Page 46 of Defiled Innocence

“Why not?”

“Because it was his money. Not my money.” I find a soft pink blouse, but think better of it.

If I spill something at dinner, it will be painfully obvious.

“You were his sister.”

I sigh. He’s not going to stop picking until he gets the answer he wants.

“My father liked to remind me, at every opportunity he could, that my mother tricked him into marrying him by getting pregnant with me. He said I was her golden ticket.” I pull out a dark purple blouse, realize he’s shaking his head no at me, and put it back.

“You father said that?” he presses when I go back on the hunt.

“Yes. He said she only wanted his money. Which wasn’t true, but he never would listen to anyone. This one?” I find a gray sweater.

“No. This one.” He reaches past me and plucks a green blouse I haven’t worn in a while. “It brings the green out in your eyes.”

“I don’t have green eyes.” I take the hanger from him.

“No, you have hazel eyes. A nice blend of brown and green. This will bring out the green,” he says. “Now go on, what other nonsense did that old man fill your head with?”

His tone changes when he mentions my father, almost as if there’s a hatred lingering there for him. Dmitri wouldn’t be the first person to have past anger at my father, but I’m curious as to what his issue is.

“He made it a point to make sure I understood his money was his money. I hadn’t earned a penny of it. I think that’s partly why Lucas wouldn’t go into politics with Dad. He didn’t want my father to be able to hold it over him that he’d given him a leg up.”

“Lucas built his firm without your father’s help? Not even the startup cash?”

“No. Lucas and I didn’t share a mother. Well, you knew that, but anyway, his mother had died from breast cancer when he was in high school. She had her own money; her father had been an investment broker or something like that. When she died, everything she had went to Lucas. She specifically left my father out of her will.”

Dmitri’s eyebrows rise. “Really? She cut out her own husband?”

“Yes.” I smile. “Lucas told me once he thought his mother saw through Dad’s bullshit and knew if she left it to him, Lucas wouldn’t see a dime. So, when she got sick, she changed her will and cut him out.”

“So Lucas used that to start his firm.”

“Some of it. Yes.” I nod. “He wouldn’t use the whole amount because he didn’t want anyone to say he didn’t do it on his own. So he put up some of the cash and then got a few investors. He was very persuasive when he wanted to be.”

With my outfit picked out, I try to step around him to the door.

“Dmitri, move,” I laugh. My underwear is in the dresser. I can’t get dressed without that.

“Not yet.” He takes the shirt and pants from me and hangs them on a hook near the door.

“What are you doing?” I take a small step back, understanding the look in his eye perfectly well.

He’s moved back into his predatory mood.

“Take off the towel,moyo dikoye plamya.”

“Dmitri, your family will be here soon.” I clutch the towel with one hand and try to ward him off with the other as I back up a step.

“They can wait. I’ve waited for them before.” He stalks toward me until he’s only arm’s length away. “Take off the towel, Amelia; don’t make me tell you again.”

But his accent comes through thicker when he gives his warning, and I have to make him tell me again. If only to see the flash of dominance in his eyes.

“You have guests coming, you’re being rude.” I take a small step back, but not far enough.

He easily snatches me by the arm and yanks me to him.

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