Page 145 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

A long, drawn-out silence makes me nervous again.

Told me what?

“No,” Artem sighs.

The denial sounds hollow and ugly. My nerves ratchet up a notch.

“I’m not gonna tell you what to do—”

“Then don’t,” Artem barks, before he breathes deeply. “Shit, I’m sorry, Cillian. I… I know I need to tell her. But…”

“You don’t want to hurt her.”

“She’s been through enough,” Artem says again. “This will break her. She loved him.”

She loved him.

My mind races through the possibilities.

What the hell is he talking about?

I already know he’s the one who killed my father. He told me himself the night he burned my world to ash.

Which means…

“She needs to know if you’re trying to build something real with her,” Cillian says softly.

“I know she does,” Artem says after a small pause. “But if I tell her, it’ll destroy any chance we have together. There’s no coming back from that.”

My body goes cold. A part of me wants to turn around and run back to my room. Pretend I’d never heard that. Pretend that my mind isn’t already leaping to the one inevitable conclusion that remains.

But as my hand flutters over my belly, I know that I have to put my unborn child first. And that means finding out the truth about its father.

About the sins of his past.

About the blood on his hands.

“It may,” Cillian concedes. “But if she finds out before you tell her, it definitely will.”

“Fuck.” Artem’s voice is low but there’s no mistaking the frustration in it. “How do I even start?”

“Explain the circumstances to her.”

Artem lets out a low laugh that’s completely devoid of any humor. “Trust me, the circumstances won’t fucking matter. I killed her brother. That’s all she’s going to remember.”

I almost gasp.

The sound punctures my throat but I manage to hold it in long enough to push myself away from the door.

I killed her brother.

Artem killed Cesar.

Artem. Killed. Cesar.

My husband murdered the only other person who ever really loved me.

Pain branches through my body like a lightning bolt and I cringe against it.

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