What the hell is that supposed to mean?
The way he talks so flippantly about all of this, as if he isn’t toying with my life, drives me insane. I want to slap the smugness off his face more than anything.
Instead, I glance at the open door behind him and his relaxed, disarmed pose.
Growing sick of him, I move to shove past him, not caring if I’m supposed to stay in the room or not. I don’t want to be trapped. I refuse to be.
But before I get far, Sergey catches my wrist with ridiculous speed. His grip is firm but not cruel as he holds me in place, looking at me with an authority that makes me want to scream.
At the same time, his touch is warmer than I want to admit or even want to notice.
“I’ll let you out,” he starts, lifting a subtle brow at me. “When you finally admit you were made for this life.”
Something about that feels like a knife to my chest.
I don’t know what he wants or why he’s doing this to me, but that…that’s the last thing I’ll ever admit.
“I have nothing to do with any of this and I never will,” I snap, refusing to give in. “I never asked for this, and I won’t sit back and act like your wife.”
“You sound so sure of that.”
“Because I am.”
Sergey’s eyes sweep over me slowly, deliberate in the way he still grips my arm. Awareness runs through my system, making me hyperaware of just how close he is to me. Of how charged that space between us is.
“I’m not scared of you,” I murmur, annoyed by how much quieter the words come out.
“Good,” Sergey hums as he leans in, voice brushing against my ear. “Fear would be boring.”
I try not to let his nearness shake me, but there’s something almost tender in his presence, and that, I cannot have.
I can’t let myself begin to believe there’s anything gentle or kind about Sergey. Not after everything he has orchestrated already.
Then, he releases me and takes a step back.
“Enjoy your room, Kat…and try not to destroy it too much.”
With a touch of smugness lingering in the room through his absence, the door closes behind him with a soft click, locking me in again.
As my rage bubbles to the surface, I can’t force back the half-scream, half-yell that bursts from my mouth the moment I’m left alone.
That anger is unlike anything else I’ve felt in a long time, and letting it out on the pillows does nothing to sate me.
I hate him. I hate him more than I’ve ever hated anyone before.
And beyond that, I hate how that small part of me can’t stop questioning his motives and what he could gain from all of this. I shouldn’t care.
But something in me can’t help it.
***
Despite waking up after what feels like no time at all, it’s like I didn’t sleep at all.
But the moment my eyes open, I immediately see that maddening grin of his in my mind, and it makes my head spin.
Even if it had only been the two of us and his lawyer in that office, the way he forced my hand was humiliating. Dehumanizing.
I always feared the ways my autonomy might’ve been taken away from me at my father’s hands, then Yuri’s, but I never thought it would happen on a stranger’s whim. I never imagined it would happen after pulling myself away from this life.
