Page 37 of Bound By Hate (Born in Blood)

“Yes, you were.” She motions Gleb away.

“I’ll go talk to some other guests,” Gleb says, kissing my cheek. I hold very still until he’s gone.

“Do you not approve of my fiancé?” I ask Vera.

“Whatever do you mean?” She could win a supporting actress award for how good she is.

But she’s not as good as me. I’m the main actress in this movie. Always have been, always will be.

“You said I could have done worse, Vera. That’s not exactly a compliment.”

“Wasn’t it?” She sips her champagne. “I’m happy for you, Viktoriya. Your fiancé isn’t as good as my husband, but what can you do.”

I know exactly what she’s doing. By dismissing Gleb, she’s dismissing me in the process.

My eyes land on Sofiya and Mila, who are across the room, talking together. There’s an entire room’s distance between us. It feels even bigger than that—more like an entire ocean keeping us apart.

Sofiya catches my eye, and I quickly look away. She’s the one who started the fight with me. She can apologize.

In my effort to look away, I accidentally catch Aleksander’s gaze. He uses that as permission to walk over.

“Viktoriya.” He nods at me, then turns to Vera. “And who are these? Your friends?”

Vera basks under Aleksander’s attention while the other three smile widely and flutter their eyelashes. All these women are married, but they’re not acting like it around Aleksander.

Sure, fine, he’s handsome. I’ll admit it.

But have some respect, ladies. I’m an engaged women, and I’m not hurting myself to get Aleksander’s attention. In fact, I would rather not have his attention at all.

“Viktoriya’s best friends,” Vera says, holding her hand out like she’s the Queen. Aleksander shakes her hand like they’re in a business meeting. Vera frowns and snatches her hand away.

“It’s nice to meet friends of Viktoriya’s. There’s still a lot I don’t know about her.”

“And you’re not going to find out,” I snap. “Because I’m not marrying you.”

“True. But I never got to ask—which wedding dress did you choose? I’m curious.”

The one he picked out for me, but there’s no way I’m ever telling him that. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” I pause. “Oh, wait, no. You’ll never see my dress because you’re not invited to my wedding.”

“I bet it’s upstairs right now. I could go into your room and see it.”

“You will not. You have no permission to go into my room.”

Vera clears her throat loudly, making Aleksander and I step away from each other. I didn’t even realize we were standing so close. “What’s your name? I like to know the names of men who look like you.”

Aleksander smirks, throwing me a wink—which makes me roll my eyes—before turning back to Vera. “Aleksander, ma’am.”

Vera huffs. “I am not a ma’am. I’m barely thirty years old.” A lie. Vera is at least forty-five, if not pushing fifty. No amount of Botox can hide that fact.

“My apologies.”

“So, what was wrong with Viktoriya that she didn’t choose you?”

I blanch at Vera’s abrupt question while Aleksander takes it in stride. “She didn’t like that I don’t come from wealth.”

“Oh, Viktoriya, don’t be such a snob.”

I can feel myself glaring at Vera before I straighten my expression. “I just know what I’m worth, and I didn’t feel like Aleksander was worthy of me.”

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