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)
Matvei’s home, I correct my inner monologue.
“Did he sign?”
When a woosh bounces off the floor-to-ceiling window, I connect my eyes with Saka’s reflection in the tinted glass. I don’t know whether to be ecstatic or angry when I spot his headshake. My emotions have been all over the place lately, and my stomach is churning so much I want to vomit.
My shoulders slump when he discloses, “He’s refusing to sign until he sees you in person.”
Because he knows what my body doesn’t want to admit.
Even angry, it can’t deny him.
“Can’t the court push through with the application regardless of his wishes? He’s the one who filed, and I gave him everything.”
“He doesn’t want everything, Nat.” He waits for me to look at him before he finishes. “He wants you.”
“That’s not true.” I hate when my voice cracks. “He played me for a fool. It was all a lie.”
“For you too?” When I peer at him with furrowed brows, he asks, “The sparks? The pull? Were they all lies?”
I almost shake my head until I realize who is giving me relationship advice. “You think romance is having sex with your socks on. I should not be taking advice from you.”
He lets off my snarly grumble with a laugh. “And you get your rocks off by being spanked like a child. Don’t yuck my yum, Nat.”
“You need to stop reading my romance books.”
“We’ve spent the last three months on a remote island with no internet connection, mosquitos bigger than my palm, and a box television that can only get two fuzzy channels. Those books were all I had.”
“Don’t let Taylor hear you say that.”
I hit a nerve, and he’s not willing to hide it. “You can be a real bitch when your hormones are off-kilter, and I’m fucking over it. I’m homesick, I miss my girl like crazy, and there’s no reason for me to hide you anymore.”
I thrust my hand at the door like Matvei is standing on the other side. “He’s a hired killer—”
“Who spent more time working pro-bono the past three years than he did getting paid because he wanted to protect you from your own fucking family.”
I was so shocked when Saka fixed his earlier error. When he said “he thought you stole his family’s money,” I assumed he meant Matvei.
I was wrong.
He was referencing the child my mother birthed five years after I was born, the brother who loathed me on sight because he believed every lie the papers printed about me. He thought I had killed his father, and when Matvei started tossing around my name to ensure everyone knew if they messed with me, they were messing with him, Dean conjured up a crazy story that we’d planned the entire thing together. It was easier for him to believe that than to realize my mother had stiffed him on his trust fund as she did me when I turned twenty-one.
Dean also kidnapped Saka and planted him in Maksim’s car with the hope it would make me so mad, I’d toss Matvei under Henry’s massive fleet of SUVs.
In a way, I wish I had orchestrated some of this, because then I wouldn’t feel like I’ve spent the last three months in the dark, striving to find the light. I’m lonely, confused, and hurting, but the only person who can subdue me organized a court-appointed mediation session to commence proceedings on our divorce.
I bet Matvei wishes he hadn’t changed the date on our marriage certificate. We could have gotten our marriage annulled if he hadn’t made out we’d been married for three years.
The reminder of his scheming ways resurfaces my anger. “He set me up for murder and then tried to trick me into signing an annulment.”
I scoff when Saka murmurs, “We all make mistakes.”
“That big?”
His chest heaves as he laughs. “Yep! Probably even bigger than that.” He puts his coat back on. “If you don’t believe me, ask Taylor.” Once the collar of his jacket protects his neck from the brutal Russian winter, he adds, “But can you wait a good three to four hours? Because I have a fucking ton of missed time to make up for.” He rips a button off the front of his suit. “This might keep you occupied for an hour or two. Hopefully Matvei can fill in the rest, because I’ve never seen a man so willing to defend a stranger, and that is my entire life’s work.” When I notice the thin wire projecting from the button, he nudges his head to his infamous tablet. “The password is Taylor.”
With that, he leaves the penthouse without so much as a backward glance.
Just as swiftly, I fire up his tablet, log in, then veer for the file that says Jacket Camera.
I fall backward onto the couch, startling Sookie, when Matvei’s roar is the first thing that booms out of the tablet’s speaker. “Where is my fucking wife?”