Page 53 of Obsession of the Bratva

“Hello?”

The sound of her voice shattered something inside me. Tears immediately burned behind my eyes. The last time I had heard her voice was the day of the wedding when she had hugged me and asked me to change into my wedding dress because the ceremony was beginning soon. I was sure she would have been worried about me as well. A sob escaped me, and I could hear a sharp intake of breath on the other side.

“Vera? Vera, is that you?” It only took her one second to recognize me.

I covered my mouth. Suddenly, breathing became difficult.

“Oh my God,” Ava whispered. “Vera? Vera, please speak. I know it is you on the other end. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where are you, Vera? I will come get you right now!”

“I’m fine, Ava,” I finally whispered, controlling the sobs that kept coming.

“Jesus Christ.”

I closed my eyes, and for several seconds neither of us spoke, even though I could sense she was still panicking. Ava and I had been friends since we were little girls, and if there was someone who knew how much I hated my father, it was her. She was also the only person who knew the truth about how I had ended things with Nico and why I had agreed to marry Adrian. She had tried to talk me out of it, but she had known it was all pointless. I had already given up.

“Vera, where are you?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

“I’m with Nico,” I finally replied, wiping the tears off my face.

“Nico?” she was shocked. “Oh my god, so you ran away on purpose? Why didn’t you tell me, Vera? I thought you had been hurt. I could’ve helped you escape with Nico if that was the plan all along.”

“I didn’t run away with him, Ava,” I sighed. “He kidnapped me from the wedding.”

“Kidnapped you? What do you mean?”

Then all the words started pouring out. Everything. I told her about the kidnapping. The safehouse, and how I later found out he had been stalking me. The arguments, fights, and confusion. The fact that I told him the truth about everything, and how I had never cheated on him. The sex. The love. The hurt. His behavior towards me now.

Every single thing.

I talked until my throat hurt, and Ava listened through all of it. When I finally finished, the silence that followed felt strangely gentle, as if my head was in her lap like countless times before, and she was softly stroking my hair and telling me the world wasn’t an awful place after all. That I still had her.

“You still love him, Vera.”

It wasn’t a question. I stared at the opposite wall.

“Yes, I do. I never stopped loving him, Ava. I don’t think that is even possible.”

The answer came easily. Too easily.

“Does he know? Have you said this to him yet?”

“No.”

“Why?”

I laughed bitterly. “Because even after I told him I never cheated on him and it was all a lie, he never tried to fix things with me. He didn’t make up with me. He slept with me and left me all alone, and now he doesn’t even look at me. He doesn’t want me back, Ava. I have hurt him too much for that.”

“Does he know why you lied? Did you explain your reasoning to him?”

“I didn’t.” I sighed. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

I closed my eyes. Because I was afraid. Because the truth was bigger than the lie. Because the moment I told Nico everything, there would be no taking it back. Because if he looked at me afterward and still didn’t believe me, I wasn’t sure I’d survive it.

“I don’t know if he’ll trust me.”

Ava was quiet, and then she asked the question that changed everything.