Page 123 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

“Am I wrong?”

“Maybe I’m just that good an actor.”

I frown. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. You just have a natural authority. The night you stormed the compound and took me, you looked like you were in your element.”

His face clouds over only for a moment. “I wasn’t aware you were taking in much that night.”

“I wasn’t,” I admit. “But when I look back on my memories, I realize I’ve noticed more than I thought I did.”

“You started crying when I walked in and found you,” he says suddenly, as though the question has been nagging him since that day.

I nod.

“Why?”

I close my eyes, thinking of that horrific moment before I laid eyes on Artem and realized he was the man from The Siren.

“I thought I was dreaming at first. Or hallucinating,” I say slowly. “And then… I just felt… relieved.”

“Relieved?”

I nod. “I thought I was free.” A deep sigh ripples through me. “I was wrong.”

At that, I can feel a gulf open up between us again.

Yes, we have a temporary truce going at the moment. But my words have opened up the questions that remain unanswered.

How long will this last?

How longcanit last?

At the end of the day, he stole me and made me his. I should hate Artem Kovalyov with every fiber of my being.

And yet, I don’t want this conversation to end.

The secret I’m holding in my belly sits there in the space between us. I wonder how he would react if I just told him right now. Would it hurt him or please him?

I don’t know which option I’d prefer, to be honest.

But the moment I think of telling him, my throat constricts with fear and I know that I’m not going to.

I can’t.

Not now.

Not yet.

“I’m not a monster, Esme,” he says. “I know it may not seem that way to you right now, but you’ll see in time.”

“‘In time,’”I repeat. “You really expect us to go on like this? Stay married, play the part of a loving, married couple, even though we’re anything but?”

“Other people have done it,” he says with a shrug.

“You don’t strike me as the type of man who’d force himself on a woman. I know real fucking well what that kind of man is like, and you’re not it.”

He chuckles. “I think that’s the first nice thing you’ve ever said about me.”

I laugh bitterly. Then, before I lose my nerve, I say softly, “I never did thank you.”

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