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Where Konstantin will never be able to find me.
Ivica continues to look at me as she waits for my answer. Widening my smile, I tell her. “No, thank you, Ivica. But I would love some pancakes.”
She nods as she guides me to a nearby chair. “Okay, sit for a while. I’ll be right back, dear.”
Only after she is safely out of sight do I dare to let the tears start falling. Once they start, I can’t make them stop even if I want to.
“Kitty Cat?”
I raise my head in alarm when I hear Konstantin’s voice, and turn to find him walking towards me with concern in his eyes.Oh no …
I knew I shouldn’t have started crying. Now, he’s going to ask me why I’m crying.
The fabric of the robe scrunches under my fingers as he closes the distance and kneels down in front of me. He takes my handin his, chasing the cold that’s wrapped itself around my heart away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I …” The words die on my lips.
I can’t tell him the truth.
Not after I heard whathesaid he was going to do to me.
Not after what Alla promised to do to me.
“What is it?” he asks as he cradles my face.
I wrack my brain for an answer, for something—anything—that I can tell him so that he might go away. Or convincing enough so that he won’t make me reveal the awful truth that I learned.
“I was just thinking about Nadia,” I lie.
It shocks me how easy it is to lie. As much as I hate doing it, I justify to myself that this is the only way I can keep myself safe.
From him. From his grandmother. From everyone here.
“About what?”
“About …” I start haltingly. “She hasn’t heard from me since the bachelorette party.” I settle on a topic I know he’d believe. “And the last time we spoke with each other, she had just dropped me off at the airport so that I could go to New York to deal with my sister’s death. She must be worried sick. I just … I just wish I can talk to her. Let her know that I’m okay.”
Konstantin looks at me for a while, and then something shifts inside of his eyes. Without releasing my hand, he stands up.
“Wait here,” he tells me, and then he walks away.
A few minutes later, he returns and hands my phone back to me.
“I kept this charged for you,” he explains. “I was planning on giving it back to you after the wedding. But since you’re staying a little longer …” He smiles. “Here.”
I look at the phone in his hand.
Staying a little longer …
Stop lying to me. I know what you’re really after. You’re just like your grandmother.
He places it in my palm, closing my other hand around it with a smile. “I know you won’t do anything that would upset me.”
Konstantin may be speaking, but all I can hear are Alla’s venomous words.
You will march yourself back into his bed, spread your legs like the good little whore that you are, and take every drop of his seed until youarepregnant.
