Page 178 of Shattered Altar (Makarova Bratva Duet)

OLIVIA

I slam the door on Aleks and Jennifer and barely make it to the toilet in time.

As soon as I hit my knees, last night’s dinner comes up in a torrent. The heavy stink makes me retch again.

I heave until my insides roil with painful emptiness. I flush it all away and then lean against the cold tile, trying to stop the ache in my head and my heart from spreading elsewhere.

I know it’s a lost cause, though. His words are like splinters, burrowing inside of me, tearing from the inside out.

“She is nothing more than a weapon.”

“This marriage was not about emotion; it was about convenience.”

“Once her purpose is served, she’ll go back to her pathetic little life, and I can move on with mine.”

I lean back against the tiled wall of the bathroom and stare up at the ceiling. That’s what he’s waiting for—the moment when he can bury me in his past and forget I ever existed.

But if that really is true, then what was last night about?

He didn’t have to sleep with me. He didn’t have to touch me the way he did. But I could see it in his eyes: he wanted to be there with me.

In that moment, I was the only woman in the world.

I’m still feeling queasy, but I force myself off the bathroom floor and up to the sink. I wash out my mouth and face and head back into the bedroom.

I stop short when I realize it isn’t empty.

I shake my head. “Not now, Yulia.”

“Are you okay?” she asks.

Because I have no words to articulate the truth of how I’m feeling, I choose instead to collapse onto my bed face-first. A few seconds later, I feel the mattress shift.

I support myself on my elbows and look at Yulia. She’s sitting next to me. “I heard you throwing up in there,” she tells me.

“That was because of your son,” I say accusingly, even though I know it’s not fair to blame her.

She raises her eyebrows. “You’re pregnant?”

My brow creases immediately. “Of course not! I just… No, Jesus. He made me sick. Literally and figuratively.”

“What happened?”

“I heard a conversation he was having with Isab—with Jennifer,” I say. “I suppose it’s stuff I should already know. But I guess I’m still a little naïve.”

“You’ve developed feelings for him.” She sounds disappointed, but not surprised.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“What would you say?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. Ideally, nothing. Silence is golden and all that.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Olivia. Sometimes, the universe has its way with us. And sometimes, people do.”

I press the heels of my hands to my eyes to try easing the throbbing. It doesn’t work. “The first day we met, he was different,” I murmur.

“He was playing a part.”

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