Page 1 of Emerald

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ELENA

“You bitch, you fucking bitch,” Grace screams as she sees me step from the darkness after being reunited with my brother.

I understand why she hates me in this moment, but I had to save my brother.And I’d do it again.Grace may never forgive me for the pain I put her through, making her believe Maxim was dead, but at least she now has a future with him, one that she thought was dead and gone when she buried him today.

“You made me believe he was dead,” she screams at me, and I watch the anguish on her face as tears slide down her cheeks. “You tore my fucking heart out. You’re a stone-cold bitch for what you did.” She sneers, pointing her finger at me.

I’ll be the bad guy in her story if she needs me to be. Whatever pain she wants to throw at me, I can handle it because they are both safe together and can now build that future they dreamed about. They deserve that after what Dimitri put them through.

“Grace,” Max says, stepping in front of her, turning her focus on him rather than me. He cups her chin as he tries to calmhis distraught fiancée down. “It’s not her fault,” my brother explains.

You don’t have to defend me, Max, I’m a big girl.

I understand Grace’s anger, she buried the love of her life today, and now he’s returned from the dead because of me.

“Do you know the pain you put me through?” she says, pulling herself from Maxim’s grasp as she thumps her hand against her chest.

He’s my brother.

Of course, I understand her pain. I lost him all those years ago.

“It was the right thing to do, Grace.”

“Right thing to do?” she screeches at me.

“Wildcat, I would have died for real if she hadn’t taken me,” Max says softly, pulling Grace’s attention back to him again.

Tears slide down her face as she stares up at him, there’s nothing but love and awe as she looks at him. He uses his thumb to push away her tears that continue to tumble down.

“I had to bury you today, Max. I watched them put you in the ground,” she says, hiccupping on her tears.

“If there was any other way, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. I’ll do anything to keep you safe, Grace.”

My heart aches watching the two of them, and I hate that I’m responsible for the pain that is happening between them. In time, Grace will move on from the distress of today, and hopefully, one day will forgive me.

“You have no idea what it’s been like, Max.” Grace sniffles.

“I do, Wildcat. It felt like my heart was being ripped bit by bit as each day passed. I had to hold on to the hope that I would see you again,” he tells her.

“At least you had hope and knew I was still alive.”

“I will spend until the end of eternity making this up to you. Do you hear me?” Max says as he takes Grace's face in his hands and kisses her.

My stomach sinks as my mind wanders to the last time someone kissed me like that. And I hate the fact that, at this moment, I’m thinking ofhim. I hate that the asshole occupies a sliver of my blackened heart.

Who the hell falls for a monster?

And what kind of deranged person still misses him after he betrays and tries to kill you? That’s some messed up shit that no amount of therapy is going to be able to work out.

“Grace, who are you talking to? You’ve been gone for … what the fuck?” A blonde comes out looking for Grace.

Ah, Sophie.

She’s the journalist that broke the story about Nikolai and Dimitri that put them in the shit with the Bratva. Pretty gutsy if I do say so. She put her life on the line and made a lot of enemies to save her sisters. That’s the kind of badass woman I can support. Then, right behind her is the large, hulking man known as Brooks, the guy who’s been given enough clearance to know what’s going on but not enough to know what’s going on,if you know what I mean.He looks over at me and gives me a knowing yet discreet nod before feigning a shocked expression upon seeing us back from the dead.

While I’ve been away for the past couple of weeks, I’ve studied everyone who was going to be in Max’s life. There probably isn’t anything I don’t know about the Clark sisters and the surrounding people. What I do know is that they are good people. There was no way in hell I was going to let Max come back and not be safe. Not after everything we’ve been through.

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