Page 127 of Bratva Butcher

Looney Tunes hadn’t been lying. It had beenway longerthan a few years since someone went into that room. The layer of dust was so thick that it covered every inch of the space. It was on the four-poster bed, on the dresser, the bookshelf—even on the walls. I was stunned, frozen on the spot, unable to move.

It literally felt like time had just stopped in that room and that room alone.

My eyes roamed around the room, following the light as it moved over every surface. Something caught my eye from one of the bedside tables. I took one step, then another, and it left very clear, distinct footprints behind me, but I couldn’t stop myself. It was like I was being drawn there.

A pair of heels were on the ground like someone had taken them off after a long, hard day and just left them right there. I moved closer, stepping over a towel covered in dust. It was what I imagined a room to look like after the world had ended, when people are moving from house to house decades later, scavenging for food, and they step inside to see what the room had been like right before disaster had struck. Right before people panicked and ran, leaving everything behind. Leaving everything exactly how it was.

Disaster had struck outside of that room, and ever since, no one had come back in.

My fingers shook as I reached forward and picked up a photo frame from the bedside table. Unable to help myself, I wipedaway the layer of dust obstructing the photo, and sucked in a painful gasp.

The photo was of a couple. She was gorgeous. Long, dark hair. Bright, hypnotizing blue eyes. Soft, pale skin. Beautiful smile. And he…

He was Dimitri, but not the Dimitri I knew. There was a light in his eyes that I’d never seen before. A smile on his lips that I’d never been a witness to. I ran my fingers over his face. He looked younger, his hair devoid of those streaks of silver I loved so much, his face free of those harsh, hard lines. He looked…carefree. Happy.

Thisis what a happy Dimitri looks like.

Pain smothered my chest, making it difficult for me to breathe. Of course. It all made sense. The reason why he pushed away from me every chance he got. My eyes flicked to her, the woman standing next to him in the photo.

He still loved her.

After all these years, he still loved her.

The evidence of that was all around me. It was in all her belongings still there, in exactly the same spots they were in before she died. It was in her clothes I could see hanging in the open wardrobe. In her shoes lying on the floor. Her perfumes sitting on the dresser. Her make-up sitting on the table.

He’d kept everything.

Everything.

Hot tears welled in my eyes. I blinked them back, refusing to let them fall.I shouldn’t have come in here. I should have listened to Looney Tunes.

Using every bit of strength I possessed to keep my hands from trembling, I placed the photo frame back in its spot and backed out of the room slowly. Once I was back in the hall, I took a deep, shuddering breath.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, I told myself.

I was there for a reason. I had a mission.Thatwas what I needed to focus on.

But as I inched my way towards the door Dimitri was behind, I couldn’t help but feel like any chance of happiness I might have was slipping away with each step.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Autumn DeValos

Islipped into Dimitri’sroom, quiet as a mouse, trying and utterly failing to forget what I’d walked into just moments ago.

Everyone was entitled to grieve in their own way.

Dimitri had chosen to grieve by keeping every single possession his wife owned before her death. That was normal… Right?

His room gave off a completely different vibe to the one before it, that vibe being “guest room”. There was nothing personal about it. No photos on the walls. No little knick knacks. Nothing to signify somebody actuallylivedin the room. Just four walls with the bare basics.

A king-sized bed. A bedside table. One lonely chair in the corner with a suit jacket folded over it. And a single pair of mens shoes sitting neatly on the ground at its feet.

That was it.

It was depressing as all hell.

Lying on his back in the middle of the bed was Dimitri. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness well enough that I could see that he was shirtless, the blanket falling down to just below his waist. His chest rose and fell with deep, even breaths.

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