Page 71 of His Forced Bride
They're about to learn otherwise.
13
INESSA
Iwake to an empty compound.
The absence of Yuri's presence feels different—not the relief I expect, but more like unease.
The guards are still at their posts, but their usual tension has shifted.
They don't seem as controlled now, and it frightens me.
I try to tell myself Yuri would slaughter them if they even looked at me, but that self-reassurance doesn't help.
Rosa finds me in the dining room, picking at breakfast I don't want.
"He'll be back soon," she says, refilling my coffee cup, though I've barely touched it.
"I didn't ask."
"You didn't have to."
She settles into the chair across from me with kind eyes studying my face.
"You have the look of someone who worries about him."
I scoff and shake my head, and it turns into a genuine chuckle.
"I'm not worried. I'm trapped."
"Those aren't mutually exclusive."
Rosa has worked in this house longer than anyone—twenty years, according to Oleg.
She's seen Yuri's rise to power, witnessed the transformation from the man who married his first wife to the cold strategist who forced me to the altar.
She knows a little about him and I could probably learn things from her.
Which gets my wheels turning.
"What was she like, really?"
The question escapes before I can stop it. "His first wife."
Rosa's expression softens.
"Yelena was light. Pure light in a world that had gone dark for him."
She traces the grains on the oak table with her finger.
"They met at university, before any of this. Before he understood what his father expected him to become."
I set down my coffee cup, suddenly needing to hear more.
"She was studying literature. Wanted to be a teacher. Can you imagine? Our Yuri, falling for a woman who read poetry and believed in happy endings."
The nostalgic smile on her face makes me pause and wonder what she actually sees in that predator that I'm missing.
