Page 12 of Emerald

“Zoe’s right. We need to get everything out on the table. It’s the only way we all can move on and concentrate on the future together. I don’t want anything from my old life to hang over my new life. When I marry you, I want that day to be the clean slate that you and I deserve,” Maxim explains as he brings Grace’s hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles.

This should be interesting.

4

ELENA

Ilet Maxim go first, explaining why and how he took Grace. I wasn’t prepared to find out Dimitri was behind it, nor his involvement with Grace. I only thought he knew her from being a jewel. I had no idea he had a semi-relationship with her.I hate the jealousness it’s aroused in me.Nor did I realize the true extent of why she was deathly afraid of him during Moscow or why she shut down when we were trying to seduce Dimitri’s uncle. It all makes sense now, and I feel like a cold-hearted bitch for pushing her that night, all I could think about was my mission, my goals. I thought if she had fallen for my brother, one of the most lethal assassins, she was going to be stronger. I didn’t know the back story of what had happened with Dimitri. I feel sick, falling for his bullshit. I’m smarter than that, but when it came to him,I wasn’t.How can Grace forgive me for loving the man who destroyed her? That continually destroyed her while I happily occupied his bed. Where I reveled in the love that he shared with me. That I thought I was different for him,with him.He played me. Not only did he double-cross me in the end for power, but he double-crossed my heart. I thought I foundsomeone in this fucked up world that understood me. That loved me for the monster that I was.

How fucking wrong was I?

“Can you excuse me for a second?” I say, standing abruptly as I exit the room. I can’t hear any more of what that man did to them. I’m a fool.

“Ellie, wait,” Mackenzie calls out after me.

I ignore her as a panic attack slides over my skin. The flashbacks of my time in Dimitri’s bed, sucker punch me. All the I love you’s, all the filthy words he said to me, all the promises, all the times he looked at me as if I was the only woman for him in this world. I’m supposed to be the most cold-hearted killer in the world, and I stupidly fell for everything he told me, hook, line, and sinker. I don’t deserve redemption or a second chance at life. I deserve to be six feet under, paying for my crimes.

“Ellie,” Mackenzie calls out again.

I’d forgotten she’d been following me, so lost in my mind. I whirl around and pull a gun on her, which makes her gasp as she comes to a halt. Fear and uncertainty flitter across her face as she stares down the barrel of my gun. She’s heard of my reputation, and in this moment, she doesn’t know if she is meeting Elena, the killer, or Ellie, her new sister.

I drop the gun to my side.

“Never sneak up on an assassin.” I hiss at her.

“Noted,” Mackenzie says quietly, looking deathly pale as she stares at the gun.

“Don’t try to give me your sunshine, Mackenzie. I don’t deserve it,” I tell her through gritted teeth.

Mackenzie’s brows rise high on her forehead at my words. “Do you not think you deserve sunshine, Ellie?”

“I don’t deserve a lot of things, especially all this,” I say, waving my hand around me.

“All what? This tropical garden?” she jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

I secure the gun back in its secret hiding space on my leg.

Relief slides across Mackenzie’s face. “What happened in there?”

“I can’t stay here. I don’t deserve to stay here,” I say, shaking my head as the panic creeps further up my chest, constricting every molecule in my body.

“Why?”

“Look at you all in there, I am not worthy of that,” I scream at her.

“Worthy of what? Family? Friends? Happiness? Laughter? What?” she bites back.

“Yes, all of it. I’m a stain on this family. A black fucking cloud,” I tell her.

Mackenzie steps forward slowly as if trying not to startle me, her eyes shift to where my gun is hidden away. “Do you think we only care about you because of Max?”

“Yes,” I bite back honestly.

“I can’t speak for everyone in there, but for me, I’m excited that you have joined this family. I don’t feel as alone anymore,” she confesses.

She feels alone?

“Zoe and Grace were always close because of their ages, but even more so because of what has happened. Then there’s Sophie. She’s always been a loner, even growing up. She was happy being by herself most of the time, whereas I hated it. But Sophie and I are like chalk and cheese. That’s why I buried myself in my books and became known as the nerdy one of the sisters,” she explains.

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