Page 26 of Hating the Bratva

“What about it?”

“I talked with Bethany. A month or so. She said that’s enough time to get everything in order. My only request was that it happens at my grandfather’s mansion. He has a nice backyard that will fit everyone.”

Great. Because I want to get married in the backyard of someone I don’t even know. And of course my mom is already playing the role of a wedding planner.

I fake a smile. “Okay.”

“I live near Beacon Hill if you’re curious about where we’ll be living after the wedding.”

“That’s kind of far. I’ll need a car to go back and forth to school.”

He furrows his brows. “School?”

“Yeah, I’m a nursing student.” Wow, this guy knows nothing about me.

He shakes his head and takes a bite of his pasta. “You won’t need to do that anymore.”

“I wasn’t asking,” I say, apparently a little too loudly because the couple at the next table looks over at me.

His jaw twitches. “Neither was I.”

I’m going to kill him. There’s no way we’ll survive marriage together. I’ll be on some crazy crime docuseries about women who kill their husbands. It’s a mystery how he’s lasted this long in the Bratva without someone killing him.

“I only have a year left,” I try.

“What’s the point? I won’t have my wife working outside the home. It’s insulting.”

I stop talking because, obviously, I’m not going to get anywhere with him. The rest of the night, we eat in silence. At one point, the waitress slips Ivan a folded piece of paper that I’m sure her phone number is written inside. Instead of telling her he’s on a date with his fiancée, I watch him tuck it into his pocket. He thinks I’m blind to the whole thing, but nothing surprises me about this man.

By the time we’re headed back toward Alek’s house, I’m holding back tears. I never thought I’d have to grieve for my old life, but I guess I was wrong. When he stops the car on the cobblestone driveway in front of Alek’s, I open the door, trying to get as far away from him as possible. He grabs my arm, gently stopping me from bolting.

“I have your number, so I’ll text you.”

I nod. He lets out a sigh before releasing me, and I unfold myself from the car. I walk up the stairs to the door and go inside without looking back. Hot tears slide down my face, my eyes stinging from the makeup. I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with that man—a man who takes the waitress’s phone number right in front of me and doesn’t believe women should work outside of the house. The sound of footsteps makes me snap my head up. Alek rounds the corner.

When he sees the tears on my face, he narrows his eyes. His jaw twitches, a habit of his I’m noticing. He looks deadly, dangerous.

“What happened?” he grits out. His hands ball into a fist. “Did he fucking touch you?”

I quickly shake my head and wipe at my face. “No, no, nothing like that.”

I try to sidestep him to go up the steps, but he blocks my path. His body is like a wall, taking up the entire space. He grabs my chin and lifts it so I have to look at him. His hair holds droplets of water. He’s shirtless, and my eyes immediately go to the tattoos that wind and twist over his muscles. Black sweatpants hang low on his hips, exposing that deep V that women go crazy for.

“What happened?” he asks again.

“Nothing.”

“Bunny,” he warns.

“You can’t call me that anymore. I’m not yours. I belong to that monster. That monster who doesn’t believe a woman should have a job outside the house. Who hits on women right in front of me. That’s what I have to look forward to.”

His face softens, and the tears start flowing down my cheeks again. I already feel alone, and I’m not even married yet. That man has put a wedge between my parents and me. I doubt we will ever recover our relationship now.

“I just want to go to sleep.”

Alek lets me go, and I walk around him up the stairs.

*****

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