Page 134 of Cruel Promise

But that doesn’t matter because I’m never going to see him again. I have my mom. I’m back at school. My father is dead, so he can’t hurt me. I can restart my life here with her.

“I want to know what happened next with you,” I say. “You know where I’ve been, but where have you been?”

“As I said, I went to see your father. I confronted him and asked him where you were, and he told me he didn’t know.”

“Lies. He did know.”

She sighs. “I see that now. But I didn’t have any other leads. You were just gone. So, I went to the police and told them everything. I filed a missing person’s report, but nothing came of it. They told me that at your age you probably ran away. I don’t think they tried to look very hard.”

“Mom, I’m so sorry. If I’d known you were alive, I would’ve scoured the entire city to find you.”

“It’s not your fault.” She pats my hand and pulls away from me slightly. It’s a shift that surprises me. “You were taken. I honestly thought you were dead. I kept trying to ask questions, but no one was giving me answers. And then …” She averts her eyes.

“Mom, what?”

“Then a man arrived at this apartment. I found it on the cheap, which for New York, was astounding. A man showed up and told me he could help me find you. That you were alive.”

“Who was this man?” I ask slowly. The way she’s not looking at me tells me something is seriously wrong.

“I’d never seen him before in my entire life. I was so desperate for help to find you that I followed him. And that’s when he … he took me.”

My heart skips a beat. “Took you?”

“Kidnapped me. He forced me to his home. He held me captive.”

“Why?”

“Because he believed I would have answers because I’m your mom.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”

“He told me you had a husband, which I obviously didn’t believe. Now, I see it was all true. Everything he told me, I didn’t believe. When I was of no use to him, he let me go. I thought for sure he would kill me.”

“What did this man want?”

“He wanted to know if you meant a lot to your husband. He wanted to know because … honey, I think he wanted to hurt you. To hurt your husband.”

My skin turns to ice and everything inside of me freezes. “Who was this man? What was his name?”

“He didn’t tell me for the longest time, and then … right before he left, he told me to tell you that … Anton was coming back for your husband. None of it made sense. It still doesn’t.”

Anton? Where does that name sound familiar?

And then it hits me.

Anton was the name of the man who scarred Nikolai. His previous second in command who’d betrayed him.

I stand up. “Mom, we need to get out of this apartment right this second.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I know who you’re talking about. I’ve never met him, but I know he hates my husband and that my husband hates him. He wasn’t lying when he said he would want to use me against my husband. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that these Bratva men don’t care who they hurt to get what they want. And I think this Anton wants to hurt Nikolai again. And I think he’ll try and use me to do it.” I gasp. “I need to warn Nikolai.”

“Wait, honey.” She grabs my arm. “You want to gobackto the man who bought you?”

“I’m not sure what I want. What I do know is that I want you to be safe. Anton let you go for a reason. He must’ve known somehow I would come see you. Nikolai isn’t here to protect me,which means I’m in danger, which means you’re in danger. We need to get back to Nikolai’s house right now.”

“I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to go to the man who forced you into a marriage.”

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