Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
When my voice cracks at the end of my reply, Taylor leaves the alcove of her room. “How about we take a minute to breathe? It is early—”
“No,” I interrupt, my anger too high about the number of devices I found to think rationally. “I want him out.”
Saka appears hurt by the disdain in my tone, but he schools his features before making out I have no say in my own life. “You can’t fire me. You didn’t hire me. Your father—”
“Forwarded me your notice this morning.” I march to the entryway table and snatch up my phone, open my email app, then twist my screen to face him. “Your final payment has also been deposited into your account.”
“Let me see that.”
I yank my phone back before he can snatch it out of my hand. I was just as hurt that my first request for contact in years was answered via email, but if I can accept it, so the hell can he. “My word should be enough, Saka.”
“It is.” He scrubs at his jaw like he’s begging it to remain shut.
He fails the endeavor only seconds later. “But I know you are irrational when you’re angry, and you push people away when you’re worried they’re getting too close.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true, Nat,” Taylor murmurs, jumping back into the conversation. “You did everything you could to push Millie, Maria, and me away when you arrived. We thought you hated us.”
That hurts to hear, but honesty often does.
It doesn’t alter the facts, though. “So I should just let him off scot-free? He invaded my privacy and stripped me of the most basic human right.”
“No. He shouldn’t get away with what he’s done. He is clearly in the wrong.” Taylor’s words impact Saka more than they impact me. “I just think you need to take a moment to think so you’re not making a rushed decision.”
I agree with her, but there is one matter I can’t overlook. “I don’t know if I can do that with him here.”
“Then Saka will find somewhere to stay until you decide the next step.” He scoffs, but Taylor cuts him off with a rueful glare. It dawns on me that her anger is as high as mine when she snaps out, “It is either a hotel for a few nights or a one-way ticket out of Kronstadt. And be grateful you have a choice, Saka, because I’m not sure you deserve one.” She just hides it better.
“All right.” Saka works his jaw side to side, loosening up his words. “I’ll call around some places and see if I can find a vacancy for this weekend.”
“Today,” Taylor and I say in sync.
Grateful for her support, I move to her side of the living room before folding my arms over my chest to announce I’m not budging this time. I’ve swept Saka’s overprotectiveness under the rug multiple times in the past two years because I thought it was how he showed he cared. But this isn’t something I can simply forget. This level of violation is why I’m living in a foreign country and only communicating with my parents via encrypted servers and cold emails.
“All right,” he murmurs again, his tone as tight as his jaw. He locks his eyes with Taylor. “But if anything happens to her, it’ll be on you.” He storms for the door, grumbling, “I’ll return later to get my stuff.”
When he slams the door shut so firmly Taylor balks, I band my arms around her waist. We huddle in close until I convince myself the shivers raking through me are more in anger than fear I’ll never see both Matvei and Saka again.
“No Saka again today?” Polina asks with her back facing me. She’s storing away the last dresses from the order we recently finished unpacking.
“No. He’s, ah…”—it’s hard to lie to her when she’s been so upfront with me the past couple of days. But sometimes honesty hurts even more—“away.”
It’s been three days since my confrontation with Saka. Excluding finding the skeleton key to my apartment on the entryway table when I returned from work yesterday afternoon, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him.
It’s for the best.
Taylor thought I was paranoid when I organized for a security firm to sweep our apartment for bugs I may have missed, but she quickly apologized when they located multiple devices ranging from microscopic cameras to old-fashioned listening devices.
Thankfully, none were in the bathroom, but every other inch of our apartment was under surveillance.
“I can stay for the rest of your shift if you’re worried about being alone,” Polina offers, spinning to face me. “I’ve been searching for an excuse to skip Vasily’s birthday dinner. This seems like a good reason.”
“You think I’m scared to be alone?”
She angles her head before pursing her lips. “That’s why you have a bodyguard, isn’t it?”