Page 45 of Beautiful Deception

He sets his intense eyes on me, making me want to shrivel into a hole and disappear forever. “Inessa?”

“I didn’t drop them, sir. I was just cleaning them. I know they’re valuable.”

“So, how did they end up broken?” When neither Natasha or I speak, Viktor sighs. “Someone tell me. Because I’m starting to see that there’s a lot of ‘she said, she said’ going on with you two. I don’t like it. When something goes wrong, it involves both of you.”

“Why aren’t you taking my side?” Natasha asks. “I’m your fiancée.”

“Not yet.”

Her eyes widen. “But we’ve been dating. We’ll be married someday.”

“I haven’t asked you to be my wife yet, Natasha. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is figuring out how these got broken.” He points to the glass on the floor. “I need to know.”

“And I told you. Your little maid broke them.”

“But why? That doesn’t make sense.”

“For your attention. She breaks them, she gets cut. You whisk her away to save her from her wound. Don’t you see what’s going on, Viktor? She does these things to get you to feel bad for her.”

I want to defend myself but it’s not my place. I’m not the one with any power here.

“Inessa? Is this true?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Then what happened?”

I look at Natasha and she glares right back at me. It would be so easy to tell Viktor that Natasha deliberately broke the plates just to make me look bad. But Viktor made a point of saying that it’s a ‘she said, she said’ situation.

So I lie once more.

“Natasha startled me when I was cleaning the plates. I accidently dropped it. I didn’t mean for it to happen..”

His eyes tighten, like he doesn’t believe me, but what else can Viktor do? He wasn’t here to witness the situation.

Natasha’s lips part in surprise. She keeps trying to throw me under the bus and I’m not going to do the same. I’m going to be better.

But I’m not going to let her drag me down with her.

“That really happened?” he asks.

“Yes. It was all an accident.”

“Well, if you startled that easily, I’ll have Mrs. Green clean the china from now on. And Natasha, don’t sneak up on Inessa when she’s cleaning something so valuable. Or cleaning anything, really. Understood?”

“But-,” Natasha starts to say but Viktor holds up a hand.

“Understood? You will show my staff respect.”

Natasha points at me. “She doesn’t show me any respect.”

“Natasha, do you understand? If you’re going to be my wife someday, you have to know how to treat my staff accordingly.”

All I can think about is last night when Viktor and I were in his office. I’m not sure he acted ‘accordingly’ towards me then. But I wasn’t complaining then and I’m not complaining now.

I like Viktor’s attention, I will admit. It makes my stomach flutter in a way it never has before. But he’s not mine and he never will be. Getting a crush on my boss, and the man who wants my dad dead, is not ideal. In fact, it’s stupid. But I can’t help how I feel.

“Natasha?”

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