Page 77 of Unrequited
That challenge was part of what drew me in. She made me question everything. Made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel.
I didn’t think I had feelings. Not like that. And definitely not for someone Russian.
We were raised to hate each other. And I followed that rule, like all the rest, for the good of the family. Always for the family.
Until her.
“I’ll make this better,” I promise. “I’ll make this right.”
She blinks up at me.
I grit my teeth.
“I want you to promise me something, Zoya. And I want it now.”
She nods, solemn. We don’t lie to each other. Not anymore.
“You’re my wife now. I’m your husband. If I ask you something, I want the truth. And if you ask me, I’ll give it to you. Will you promise me that?”
She nods. “I’m an honest person, Seamus.”
Then she looks away. “Until you,” she adds softly. “You’re the first person I’ve ever lied over.”
I tilt her chin up with my finger and make her meet my eyes.
“Why’d you do it, love?” I ask softly.
“I felt… trapped sometimes,” she says. “At least, I thought I did. Like a caged bird. I just wanted to breathe outside the family, just for a moment.”
She pauses. “I saw my brothers getting married, traveling, living. And I imagined myself always stuck there, little Zoya in the kitchen, with only a few friends, not much beyond my family.”
She blinks rapidly, tears slipping down her cheeks. “But I do love them, Seamus.”
“I know,” I say, pulling her in. I kiss her forehead, then her damp lashes, tasting her tears.
“I know you’re honest. And I know sometimes pressure makes people do desperate things. Things they’re not proud of. But that doesn’tdefine you.”
Maybe I’m saying it for both of us.
“Will you give me that promise, love? Please?”
She nods. “And I promise too. You ask, I’ll answer. Truth for truth.”
I nod.
“So let me ask you something, then.” I lower my voice. “What are you afraid of?”
“You,” she whispers.
And I know, in that moment, she’s telling the truth.
“When I was with you… before I knew who you really were… I thought youworkedfor The Undertaker, and that was bad enough. God, I was such an idiot.”
I growl low and shake my head. “Ah-ah. You don’t say a word against yerself like that again, hear?”
Swallowing hard, she nods and continues. “I never imagined… not in a million years… that youwerethe man. The one everyone fears.”
Now the tears fall freely. Her voice breaks as she says it, raw and real.
