Page 57 of Scarlet Secrets

I bite down on my retort as my eyes fill and blur and burn.

“Demyan—”

“I know what you did. You stole my child?—”

“My child, Demyan. Mine. I gave birth, I nurtured him, mine.”

“No, mine. You tried to hide him and deprive me and steal his father from his life. I’ll never forgive you for that. It’s the ultimate betrayal.”

I swallow down a sob. “Demyan, I didn’t… I never meant to keep him from you, not… I didn’t know you, please.”

He nods. “It’s easy, isn’t it, to play victim after the fact, but you didn’t try to find me. In fact, your brother would have told you about me and who I was and you chose to hide Sasha. And for that, I’m going to make you pay.”

The sob breaks free, but the contempt he flashes at me makes me fight the next one down.

“You’re making me pay. Please don’t punish him in punishing me. He needs me.”

“He’ll get over it.”

The cruel words slap me and even though I’m sitting, I jerk back, legs suddenly useless.

Then he reaches in his pocket and hands me a phone. With nerveless fingers, I take it. And shock hits me. The phone is mine.

“My men got your things from the venue.” He nods at my phone. “You have five minutes to text anyone who might be worried about you. Maybe your lover wants to know where you are. Explain your absence, and that you won’t be back for a while. You’re on an extended trip or something.”

“I don’t?—”

“Do it.”

I fumble, unlocking my phone, and for a moment I think of Tom. He’d get it immediately, but I dismiss it. Demyan will never allow that.

So I text Kara, who’s got to be beside herself.

Hey, Kara. Thnx 4 letting me borrow ur car. U should have it back. All good. Sasha and I R fine. We’re taking a long trip. I’ll reach out when I can. XOX

He takes the phone before I can press send. Demyan studies it like it’s code, but finally he presses send and pockets my phone.

“Good girl. Then again, you had to be, didn’t you?” He studies me now.

I lick my lips. “She’s the only person who’d be worried.”

“Your brother?”

“T-tom’s busy. He checks in every few weeks,” I say. “We’re not that close.”

He nods and turns to the door and the bottom falls from my stomach. “Demyan!”

I’m on my feet fast and he turns so fast we’re way too close and all I can do is smell that evocative scent of his, the one that makes a part of me swoon, even now, and I hate that part, I really do.

“What?”

“Sasha. Please, please let me see him. I’m all he knows; he’ll be so scared. He’ll be hungry. He?—”

“You’ll see him when and if I decide.”

Panic digs into me and I start babbling, “His things, there’s a book in there he likes, read that to him. And…” I grab his pillow and baby goat toy and thrust them at him. “This is his pillow and his favorite toy.”

I don’t want to give them up; they’re all I have, but there’s no way I’ll deprive my child, either. And I need him to have them more.

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