Page 137 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)
“No doubt about it.”
“That’s a good place to start, then.”
“We have to be careful,” I tell Matvei. “It’s a club. We don’t know that anyone of importance will necessarily be there.”
“You never know,” Matvei muses. “We have to look.”
I nod. I rest my arms on my knees and stare at the broken glass that glints off the sofa opposite it. “I’ll probably regret this mess another day,” I sigh. “But today, it felt fucking good.”
“It would have been cheaper to have just taken a bat to a wall, you know.”
I shrug. “I’ve got money.”
“That’s good, cause you’ve got no common sense.”
I smile. But soon after, the smile slides off my face. “I don’t know what to do about her, you know.”
“You could try forgiving her,” Matvei suggests.
My eyes snap to his. “Are you fucking serious?”
“She wasn’t responsible for her actions. She belonged to a fucking cult, Phoenix. It’s all she’s ever known. And they told her she was volunteering at a fucking orphanage. How was she supposed to see the whole picture?”
“That’s quite the fucking excuse.”
“It most certainly is,” Matvei says with utmost seriousness.
“You’re suddenly in her corner?”
“I am,” Matvei concedes freely. “Because I’ve been thinking about your relationship with her for the last several weeks. And I realize three things that changed my mind.”
“Which is?”
“The first, she’s your wife. The second, she’s the mother of your son. The third, you fucking love her. Even though your instinct is to deny it.”
I sink deeper into the couch. “Every time I think we’ve moved past her past, something comes up.”
“And it’ll probably keep coming up, too,” Matvei retorts. “We all have baggage. You know that better than anyone.”
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”
“You’ve spent months with her now,” he says. “Do you think she’s intentionally capable of hurting anyone?”
“No,” I answer without hesitation.
“She’s changed. She’s evolved. She’s not a naïve brain-washed cult member anymore. Give her credit for that.”
“I keep seeing that picture,” I admit. “He was older than he was when they took him. They didn’t kill him right away.”
“Don’t you see the silver lining in all this, Phoenix?” Matvei says with patience.
“What?”
“Yuri may still be alive.”
I scoff at that. But it’s nothing more than self-preservation. “I can’t put my hopes in that, Matvei.”
“Why not?” he says. “Hope is the driving force that keeps us going.”
