Page 29 of Cruel Promise

I set my fork down and press my hands together under the table. I need to ask the question I’ve been dreading asking. If I don’t, then I’ll never find closure.

“Nikolai.”

“Mmm?”

“I need to go back to my old apartment.”

He stops eating. The silence in the room is deafening. “And why is that?”

“Because my mother was killed there. I need to bury her body. Give her a funeral. Please. I’ll never be able to move on without it.”

Nikolai’s eyes soften again. “Well, I can understand that. I can go with you.”

“Really? You’ll let me go?”

“Together.”

“Right. That’s fine. I just need to put her to rest.” I place my hands over my heart. “Thank you.”

His eyes flick to my hands. More specifically, my left hand and ring finger. Absent a ring. “Why aren’t you wearing your ring?”

“Because I … didn’t want to wear it.”

“Go put it on.”

I gulp. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I flushed it down the toilet.”

Nikolai’s face tenses. His fingers around his fork turn white. “You flushed the ring I gave you down the toilet.” It’s not a question.

“I did. Yes.”

“I seem to remember saying you’re a smart woman. Right now, Ava, you’re not being very smart. I take back our deal. You don’t get to go to your old apartment.”

My heart drops right out of me. “What? But my mom?—”

“Can wait there until you have a new ring on your finger. You are mine, Ava, and the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can earn my trust.”

“But you can’t take this from me. Please.”

“Need I remind you? I’m not a good man.”

For a just second, I saw a glimmer of goodness in him, and now, it’s all gone.

I push my plate away and stand up. “I can’t eat.”

He sighs and motions to the door. “Fine. You may leave.”

I rush out of the room, but before I turn the corner, I glance back at him …

… and see Nikolai still seated at the table with his head in his hands.

I’m not even changed out of my black dinner dress by the time Nikolai shows up in my room with a ring box in his hands.

“I had spares,” he admits, opening the box. It’s the same exact ring.

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