Page 108 of His to Own

I sit on a bench and tip my head back, breathing in the air. I’m safe. But the memory of Aleksander cutting that man’s head off refuses to leave my mind. I sit up with a gasp and shake my head.

“Elena?” Alisa’s shrill voice enters my ears. Why is she always at the park whenever I am? Is she watching me? Her ulterior motives that Maxim accused her of having.

“Alisa,” I say in a stiff voice.

Behind her is her three friends: Ekaterina, Sofiya, and Viktoriya.

“I wanted to see how you were since you left brunch in such a hurry. How have you been?”

Terrible. Completely terrible. But at least me and Maxim had a breakthrough. That’s the one good thing that came out of all of this.

“Maybe it’s better we don’t spend time together,” I say, trying to sound as firm as I can speaking to her. Alisa has an intimidating presence about her that makes me nervous.

She tilts her head to the side, looking me over with a frown. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t we spend time together?”

“Because…”

“Because?” She looks at her friends who all shrug. “Because why?”

“You and Maxim,” I force out.

“Oh. That.” She laughs like everything is good when it’s not. “I completely forgot I told you. How are you taking all of that?” The condensation in her voice makes me grit my teeth.

“I talked with Maxim and everything is fine.”

“So you’re not mad at him? I thought maybe you would be.”

I get to my feet and cross my arms. Fight. After everything I went through yesterday, I don’t have it in me to deal with Alisa today. “Are you trying to get between me and my husband?”

Her laugh sounds completely fake. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you wanted me to find him doing something bad. You want him back, don’t you?”

“My. You are forward.” She clutches her hand to her chest. “I don’t remember you being so forward. Maybe you should learn some manners.”

“You really should,” Sofiya adds.

I can feel all four of them ganging up on me with their eyes. The urge to duck my chin to my chest is strong. It’s natural for me to want to hide away but I can’t. Not after what happened with Aleksander. I can never go back to being so afraid and shy ever again.

“Stay out of my life,” I say to Alisa. “I don’t trust you.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“You told me about the affair you had with Maxim. You wanted it to sting, didn’t you?”

“Of course not,” she says but the eagerness in her eyes says otherwise. “I was just surprised he got married, that’s all. He was never the marrying type.”

“He wants to be with me.” It feels so strange standing up for myself but it also feels… good. Really good. Powerful for once in my life.

Her eyes rake me over as she drops her façade and shows me her true colors. “You are presumptuous to think he’d want to be with a plain girl like you over me.”

“Do I need to remind you, Alisa, that he married me?”

“For power. For your brother-in-law. Everyone already knows it.”

“He still chose me. So leave me alone. I don’t want to be friends.”

She huffs. “You’re missing out. Come on, girls.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and walks away. The other three obediently follow.