“And how is that working out for you?”
I grit my teeth. “The day you hit thirty-seven and realize your entire life was a made-up delusion and you need to rebuild yourself is the day you get to lecture me about independence.”
“Why would I wait when I can lecture you now? Your husband is piling you with legal debt. You are exhausted, broke, and tired. If you continue fighting him over the divorce, you’ll lose everything because he’s an asshole you refused to turn into the police when he slapped you around a few times. Don’t deny it. I read your daughter’s report from seven years ago.” Declan turns his phone over so I can read what he’s reading. I’m shocked, speechless. Humiliated that anyone else knows that Sergei became violent, and I forgave him. I did. I forgave him, and I hid it, too embarrassed to admit I’d let him manipulate me for so many years.
“Sergei won’t stop until you make him. That’s just the kind of man he is. So no, you can’t take care of yourself. Baby, if you could, you would have used that gun you pointed at me when I arrived at your house. That’s the gun you bought to shoot him with if he ever attacked you again, isn’t it?”
“You think you have it all figured out. Life is not all black and white, Declan. It’s also pink. Sergei and I have a child together. She’s all grown up now, but she wasn’t back then. I did what I thought I had to do to be a good mother for her. You don’t know what that means.” I stand to leave.
Declan catches my wrist, trying to stop me. I move away, crying.
“Fuck, Dina. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Well, no, I should’ve, but not this way.” He sighs. “I know you’re trying. I’m only saying… I’m asking you to let me take care of you.”
Sergei “took care” of me for years. He framed it the same way Declan is. “I can’t let a man take care of me again. That would be like sticking my right hand into the fire after the left one got burned.”
“Fair enough,” Declan says and gives me a tissue. “I’m angry I didn’t take him out that day you guys argued on the street.”
I accept the tissue and sit back down.
“On most days, that makes two of us. But maybe you also had some mercy in your heart.”
Declan pushes the phone and the pistol toward me. “Nah, baby, my vision was compromised, and I wasn’t sure I could make the shot without hitting you too.”
I frown. “You watched us through the rifle scope?”
A nod.
Oh my God. “A sniper rifle?” I shiver. This makes me so uncomfortable. I look around. “Are they watching that way?”
Declan leans back in his chair, a smirk on his pretty face. “Now do you get why there are high walls, bushes, and bulletproof glass?”
“You know what? You are right. I can’t possibly take care of myself when it wouldn’t have occurred to me that a man would watch me from a window using his rifle scope instead of, I don’t know, his eyes or binoculars.”
“I guess it depends on the man.”
I go still.
Declan stares. He knows he landed a punch. “It depends on the man,” I repeat. Meaning, I should give him a chance. I don’t know if I can, but he made his point.
I take the phone that he gave me. There are unopened messages from contacts labeled Dad and Daughter.
“They already know this number and think it’s me?”
“That’s because of Connor. Did he say something he shouldn’t have?”
“He told my daughter where I’m staying.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“That’s not okay.” I touch my forehead. “He shouldn’t have told her I’m staying here.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is the Crossbow mansion.”
Declan stares. The silence between us drives home his second point.
I clear my throat. “I’m sorry…”
