Page 3 of Obsession of the Bratva

“Then stop acting like a goddamned stranger.”

The words hit harder than they should have because that was exactly what I was trying to become. A stranger, so he could walk away from me and forget me. My throat tightened, but I forced myself to keep talking.

“You know what the problem is, Nico?”

His expression grew wary, but he answered. “What?”

“You always took this more seriously than I did.”

The lie landed between us like a grenade, and I saw the impact immediately. His entire face changed with that one statement. Good. That was good. That was exactly what I came here to do. So why did it feel like I was tearing my own heart out? Why did I still hate hurting him like it was hurting me more?

“This being our relationship?” he asked, his face once again unreadable.

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?” His voice had gone quieter, and somehow that was worse. I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking.

“It means exactly what it sounds like.” I folded my arms across my chest. The gesture felt defensive. I hoped he interpreted it as indifference.

“I’m not going to lie, what we had was fun.” I continued, the words nearly choking me. “But it lasted longer than I could have ever hoped or expected.”

Nico didn’t move or blink or say a word, so I kept going. Because stopping would be fatal.

“But eventually I got bored with you and this little act we had going on of a whole pre-marriage cycle here where everything was becoming monotonous and redundant and basically making me go to sleep. I honestly couldn’t have taken any more of this.”

The second the sentence left my mouth, I wanted to take it back. Not because he looked angry, but because he looked hurt. Deeply, genuinely, painfully hurt. I had seen Nico bleed. I had seen him injured. I had seen him walk away from situations that would have broken weaker men, but none of it compared to this. None of it.

“I don’t believe you. Every single word coming out of your mouth is a lie, and you know it better than I do, Vera.”

Relief exploded through me. For one glorious second, relief flooded every corner of my body because he didn’t believe me. I didn’t want him to believe me. Thank God. Thank God. But then I remembered why I was here. I crushed that relief immediately.

“You should believe me, Nico. I am not lying.”

“No.”

The answer was immediate, as if he was absolutely certain about his verdict. I hated how much I loved him.

“You know me better than that.” My chest tightened as I said it, the irony of the statement coming to me. Exactly. He knew me better than that, which meant I needed to do worse. Much worse. I took a slow breath and then another. And then I delivered the cruelest blow I could think of.

“I never loved you, Nico.”

The words hung in the air between us for a few seconds before everything changed. I saw it happen. Saw the exact moment something inside him broke. Not completely, but just enough to matter and be irreversible. For the first time since I entered the office, Nico looked away. Only briefly. Only for a second. But he looked away. And somehow that hurt more than anything else. Because Nico never looked away from difficult things.

Until now. Until me.

“I don’t believe that either.” His voice sounded different. Rougher. I could see him trying to hide his own emotions, but it was getting harder with every awful word that came out of my mouth.

I closed my eyes briefly and then opened them again. “You should.”

“No. I can’t and I won’t.”

I laughed softly. The sound felt hollow.

“You really are stubborn.”

“Does Ava know you did this?” he asked, mentioning my best friend who, apart from him, was the one person who knew everything about me. Ava already knew the truth and had tried her best to talk me out of it, but hadn’t been able to.

“She doesn’t.” I lied, and his expression turned colder.