Page 63 of Innocent Bratva Hostage

She’d suddenly lost the father she loved very much, and the peaceful life she had got thrown off balance.

She had to move in with a man she barely knew, got kidnapped, and almost died. Now, we were talking about the last time she met her father—a memory I suspected she’d so badly wanted to forget.

Although it would have made things easier if she’d told me the truth from the start, I understood why she didn’t, and I couldn’t be mad at her.

I also couldn’t blame her for her father’s mistakes, and the sight of her tears made something inside me crack open. I couldn’t bear that the woman I cared about was sad and in pain.

Standing up from the couch where I was seated, I walked over to her and pulled her closer, wiping her tears and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “There’s nothing to be sorry about,solnishko. None of it was your fault.”

“But he betrayed you,” she choked out.

“He did, but he also made a crucial decision that saved all of us in the end.” I cupped her cheeks and tilted her chin so she would look into my eyes. “I promised to find his murderers, and I’m not going to rest until I do.”

Burying her face on my chest, she clutched my shirt and sobbed even more loudly.

I instinctively wrapped my arms around her to provide her comfort and warmth. The sound of her cries was a wreckage to my soul.

I hated it.

I would do anything to make sure she never cried like this ever again. The only sounds I wanted to hear from her were her laughter, her giggles, and her moans, not this.

“But my father betrayed the Bratva,” she repeated. “You must hate him for it. You must hate me, too.”

I ran my fingers through her hair slowly, rubbing her back to calm her down.

When she finally stopped crying, she lifted her now puffy face and met my gaze, adding, “I think I might know where Dad hid Tyfun-1.”

Chapter 22 – Giselle

The drive to the lake house was the worst two-hour drive of my entire life. My stomach churned endlessly, and my heart wouldn’t stop hammering in my chest as I desperately prayed we would find the clue we were looking for here.

Andrei sat beside me, gripping the wheel with precision. Another car tailed closely behind us, and Dobryn and two other men were inside.

It’d been a relief to finally come clean to Andrei about Dad being a double agent and everything else he’d told me the night he came to see me.

To be frank, I’d expected Andrei to be raging mad at me as I told him everything. He’d been rightfully upset, but he’d understood me and even comforted me.

That moved something inside of me, and for the first time, I believed he truly cared about me, perhaps way more than I could ever comprehend.

I stared out the window, watching the dense forest stretch out on both sides of the winding road. The sun had gone down already, and the headlights were barely cutting through the darkness.

Andrei must’ve noticed how nervous I was because he stretched a hand out and squeezed my thigh. “Are you okay?”

I placed my hands on top of his and smiled. “I am. I’m just anxious. What if I’m wrong, and the answer we need isn’t at the lake house?”

He briefly shifted his gaze away from the road to look at me. “Then we’ll think of some other way to find it. Don’t beat yourself up too much.”

I wished it was that simple—that I could snap my fingers, and all the disturbing thoughts would go away, but it wasn’t.

Memories of my childhood flooded my mind as soon as we pulled into the driveway. They were all bittersweet recollections of Dad and I laughing as he chased me around the house and Mom calling out to let us know dinner was ready.

I missed those days.

Pain pierced through my chest at the thought that I would never again hear Dad’s voice.

Andrei got out of the car first, slammed the door, then walked over to my side and held the passenger door open for me.

I exhaled sharply to get myself ready for whatever I was going to find inside.

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