“I’m not lying!”
Maxim came to the end of her bed and sat with his back to her. He rubbed his palms together, going over the last few times with her, pinpointing all her lies, and trying to sift through to the truth. He shook his head. “Fifty pounds in three months.” He held his head in his hands.
Kira sneered. Why did he even know what? Was he keeping track of her weight like she was? Did it matter to him like it mattered to her? “Can you stop acting like you care? You hate me. You’d rather I die. So don’t sit here and judge what you don’t understand! I mean, would you rather I were a fucking blimp? Because that’s what I was for a long time. Why do you think no one would marry me?”
Maxim stood and turned to her. Her speech altered. No longer full of pride and pompous diction, it was instead an immaturity he didn’t know she possessed. “Is that how you see yourself?”
She gritted her teeth. “I was nearly a hundred and seventy pounds.”
The number was normal for a woman like her, and yet all she saw was how terribly high it was. His brows knit as he looked at her. All her lies were to protect herself. All the changes she’d made over the last three months had been to alter her perception of what she thought he wanted. It was a secret she kept about herself for years. Perhaps no one cared enough to look. Everyone was too busy with their own lives to pay attention to the last Morozov daughter.
And to hide this imperfection, she was perfect in everything else. He was more impressed by her than he thought he would be. She was incredibly strong. But she didn’t need to be. Not anymore.
For once, Maxim felt useful to her.
Kira rubbed the wetness from her cheek. “Stop looking at me like that. I’m not a pity case. You don’t want me anyway. You think I’m ugly just like everyone else.”
There was more delusion. How could she have such a warped sense of self?
“Morozov,” he sighed. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. But so were you three months ago.”
“Now who’s lying? Can you go? I don’t want you here.”
“I’ll go.” Maxim headed for the door. “But I’ve canceled my trip. I have things to take care of here.” He shut the door before she could protest.
Chapter eleven
Avoid
Kira did the only thing she could do to escape the aftermath of this stupid ‘intervention.’ She left, but she was kind enough to give a note, like he had done to her. And if her leaving pissed him off, then good.
She had her sister’s driver come pick her up, but because the gate was closed, she waited just outside it. A guard stared at her, and she was sure he called Maxim, but she was gone before anything could be done about it.
Maxim was an asshole for accusing her. He knew nothing about her life, and he hadn’t even tried to learn since they were married nearly two months ago. He chose to be a stranger so he couldn’t act like he cared now. She certainly didn’t need a saviorso he needed to keep his nose out of business that didn’t pertain to him.
Luerna was waiting for her when she arrived, and hugging her felt like relief. Tears burned the back of her eyes, and she dabbed them away, laughing when she saw Luerna do the same thing. They were six years apart, but Luerna had taken on the role of motherhood because their own mother was mainly drug-induced and barely mentally coherent.
Kira didn’t want to talk about anything to do with Maxim and focused entirely on Luerna, and her sister was happy to do so because, though she was like a mother Kira never had, she was depressed and never hid this fact from anyone. It made hiding any self-esteem issues easy because Luerna was more focused on her own pain than on noticing anyone else’s.
Kira sat on the couch, surrounded by her three nephews and one niece. She missed their voices and, for a while, nothing bothered her.
“Won’t you tell me anything about Maxim?” Luerna questioned, sitting with a cup of coffee in between her manicured fingernails.
Kira sighed, combing her fingers through her niece’s hair as they watched a movie. “He’s grumpy.”
Luerna giggled. “Is there any other way?”
“I just thought it would be different. Why couldn’t I get someone like Alexei? Heck, I’d even take someone like Gil.”
Luerna snorted, nearly spitting up her coffee as she laughed. “Oh, god, could you imagine? The amount of sexual innuendos he’d come up with on a daily basis would send me to the psycho ward.”
“Okay, then like Alexei.”
“Alexei is rare.” She smiled. Their brother was one of the good men in the world. “But remember, even he has anger issues.”
“Not as bad as Adrik.” Kira pointed. “That’s Maxim. Kind of like Adrik. All grump. No shine.”
Luerna giggled. “Then you can be the shine.”
