Page 114 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

I want to know, but I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking.

So I stand mute, confused, and watch him move for the door.

At the threshold, he stops and looks over his shoulder at me.

“You know, this doesn’t have to be as bad as you’re making it out to be,” he says quietly.

Then he leaves, melting into the shadows.

He doesn’t show up for dinner that night.

When I go to bed alone, I’m still thinking about his parting words.

Still thinking about the look in his eyes when he said them.

31

Artem

Late That Night

My phone starts ringing. Unknown number. Unblockable. Untraceable.

I sigh.

Can’t avoid this one.

“Hello, Father,” I answer.

“You don’t sound like a happily married man.”

Immediately, I notice he sounds different than he had when I left him not so long ago.

Less gruff. Far more tired.

“I didn’t know you had my happiness in mind when you cooked this plan up.”

“No,” he agrees. “But I did hope you might find some measure of happiness with the woman. She is a rare beauty.”

“She doesn’t want to be married to me.”

“As if that matters.”

I exhale. I’m exhausted with this conversation already.

I can hear Esme’s voice in my head. Can see that sad, lost look in her eyes.

She didn’t say as much, but I saw it in her face. She needed me to understand where she was coming from.

She neededsomeoneto understand. Anyone.

Even someone she hated as much as me.

“Doesn’t it?” I ask. “Can a marriage be happy if one of the two people involved is not?”

“I wasn’t aware you were concerned for the girl’s happiness.”

His voice breaks a little, but it’s not the connection. There’s something gravelly in his tone that shouldn’t be there.

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