Page 52 of His Forced Bride
"Inessa—"
"Get out!"
The words tear from my throat in a raw, desperate roar.
He straightens his clothes, running a hand through his hair.
At the door, he pauses.
"This changes nothing," I tell him before he can speak.
"It was a mistake. It won't happen again."
He doesn't argue.
He just looks at me for a long moment, then leaves, closing the door softly behind him.
I sink onto the bed and finally let myself cry, great, ugly sobs that shake my whole body, mourning everything I've lost—Batya, my freedom, my sense of self.
But underneath the grief is something else, something I don't want to acknowledge.
The way he made me feel, the dark hunger in his eyes when he looked at me—I didn't hate that.
10
YURI
Three days married, and Inessa moves through my house like a ghost.
She eats the meals Rosa prepares, speaks when spoken to, and disappears into the art room I set up for her on the second floor.
But she won't look at me, won't acknowledge what happened between us on our wedding night.
I tell myself it's better this way, a compliant wife who doesn't challenge my authority, doesn't create problems with my men.
But when I catch glimpses of her in the hallways—pale and ethereal in the flowing dresses Rosa insists she wear—something hungry and desperate claws at my chest.
I want her to fight me again.
I want her to spit fire and break things and force me to pin her against the wall until she remembers how her body responds to mine.
Instead, she's an apparition haunting my home.
Oleg knocks on my office door, interrupting the shipping reports spread across my desk.
"Sir, there's been an incident at one of your wife's properties."
"Which property?" I ask as he barges in.
"The warehouse on Nevsky Prospect. It burned last night."
He drops a picture on my desk that I glance at, but I don’t need to see it to know what it looks like.
I lean back in my chair, studying his face. "Accident?"
"No, sir. Arson. Professional job—they knew exactly what they were doing."
His hands curl into fists, and I'm honored to see his emotional reaction.
