Page 81 of Pregnant Bratva Wife
“Not your ruin,” I admitted quietly. “I never wanted that.”
“So you arranged it?” she gasped. “You had men steal from Megan, so I had no out? You knew. You…you spied on me. You knew of all my troubles and manipulated them to your advantage…” Her voice weakened, died out, like her brain couldn’t fathom the conclusions it had reached.
I felt a stab in my chest when I saw the tears gathering in her eyes.
“Yes.”
The word fell like a guillotine.
“Jesus Christ.” She pressed a hand to her mouth, her body physically recoiling. “Why?”
I rubbed my face, feeling exhaustion creep into my bones. “I don’t know Autumn. I just…couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
“So you stalked me?”
“I made inquiries,” I corrected, though the distinction felt hollow even to me. “I found out about your situation.”
“And you thought, what? That you’d play hero by creating a problem you could solve?” Her voice rose. “You had someone steal money from my sister’s dorm room? You sent men to threaten us?”
“I needed a reason for you to come to me,” I admitted. “I made sure they never actually hurt you—”
“Oh, how fucking noble!” she spat. “You didn’t let them hurt us, just terrorize us!”
I flinched. “I wanted to help you. I just needed a way in.”
“A way in?” She let out a bitter laugh. “You mean you wanted me, and when I turned down your insane offer to marry me, you manufactured a crisis so I’d be desperate enough to say yes?”
Put like that, it sounded insane.
Cruel.
She screamed. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was? How scared Megan was? We thought we were going to end up dead in an alley somewhere!”
Shame burned hot in my chest. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about it that way. I’d justified it as necessary. As helping her, ultimately. But hearing the pain in her voice now, I couldn’t hide from what I’d done.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it.
“Sorry?” She shook her head in disbelief.
I stepped toward her, reaching out. “Autumn, please—”
She backed away again. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare touch me.”
I dropped my hand. “I know it was wrong. But everything since then has been real. What’s happened between us—”
“Was built on a lie!” she shouted. “How can I trust anything now?”
I had no answer for that.
She shook her head, tears finally spilling down her cheeks. “I thought... I was starting to think maybe this could work. That maybe what we had was real. But it was all just another one of your schemes.”
“It wasn’t,” I said softly. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“But you did, and I can’t forgive that,” she said in a choked voice.
She turned to leave, and I moved to follow her. “Autumn, wait—”
My phone rang. I ignored it.
