Page 36 of Beautiful Beast

“So, I want to see Nadia today.”

“I promise. I’m a man of my word. We can go right after we eat.”

I scarf down my food as fast as possible, and then we’re off. Erik is silent on the drive to my father’s house in the city. I personally have no desire to talk to him. I’m worried if we talk, I’ll end up saying something I’ll regret, and Erik will get under my skin and make me feel things I don’t want to feel.

My father answers the door after we knock.

“Erik.” His eyes settle on me. “Anya,” he adds in a clipped tone. “What are you doing here?”

“Anya wanted to see her sister.”

“Well, Nadia is at school right now.”

“On a Sunday?” I ask.

My father goes eerily still, then slowly opens the door. Already, I’m disobeying his orders. He wanted to keep me far from Nadia, but I’m not going to let that happen.

I storm past him to Nadia’s bedroom. She sits up when she sees me enter. “Anya!”

I stop dead in my tracks. One side of her face is already bruised. My father has already begun to hit her.

“I’m going to kill him,” I seethe.

Nadia rushes to my side and grabs my hand. “Don’t. He only gave me this because he wanted my phone, and I refused to give it. So … he did this. I gave him my phone. If I just follow his orders, this won’t happen again. I’ll be fine.”

“I tried calling you last night. Is that why you didn’t answer?”

“He wants to make sure we can’t talk anymore.”

“Oh, Nadia.” Looking at her bruised face, I realize it was a bad idea to come here. She’ll only get hurt more because of me. The only way to keep Nadia safe is to stay far away or convince Erik to let her come stay with us.

And I’m not sure which option is good because both options are utterly terrible.

“Don’t confront him, Anya. It will only make things worse.”

“You’re not safe here.”

“I’m not safe anywhere. But if I just stay out of his way, he won’t hurt me. But we can’t talk again. I doubt he’ll let you come back to see me.”

“I hate that I can’t protect you,” I whisper as tears fall down my face.

“You’ve protected me all my life. It’s ok that you can’t now.”

Her words are a slap in the face.

A knock on the door makes both of us jump. “Anya?” It’s our father. “You need to leave now. Don’t make me drag you out of there.”

“Would you really do that while Erik is here?”

He goes silent for a moment, then he says, “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want. I’m Sergei Belov. I have just as much power as Erik does.”

I shudder. My father is right.

I hug Nadia one more time. “Just stay out of his way until I can find a way to save you.”

“I will.” She hugs me back so tightly, I almost can’t breathe.

And then, we let each other go.

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