Page 71 of The Enemy's Defector
“I appreciate the welcome,” I told her. “I’m hoping everyone here will believe me when I say I’m not a threat or a spy.”
“They’ll come around,” she said.
“Even Maxim?” I raised my brows. His opinion mattered the most as the leader of them all. Until he accepted me into the family, I would feel like an outsider.
“Even Maxim,” she confirmed. “He’s got a lot to handle right now. Be patient.”
I was trying my best, and I refused to screw this up.
“Three granddaughters.” She sighed again, so happy. “I remember when the boys were born. One after the other, all sons. I had so much hope for a granddaughter, but that wasn’t meant to be.” Leaning toward me with a conspiratorial smile, she said, “Let’s hope one of these babies will also be a sweet, darling girl to pamper and spoil too.”
I smiled, imagining having boys and girls. As many children as I could.
“I also remember what it was like when Beatrice married Grigory. How much hope I’d had in her.” Shaking her head sadly, she showed me her distaste about that woman.
“I remember her too.”
“You do?” She raised her brows. “You weren’t that young, but it’s like no one recalls her. Of course, no one wants to remember her here. Her memory is a stain on those brothers’ minds.”
“Yes, I remember her,” I replied. I not only remembered her but also how I used to kind of tag along with her when I could. I had been so fascinated by her, watching a mother, and I had started a habit of snooping. It started as curiosity. It developed into intrigue, and it was that nosiness that had saved Nik’s life.
I’d never talked to anyone about it, this action that should’ve prevented Maxim or any other Ivanov from doubting where my loyalties lay.
Now, if I were to bring it up, no one would believe me.
A guard came into the room, letting Anastasia know she was needed elsewhere, and we parted ways. After she told me that we’d catch up soon, she left the living room.
Too full of thoughts and now old memories, I sat back down to mull over them and muse about what else I could do until Nik came home. I understood that he was a busy man. He’d have a lot to catch up on after being gone. But I missed him.
“There’s not much I can confidently claim to remember these days,” a man said at the doorway, “but contrary to what she said, I do remember my wife.”
I spun, standing to see Grigory entering the room.
“Hello, sir.”
“Oh, none of that now.” He smiled, the same smile he used to have for me when I was younger. “You’ve never called mesirin your life.”
I grinned, watching him walk into the room with the help of a cane.
“We’re family now,” he said before hugging me.
After hearing he ordered the guards to take Lucy to the dungeons because he had thought that she was me, and I had to be an enemy, I hated to feel so wary around him. And because this was Grigory Ivanov, he noticed my stiffness as I hugged him back.
“You’re safe—from me.” He sat with a sigh. “I won’t lie and admit I’m the same old man you’ll remember.”
“It sounds like it’s been a rough recovery,” I admitted. “I’m sorry.”
“It has been rough. I’ve got my good days and my bad. I’m happy that this is one of the good ones, too. I feel more likemyself more often now.” Sharpening his gaze on me, he lost that more jovial and casual tone. “I’m especially glad today is a good one and my memories are cooperating. I overheard you with my mother there, and I remember when you used to trail along after Beatrice.”
I nodded, wondering if he’d remember it all.
“You trailed along with her so much that you were the one to give me the first innocently blurted idea that she was cheating on me.”
I winced, recalling all too clearly how I’d mentioned seeing Beatrice kissing other men at functions. I’d told Grigory, as a very young girl who had yet to realize the significance of what I was ratting the woman out for.
“And you continued to trail along after her, so much so that it wasyouwho could tip me off about where my sons were held.”
I swallowed hard and nodded again.
