Page 109 of Destined for the Devil
Are you inviting Natasha?
Will Natasha be around?
Let’s hang out with Natasha, make sure she comes too.
She’s so funny.
She’s so innocent.
She’s adorable.
She’s such a smart woman.
She has such a pure smile.
She’s such a grown-up now.
She, she, she, she.
She!
She!
She!
She!
I breathed through the shock of the confirmation I’d just received and approached from afar. "Is that why it was so hard for you to let her go?"
But Sergei hid nothing anymore, laying out all his cards. He turned to me fully, his drunk eyes blazing with pain and regret. "Yes, Roma. I loved Natasha.Always.” The words spread through me like a slow poison. “She was everything to me, but she never,evertook me seriously.”
The severity of his confession froze me to the chair. I’d beensucha fucking fool.
“I left for the army because of her. Because she was too young and I was too fucked up over her. And I wanted to show her that I was a man who could be worth her while. I served our country. I made something of myself back home; I wasn't just a fucking killer and drug dealer!" The force in his voice translated all his regrets.
I didn’t dare interrupt.
"Do you know how many times I asked her out, Roma?Hundreds.” His voice shook at that last word. “I chased her for years. And every time…Every. Single. Fucking. Time…she shut me down.”
Sergei took a deep breath in and swallowed hard, but I knew he had more to say. I sat motionless, half-turned toward him, afraid to move and distract him from spilling his soul.
Suddenly, he slammed the table with his palm and got right in my face. "She fuckingdestroyedme, Roma. Right before I…she…it happened." He didn't want to say the word.
Murdered.She was fuckingmurdered.
“She told me to fuck off…one last time. She said it was enough. That she didn’t want someone like me, someone who kills and pillages. Said she didn’t want to be a part of our world.” Sergei was shaking now, his cold façade long unravelled. “I asked her for a chance.Just a chance, Roma! But she said no, like always. And then…and then look what happened."
My mind was in freefall from Sergei’s admission and his state. To my astonishment, he began to bawl, tosoblike a little boy who was told the word no. His face contorted in anguish, and he placed his hands over his face, his chest heaving under the weight of everything he’d held in for years.
What in the actual fuck?!
I sat there, stunned. Appalled. Rage and disbelief swirled inside me like a storm. He fucking kept this secret fordecades. He stood beside me, crying tears of mourning for her—as if he were her brother—all the while hiding the fact that he’d beenobsessedwith her!
My thoughts spiraled into the dark. Had Natasha ever told me how much he bothered her? She had always been so reserved, choosing to hide her emotions. I only remembered one comment she’d ever made—that he was a creep, and she was tired of him hanging around. But I didn’t think anything serious of it.
If his attention was so obsessive and strong, why?! Why didn't she speak up?! Did hescareher into silence?!
But my thoughts were abruptly shattered by a loud commotion. Both Sergei and I snapped our heads toward the bar, the sound of women’s screams cutting across the restaurant.
