Page 89 of Disgraced (Russian Sinners 3)

Scarlett

It has been a whole week since Sergei’s confession. I haven’t seen him since, except in passing. I wished I could rewind time and hug him. He has poured his heart out, given me honesty as I asked and then I bolted.

Each time I tried to seek him out, he was either busy with someone or nowhere to be found. In times like this, I missed speaking with Olivia and Anastasia. Michail told me that Anastasia woke up and would pull through. That was a major relief. And Olivia was in Russia too. It has been a month of whirlwinds, from the moment we stepped foot in this country.

He loves me.

The thought echoed through my mind for the millionth time. I replayed his words over and over again. Each time I stopped at his admission of love, my heart swelled. I loved him too. I should have told him but our conversation went unexpectedly awry. Completely unexpected!

My hand went to my lower abdomen. I still haven’t told him about the baby. His admission was so shocking that I completely forgot. And this Boris. He was Anastasia and Sergei’s father. That made them siblings. Holy shit!

I still had so many questions but none of them were as important as this love I felt for him. And our baby. We could have a future together; we just had to give it a chance.Together.Yes, together, like my parents. Suddenly, I realized that it took me less than a minute to fall for Sergei. The first look at him and my heart fluttered. He was the one for me all along. Since the moment I found out about the arranged marriage, it was as if Sergei and I were steered to each other.

I roamed the house full of Sergei’s men but felt alone. I knew he was within a compound but he must have been avoiding me. I was half tempted to start yelling for him. He’d be forced to answer then, I thought wryly to myself.

Actually, that is not a bad idea.

Just as I readied to yell at the top of my lungs, I heard his voice. I stilled, listening. It was almost ten at night and the house was dark. Regularly, I’d be falling off my feet but I took a late nap so there were still little reserves of energy I had floating around. Growing a baby was some serious energy draining business.

I tiptoed towards the back of the house. Sergei was in his office. It sounded like he was on a conference call.Is that Anastasia’s voice?

“Jesus, you two,” an unfamiliar man’s voice spoke through the speakerphone. “This is a serious call.”

“First Olivia, now you too, Anastasia? I really don’t need these images in my head.”What the hell?That sounded like Oliver’s voice, Olivia’s twin brother.

A woman chuckled. I swore it sounded like Anastasia’s laugh. “Really, Oliver? Your sister and I will whip your ass when we see you. And you, Nikolai, I heard you quite like it when Olivia is on your lap.”

There was laughter on the line. I felt so out of the loop. Olivia was on Nikolai’s lap. That was Sergei’s brother, I recalled.

“Olivia told you?” A deep man’s voice asked.

Yes, that was Anastasia’s laugh. There was no mistaking it. “No,” she answered through a chuckle. She sounded happy. “But you just confirmed it. Although I hear congratulations are in order. Could we have a double wedding?”

Whaaat!

“What?” Sergei seemed just as shocked. There was another man’s voice that asked the same question.

“You are getting married too?” Sergei asked incredulously. I guess he didn’t see it coming either. Olivia and Anastasia were getting married. Well, damn it… I was missing it all. There was no chance in hell. I would see them get married. And fuck, I wanted to get married too. But only to Sergei.

“Yes, Olivia and I are getting married.” I had to still myself or risk getting caught eavesdropping. I wanted to jump for joy. Oliva was safe and she fell in love. It was the only reason she would ever agree to marry someone. “To get back to the purpose of this call. Malcome and Vlad are related and this must have been in the works all along.” Oh, that piece of shit Malcome. I hope Sergei’s brother killed him. Actually scratch that. Tortured him! “The only hiccup in their plan is the three of us. They never anticipated Manciatti calling Dimitry to save Anastasia.”

“See, I was right,” Anastasia’s voice was happy. “Sergei kind of started a positive chain reaction.”

“Does that mean you are no longer mad at me, Anja?” Sergei asked. Did she know they were related? Did Sergei tell her?

“No, it doesn’t.” A man’s voice grumbled. I guessed that it must be Sergei’s oldest brother.

“Don’t answer for me,” Anja scolded him. “It means, Sergei, I am softer towards you. And my punishment for you won’t be as harsh as initially planned.”

I scoffed at that. It was hard not to laugh out loud. Anja would never hurt an ant, even less another human being. I quietly listened to the rest of the conversation. There was a lot of back and forth. Since I have been out of the loop, it was hard to follow but it seemed like they were planning on capturing Malcome. It would seem he was hiding, here in Russia.

Russia must be a popular destination lately,I joked in my head.

Too bad Malcome wasn’t dead but from the tone of Nikolai’s voice, if that man got his hands on Malcome… yeah, he would suffer greatly.Good, Malcome deserves all the suffering he dished on others!

“Sergei, what do you think?” A man’s voice brought my attention back to the call.

“If we do nothing, there will be more and more men coming after Olivia. We’d be sitting ducks. We have a better chance to go after him and end him.” The fact that Sergei cared about what happened to Olivia, someone he hasn’t really met, told me a lot. He was a good man. And I loved him even more for it.

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