Page 80 of Doctored Vows

Ano thrusts his hand at the windscreen. “Can you see two feet in front of you?”

“If you couldn’t see, you should have gotten out of your car! Maksim didn’t want her to find out this way.”

“I did get out. Still couldn’t see shit?—”

Ano’s defense cuts off when I ask, “Didn’t want me to find out what? That he is a Russian gangster or that his last name isn’t Ivanov?” I can’t bring up the prospect of him killing people. I’m too stunned to let that fully sink in right now.

Raya and Ano hold each other’s gazes for several terrifying seconds before Raya breaks their stare down first with an honesty I’m not expecting. “Maksim hasn’t used the Fernandez name in years, not since his father left his family without two pennies to rub together, and a heap of debt. He legally operates under his mother’s maiden name.”

Her confession and Maksim’s obvious disdain of his father settles that debate in a heartbeat, but it doesn’t answer all my questions.

“And the rest?”

It only takes half a second for me to unearth the truth in her eyes.

Everything the detectives allege is true.

Maksim is a murderer, and I’m the lead witness in the case they’re attempting to build against him.

“Is that why he married me?” When Raya seeks Ano’s opinion on how to answer my question, I ask it again, louder this time. “Is that why he married me!”

The contrite glint that flares through her eyes has the truth smacking into me like a ton of bricks.

The nail indents I mended because I thought I had caused them.

Our time together in the airplane bathroom.

The vows we exchanged.

They were all for a purpose, and it isn’t close to what Maksim and Aleena made out.

He doesn’t want an inheritance.

He wants to get off murder charges.

And I’m his scapegoat.

“Nikita!” Ano shouts when I throw open the back door of the SUV, slip out, and then sprint down the icy sidewalk.

He could be chasing after me on foot, but I can’t hear anything over the thuds of my heart in my ears. I thought what Maksim and I had was special, that it was fast because it was right. You don’t need to stay in the slow lane when there’s nothing to be fearful of.

I’ve never felt more stupid.

I’m taken aback when my entrance into the foyer of my building occurs at the same time Maksim exits the elevator. He’s surrounded by men in powerhouse suits that scream importance, but his aura trumps them all. He is the clear alpha of the room, and after everything I’ve just learned, it should make me scared to approach him.

Regretfully, I inherited my stubbornness from my mother.

“Did you marry me so I wouldn’t be able to testify against you?”

Maksim balks for barely a second before he forces his expression back to impassive, and then he continues showing his guests the way out.

I’m too hurt to wait for privacy.

I want answers, and I want them now.

“Answer me! Did you marry me so I couldn’t testify against you?”

Maksim’s jaw gains a tic. I don’t know if it is from my line of questioning in front of dignitaries, some I now realize are foreign since they appear oblivious to my accusations, or because two of his guests are barged out of the way by Ano sprinting into the foyer, red-faced and out of breath.

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