Page 60 of Sinful Bride

I freeze in my tracks. “What?”

“What if Tatyanna didn’t exist?” Daphne repeats. “No pregnancy. No baby. Nothing tying us together.” She wrings her hands together, nervously looking away. Her next question is barely a whisper. “Would we still be here? Right now?”

It takes a moment for her meaning to sink in.

But when it does?

I feel like the world’s biggest fucking idiot.

I’ve been so focused on doing everything right. Right by her, right by our daughter, right by the Bratva. Solidifying alliances, ensuring trust funds. Making a show of our union so people will witness and never question our sincerity. Showering her with gifts upon gifts, attention, sex.

And not once have I allowed either of us to know the truth.

The real truth.

I’ve been avoiding this exact confession because it makes me seem weak. Foolish. Vulnerable. All things no pakhan is ever allowed to be or feel lest his enemies destroy everything he is. Everything he has.

Kostya is not a man I like comparing myself to. But I’m realizing, right here and now, that my efforts to avoid becoming him have done exactly that.

And I’ll be damned if he robs me of my wedding day, too.

I rise and look at her. “The morning after that night at the auction, I woke up wanting you. It was an ache that refused to go away, a longing inside my chest that demanded I do something to bring you into my life.”

Daphne is quiet. Even her breathing goes still.

“I buried that instinct,” I rasp as I walk toward her. Slowly, slowly. “But the next day, there it was again. And the day after that. And the day after that. Every day, for four fucking months… you were the first thought on my mind.”

Daphne’s fingers tremble in my grasp when I pick up her hand.

“Do you remember that day we ran into each other at the clubhouse? At lunch?”

“Yeah. I remember.”

“Remember how I chased after you? Wouldn’t let you leave without talking to me?”

Her face flushes. “Yeah…”

“Daphne.” I say her name so she’ll look at me. I need this to finally sink in, for both of us. “I had no idea you were pregnant. Not yet. All I knew was the woman haunting my dreams was right there, and I wasn’t going to let her go.”

Fresh tears spill. But this time, I have a feeling they’re not sad ones.

“So yes, I’d marry you—with or without a baby. The only thing your pregnancy did was remove my head from my own ass so I could see what I had right in front of me: you.”

She stifles a tiny, teary laugh. “But you said you never wanted to get married.”

“I didn’t want to get married. That’s true. But that was before I met you. And after… there’s no one I’ve ever wanted more.”

She swallows. She’s teetering on the edge of believing me. We’re so close. We’re so fucking close to breaking through into a future neither of us ever thought we could reach.

“Look at me, moya plamya.”

Daphne’s lashes flutter. She looks at me, her lips slightly parted. God, I need her.

“I am so. Fucking. Sorry.” I tip her chin up with a finger when she tries to look away. “For everything. For not being honest with you from the start. For causing you pain and heartache you should have never experienced. For not…” I huff out a self-deprecating laugh. “For not giving you the vows I didn’t think I could bring myself to say. But I’m here with them now. I’m ready for them now. Are you?”

Her only answer is a quiet inhale.

So close.

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