Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I studied her. The careful way she said that bag instead of the money. As if she were still trying to separate herself from it, as if she hadn’t already drenched her hands in the blood Veronika left behind.
I tilted my head. “Do you know what those strings were?”
“No.” A flicker of unease crossed her face. “The only thing I know is that she said if anything happened to her, I needed to take the money and run. So that’s what I did.”
She ran.
And I chased.
I raked a hand through my hair, the full picture coming together piece by piece. Veronika had known she was playing with fire. She hadn’t protected herself—but she’d tried to protect Marina.
And she had sent her right into my hands.
Marina studied me, then asked, “If you knew Veronika was cheating, why didn’t you ever say anything?”
I felt the weight of that question settle between us.
“Every time I threw her in your face,” she continued, her voice quieter now, “you could have told me she was sleeping with other men. You could have shut me down. But you never did.”
I looked at her, my pulse steady but thick with something darker.
“She was your sister,” I said simply. “You loved her. I didn’t know you knew about her affairs, and I didn’t want to trash her memory in your eyes.”
Something shifted in her expression.
Not quite softness—something worse.
Something dangerous.
“Oh…”
That tiny fucking sound, barely even a word. If Marina ever realized how helpless I was when she looked at me like that, I was fucking ruined.
I leaned in. “If you knew what your sister was doing, then why didn’t you use that information against me?”
Her lips parted slightly, her pulse flickering at the base of her throat.
CHAPTER 26
MARINA
Why hadn’t I used that information against him?
Even if it was just to wound him, to drive a blade between his ribs with nothing more than words, I had never done it. Never even considered it.
I’d like to say it was because I wasn’t that kind of person, but that would be a lie. We all had it in us, the ability to be cruel when backed into a corner. To use whatever weapons we had at our disposal.
If it had meant the difference between freedom and captivity, I should have done it.
So why hadn’t I?
For all her faults—and there were many—she was my sister. And I had loved her unconditionally. That was the thing about unconditional love. It didn’t vanish when someone died. It didn’t dissolve just because you disapproved of their choices.
And yet, here I was, having done the very thing I had sworn I never would.
I had slept with her husband. Twice.
A nauseating wave of guilt coiled through me, twisting my insides into knots as I stared down at the untouched plates of food. The decadent feast that, only moments ago, had seemed like a luxury now made me sick.
“What just happened?” Kostya’s voice was low, wary.
I forced a smile, brittle and hollow. “Nothing.”
He didn’t believe me.
“Marina,” he said, his tone edged with warning.
I shivered. I should have been afraid of that voice. Maybe I was. But more than fear, it was something else entirely, something darker. The way he said my name had always held weight, as if he owned it.
“I just miss my sister,” I whispered.
I watched understanding dawn in his expression, darkening his eyes like a storm rolling in. He knew. He felt it. The guilt that had me in a chokehold, turning every moment of pleasure into a crime.
“Marina.” This time my name was softer, almost coaxing.
What kind of woman did this? Who betrayed the only person who ever truly loved her? The details of their marriage didn’t matter. She had been his wife. And I had taken him anyway.
I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. “It’s okay. I know that even if you didn’t love Veronika, you still respected her.”
Kostya’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t want you to think less of her.”
He meant that. I could see it in his eyes. And yet, it didn’t make any of this feel less wretched.
“If it makes a difference, I told her it was a bad idea. I asked her to stop.”
“How long did you know?”
I hesitated. “Since the beginning.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed, his silence stretching between us.
I couldn’t tell him everything. That she had betrayed him from the moment they said their vows. That she had sought out his rival deliberately.
That I was pretty sure Solovyov wasn’t the only man she’d been sleeping with.
There had been another man toward the end.
Someone so dangerous that she wouldn’t even tell me his name. Only some stupid Batman villain nickname.
He would take it personally. What man wouldn’t?
But it was never about Kostya. It was about Veronika’s need for control, her refusal to be caged. She had been willing to burn everything down to keep from feeling owned.