother, and that attorney that treated her poorly bubbled up inside me.
“Bella, I wanted to tell you every day,” Stacy assures me. “But first, it was your father and then Andrey’s older brother. When he admitted he loved me, the first thing he told me was that he’d been engaged to someone for a long time and the woman wasn’t even aware of it.”
“ME!” My voice raises again.
“Shh,” Stacy says, putting her finger over her lips. “We don’t want Shrek over there to close us down.”
“I can hear you, you know!” Pavel growls. “Do I look green to you?”
Stacy peeks over the sofa. “A little.” She nods. “And I’m impressed you know who Shrek is.”
“Everyone knows who Shrek is.” Pavel rolls his eyes.
Stacy turns her attention back to me. “That’s when I found out you were engaged.”
“And you couldn’t tell me because of my father, your mother, and you didn’t want to alert anyone to your whereabouts?” I guess.
“Yeah.” Stacy nods. “We were keeping it on the QT. When Andrey came to visit, I made myself scarce.” She giggles. “Andrey caught me in the club a few times, and on the fourth time, he banned me because I wasn’t twenty-one.”
“The Dark Velvet Lounge?”
“No, I never went in there again.”
“I saw you go in there the night I met Andrey,” I tell her.
“I went in there to find Konstantin.” Stacy glances at me. “He was waiting in there for me to give him the signal it was time to put our plan for you and Andrey in action.” Guilt flashes in her eyes before she quickly changes the subject. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but Andrey’s brother didn’t want to marry you, so we jetted off to Vegas and got married a week before my nineteenth birthday.”
“I promise you, Stacy, I didn’t want to marry either Belov,” I assure her and frown. “You said you were widowed. I think I remember hearing Andrey speak about this older brother to someone in Russian the one day I was stuck in his apartment.” My frown deepens, and I look at Stacy curiously. “What was Andrey’s brother’s name?”
“Lev,” Stacy’s voice has a catch in it. “It was Lev.”
“Lion. Lev means lion.” I have no idea why I had to say that.
“He was that.” Stacy smiles sadly. “Lev was my lion. When we got back from Vegas, I found out I was pregnant, and we went to meet with his parents. His father was furious. I heard him and Lev shouting in the den while I was with his mother. Grace Belov couldn’t have been happier. She was so nice.”
“I met her.” I nod. “I wasn’t very warm to her. She’s the one that picked out my wedding dress.”
“Grace Belov has exquisite taste,” Stacy points out. “Your wedding dress was beautiful.”
I shrug. “I guess.” I shake my head. “She also said she knew my mother and that they had been best friends since childhood.”
Stacy nods. “She’s a wonderful woman. I have no idea how she ended up married to that fuckhead Ivan Belov.”
I shudder. “The man’s good-looking, I guess. He did make two gorgeous sons.”
“I think their looks are thanks to their mother’s side of the family.” Stacy laughs. “Andrey wasn’t at the house when we went to talk to his family. Lev wanted to speak to Andrey. His father said that Andrey was at his penthouse.”
