Page 158 of Sweet Obsession
“I missed you so much,” she whispered into my shoulder. I felt a sharp pang in my chest, realizing how much I had missed her too.
“I’m here now,” I said, pulling back just enough to look at her face. “Nothing’s going to take me away again.”
Her smile was wide, and for a moment, it felt like we were the only two people in the world. Her presence made everything feel right, even though the weight of our past still hung over us.
But then I noticed it. The faintest flicker of something in her eyes—something that didn’t belong. Something that hadn’t been there when we were younger, when life was simpler, when we had no idea what the world was capable of.
I wanted to ask, but I didn’t. Not yet. We climbed into the car, and Gabriella immediately began chattering about everything and nothing. It was as if she was trying to fill the silence, to pretend that nothing had changed.
I listened, but my thoughts were elsewhere, on the look in her eyes. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had shifted in her, and it wasn’t the kind of shift I wanted to see.
The drive to her house was short, but the tension between us felt heavy. We walked inside, and as she set the bags down and started to make tea, I watched her, searching for answers. I could feel the change in the air.
She sat down at the kitchen table, her fingers nervously tapping against the ceramic cup. “Luna, I... I need to tell you something,” she said quietly, her voice almost cracking.
I set my cup down, all my attention on her. “What is it? You know you can tell me anything.”
She took a deep breath, her eyes searching my face like she was deciding how to approach this. Finally, she spoke. “Yuri... he wasn’t who you thought he was.”
My heart stopped. I hadn’t heard his name in so long. Yuri. My first love, the man who had betrayed me, who had been a lie from the very beginning. But I had never suspected what Gabriella was about to say.
“What do you mean?” I whispered, a lump forming in my throat.
Gabriella’s eyes fell to her hands, twisting around each other. “He... he hurt me, Luna. For years.”
I blinked, struggling to process her words. “What? Hurt you how?”
She swallowed, her voice trembling. “He raped me. He started when I was fourteen. He told me... he said if I ever told anyone, he’d kill me.” She paused, and I could see the pain in her eyes, the heaviness she had carried with her for all this time.“That’s why I could never tell you. Why I couldn’t speak when you asked why I cried. You always thought it was about him, but it wasn’t. It was about what he was doing to me.”
The world around me seemed to tilt, the room spinning. The cup in my hand threatened to fall, but I couldn’t focus on anything but her words. I wanted to scream, wanted to tear the walls down, to break everything. I wanted to hate her for not telling me sooner, but I couldn’t. I understood why she hadn’t. She was a victim, too.
“I had no idea,” I said, my voice breaking. “I never knew...”
Gabriella wiped at her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. “I know you didn’t. But I couldn’t... I couldn’t let anyone know. Not even you.”
The weight of everything she was saying pressed on my chest. The man I had loved, who I thought had loved me, had been the monster who had destroyed my sister. He had hurt her in the most unimaginable ways, and I had been blind to it.
“He never loved you, Luna,” Gabriella said, her voice low and steady. “He used you to get closer to our father. He never cared about you. You were just a pawn in his game to spy on him.”
The words hit me like a physical blow. I had always thought Yuri had loved me. The jealousy he showed when I was around other men, the way he would hold me close, kiss me like I was his world, it had all felt real. I had ignored the red flags, convinced myself that it was just who he was, that he loved me in his own fucked-up way.
But no. It had all been a lie. A game.
I clenched my fists on the table, my nails digging into my palms. “I should’ve known,” I muttered, a dark fury rising within me. “I should’ve seen it. If I had, I would’ve killed him myself. I would’ve put a bullet in his skull, Gabriella.”
She shook her head, her eyes pleading. “Luna, it’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”
But I couldn’t shake it. The rage, the betrayal, the shame—it all mixed together like poison. I wanted to break something, anything, to channel the anger that burned in my chest.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice hoarse. “I should’ve been there for you. I should’ve protected you.”
Gabriella took a deep breath and wiped away her tears. “I’m better now. I’ve been going to therapy. It helps.”
I nodded, trying to hold it together. But there was more, I could see it in her eyes. “What else? What else did he do?”
Gabriella hesitated, then spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper. “Before he died... he told me something. He said he killed Stepan, Misha’s brother, fifteen years ago. And that he was going to kill Misha, too—before Misha ever had the chance to leave Colombia. He said he was going to make sure I was his. That I was never meant to be with Misha. He even said it when Misha came to marry me, before he changed his mind and decided on you.”
Everything froze. Stepan. Misha’s brother. The man who had haunted Misha’s every thought. The one who Misha had searched for, the one whose death had torn him apart. Yuri had killed him. I could feel the pieces of the puzzle falling into place, the truth crashing down on me like a tidal wave.
