Page 59 of Captivated By the Bratva

She cozied up against my side, browsing at the options on my phone. I bought more than what she wanted. She opted for the simplest things to be frugal. I hadn’t considered how much we were opposites sticking together, and I was curious about her past.

I had a lot to learn about her, and I couldn’t wait to do so.

Starting now.

“Why did Lev and your father enter that agreement about you?”

She sighed and rested her head on my shoulder. Our hands remained united, lying on my thigh. “My father wanted to marry my mother, and she was already promised to Lev.”

“Did your father know? When he pursued her?”

“He claimed he didn’t, but I think she had to have told him something. She didn’t want to marry Lev. She was all wrapped up in falling in love with my dad. He’s the sort of person to really sell himself when there’s nothing to love.”

I laughed once. “Yeah.”

“You met him?” She glanced up at me.

“I paid him a visit when I started looking for you. He told me where your former apartment was.”

She nodded. “Well, anyway, you met him, so you know what I mean. He seduced her and promised her some grand future. Over the years, I realized that he’d just wanted to get her to work for him. His big plans were to open a strip club, and he was convinced she’d pull in a lot of money for him.”

“What happened?” I knew damn well that Gregory Petrov managed a convenience store, not a strip club.

“He never got the money to start up any such business. His father gave him the convenience store, and that’s where he’s ‘worked’ his whole life.”

“What happened to your mother?”

“Over time, she fell out of love with him. He kept telling her not to get too fat because she’d be his star stripper. He controlled what she wore, who she talked to. And when it looked like he’d never be able to open up any strip club, he stopped caring about her. She danced at other places, just to bring more money home, but I think she only did it to be out of the house and away from him.”

“What a life,” I muttered.

“Yeah. She got weak and was eventually diagnosed with cancer. It was an aggressive form, and she didn’t live for long.”

“How old were you when she passed?”

“Seven.”

Something nagged me about this. “Did she know that you were promised to Lev?”

Her sigh broke my heart. “She did. My dad was never afraid to remind me that I had to be a good girl for my future husband.”

That was sick.

She kissed my cheek. “Maybe that’s why I like it whenyoucall me abadgirl.”

“I’ll call you whatever you want.”

She kissed me longer, on the lips. “Sweetheartis nice.”

“When you behave,” I joked.

“My mom was aware that I was in an arranged marriage before she gave birth to me. I liked to think that she planned to hide me and get me out of it, but she also said things that made me think she was depressed. That because she screwed up the arrangement of her marrying Lev, her daughter had to be the price to pay. I don’t know. I didn’t have great parents. That’s an easier way to sum it up.”

What she shared strengthened my view that she was just a victim in all of this, and it convinced me even more that I was right to step in and save her from ending up with Lev.

None of this was ever her fault. She hadn’t asked for this life, and I felt like a king to be able to get her out of the fate Gregory Petrov swore she’d one day face.

It still bothered me, just a bit, that I’d failed my first job for Alek. That was nothing but my pride speaking, and I wasn’t an idiot to let it rule me for good. I would make it up to Alek somehow. I would show him how right it was for me and Nadia to stay together. We just clicked. And as soon as we set it up so Lev wouldn’t be an issue anymore, I would devote myself to finding Dmitri. That would be my next job, and I would not fail at it.

---