Page 79 of The Pakhan's Kidnapped Bride
I shift closer to her and set my hand on her leg. She flinches.
“So, you had your brother deliver the message,” I say quietly, finally understanding.
She nods. “I’m so sorry, Emmanuil. I was terrified. My brother didn’t even know what my father had done. I just told Kristofer that you broke my heart, and I didn’t want to speak to you. He—he only wanted to protect me.”
“And that’s why he hated me so much. Because he thought I’d hurt you.”
She nods again and looks up at me. “And that’s why I deserve what you did to me now. You don’t owe me anything, Emmanuil. You had every right to take revenge like you did. I broke your heart and never explained why, and what you told my brother in the office—it’s fair. What you did was fair.”
My heart skips a beat.
“What do you mean by ‘what I told your brother?’”
“The revenge, Em, I deserved it.” She sighs softly. “I’m not angry with you. And just so you know, making me fall in lovewith you again was never the challenge. Because I never stopped loving you.”
I stare at her with my mouth open. My mind is racing.
She overheard what I said to her brother. That she meant nothing to me. That I was using her and making her fall in love with me so I could hurt her.
Fuck.
That’s why she left.
That’s why she was so adamant that there was no point in discussing anything.
“Anya,” I say, my voice breaking as every wall I’ve built to protect myself from her comes crumbling down. She was never the enemy. She was never out to hurt me.And she never stopped loving me.
“Anya, I’m so sorry,”I blurt out, grabbing her into my arms.
She’s stiff in my embrace. “It’s okay. I just wanted you to know the truth. And now we can both move on,” she whispers quietly.
“I can never move on,” I tell her.
Her face scrunches with hurt. “You can never forgive me?” she asks, in pain.
“That’s not what I mean. I mean, I can never let you go.”
She knits her brows, confused. “I heard what you said to my brother, Em. All of it.”
“I know, but I didn’t mean a single word of it. I was so angry at him for coming to take you away from me again. I always thought it was his fault. I thought he was doing it again. I wanted to make him angry. I wanted to provoke him, to pushhim, to hurt him. I lied to him, Anya. I lied when I told him you meant nothing, and I was only playing you. It wasn’t true.”
“It wasn’t?” she whispers, her eyes widening.
“No. Not at all. The hurt that I’ve been holding onto for so many years, the stupid plan I had for revenge—it all came from the same place inside me. A place I tried to bury beneath anger and hatred, but at the core of it all is the fact that I never managed to let you go. And I never, even in the past, while I hated you with such passion,neverstopped loving you.”
“And now?” she asks, almost afraid of what I’ll answer.
A low chuckle rumbles through me. “And now—I love you, Anya. Still. Always. I love you even more than the day I met you, or the day I lost you. I came to look for you this morning because I couldn’t let it happen again. Last time I didn’t have the opportunity to fight for you, but this time I was determined to have that chance. At least if it didn’t work, I would know it wasn’t because I didn’t try.”
Tears stream over her cheeks, leaving salted streaks along her skin.
“You love me?” she asks.
“I love you, kitten. There isn’t a universe in which I don’t love you.”
She falls into my arms, burying her face and her tears against my chest.
Chapter 24 - Anya
