Page 85 of Defiled Innocence

“Maybe he likes it this way. He has Lucas’ company, which protects his interests there. Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe he doesn’t care about her,” Nikolai needles.

These two are like old hens.

“Marriage has turned you into gossiping old women.” I frown.

“If you would just admit you love her, go make whatever amends you need to in order to get her back, then you can join us in our bliss.” Nikolai’s grin spreads wide.

“Loving her isn’t enough,” I argue. “She just found out her father murdered her mother, and I helped cover it up. She sees me as a monster. I let her father get away with what he did.”

“You think it’s the injustice of it that is bothering her?” Nikolai asks.

“I hid his crime.”

“People get away with murder all the time. Her brother helped in his way, yes?” Arman adds. “It’s not that you hid the crime back then that has her so upset.”

“You think to know my wife better than me?”

Nikolai laughs. “No, cousin. Calm down. But you’re too close to it to see it for what it is. She’s hurting. And badly from what the girls have said.”

“She can’t trust me, that’s what she said,” I argue.

“She can, she’s just hurting too badly to see it. Her brother died, has she even truly mourned him yet?” Nikolai points out.

She hasn’t dealt with anything at his apartment. All the delay with the attorney and his will. I’m not sure she’s even cried over his death, at her extreme loss.

Instead of dealing with the grief, she’s been shoving it aside. And now, learning about her father and her mother, it’s too much. She can’t push any more of it away. It’s all falling down on her and instead of facing it, she’s still trying to run away from it.

And in my stupidity, I’ve allowed it. Instead of forcing her to face the horror, I’ve let her hide away.

In order to get her through this, she’s going to have to face it all. And it’s going to hurt.

Both of us.

I can’t protect her from what’s already happened, not anymore. But I can be there with her to hold her, comfort her, to keep her safe while she navigates the storm of grief.

I pick up my phone as I get to my feet, tucking it away.

“I need to go.” I shove the chair out of the way as I round my desk.

“You’re going to have to tell her you love her, Dmitri. She needs the words now more than ever.” Nikolai gets up to face me.

“I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than tell her, cousin.” I slam the door behind me.

Amelia

“The kitchen is huge.” Sarah steps into the galley-style kitchen with me, her eyes going wide.

She inspects the stove and the fridge, while I peer out the single window that looks down at the alley below.

“Don’t you think?” She asks.

“It’s bigger than what I had in my old apartment,” I say, taking in the gloomy weather outside.

It’s been overcast for the past two days, like it wants to rain but just can’t let it out.

I understand the feeling too well.

“There’s a washer and dryer in here too?” She gestures to the stacked unit in the closet just outside the kitchen. “Not going downstairs to the communal laundry room is going to be awesome.”

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