Page 17 of The Bratva's Prisoner Bride

I had no words...not while his intentions burned into my skin like a hot iron.

As pure shock moved through my system, I could only gape at him, wondering for a moment if he was even being serious.

He couldn't be. There was no way.

After all of his anger...his clear disdain for me. I refused to believe that after everything, his grand plan culminated to this point—us getting hitched.

Why would he possibly want that?

Even trying to rationalize it in my head made me feel almost dizzy.

But I shook my head the longer I looked at him and saw how completely serious he seemed.

"No..." I mumbled, unable to accept it for even a moment. "You don't mean that."

But the slightest pull of his lips said otherwise while Ivan looked at me with a touch of condescension surrounding him. "I entirely mean it."

Whether it was the confirmation or the smugness in his grin, it didn't matter. It set me off all the same.

"Absolutely not," I returned, raising my voice and not bothering to hold back anymore. "I won't allow it!"

I expected Ivan to lose his cool in return, but he only kept those cold, dark eyes on me for a moment longer before speaking.

"That's too bad. I don't care what you think or feel about it, and I certainly won't let that stop me."

Everything in me was screaming for him to take it back...to admit he was bluffing or that it was a mistake, but from what I could tell, he wouldn't accept otherwise.

I could feel more of that rage flooding my system, pushing so completely against what he was trying to force on me. "So what, you'll just force my hand? You'll make me go through with it despite knowing how much I don't want it?"

He studied me for a moment before giving me an apathetic look. "You should be happy, Daria...anyone else in your situation would probably be dead by now."

My incredulous expression was scalding. "Happy? You think I should thank you for this?"

That irritating grin returned to his lips while he leaned in slightly. That glimmer in his eyes seemed to confirm it without him needing to utter a word. "Yes...you're quite lucky to be stuck with me...and I'm going to take great pleasure in watching you suffer day in and day out."

The bitter sincerity that seemed to wrap around those words felt more suffocating by the second, and I couldn't find the words needed to express just how devastating that was. To convey how simultaneously angry and terrified the prospect made me.

Ivan studied me closely, as if I were nothing more than an experiment, making my skin crawl. His previous smugness slipped into a more serious demeanor.

"Whether you like it or not, I've decided it's final. And just so you're aware, this is how things will go moving forward..."

My stomach twisted into knots, and I could only look at him from across the table. The frantic beat of my heart roared in my ears.

"Listen carefully...I'll allow you to roam the house, but you'll be monitored closely. I have cameras everywhere and employees who won't hesitate to intervene if necessary. So you'd better not try to run." After the words left him, he paused with consideration before humming and smirking. "On second thought...feel free to do so. I'll enjoy choosing your punishment. Either way, regardless of what you want, you'll get your comeuppance, Daria."

Every word felt more damning than the last, and despite being frozen on the spot in complete disbelief, it felt like a fire had been lit beneath my feet. Pure panic ebbed into my skin and covered me like a burn.

I still couldn't believe it. He, of all people, wanted to force me into marriage despite how much he hated me. Either there was something severely wrong with him, or there was something else to the plan that I didn't know yet. Either way, he was insane.

As much as I didn't want to provoke him in the moment, I couldn't stand the panic and need to run. To escape those ridiculous plans he had for me.

Burning with rage and feeling like I was on the precipice of freaking out so completely, I pushed up from the chair. I couldn't hear any more of it. Not when he was condemning me to a life of misery, all because he was still mad about how I helped my brother. That idea seemed so absurd, but there was no other possible explanation.

As insane as it sounded to me, I had to remind myself that he and his brothers were a different breed. They did things, outrageous and even things they didn't want to do, all to get ahead in one way or another.

He likely didn't want to marry me, but somehow, he had a reason to justify it. I didn't want to know what those reasons were.

Before I could get even five steps away from the table, I halted in my place and narrowly missed colliding with a wall of solid muscle dressed up in a black suit. Glancing up, I realized the man was much taller than me, and with his sunglasses on, his expression was unreadable.

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