“Yes, you do. Take me home, Sava. Please.” Aurora looks up, her eyes full of hurt and a dash of hate.
“Anything you want, malysh.” With a chaste kiss, I take her hand.
We’re almost at the door when the last voice I want to hear, stops us. “Ah, there you are.”
In the five years that have passed, I’ve only seen my father a handful of times. But those years weren’t kind to him.
His hair that used to be salt and pepper is now fully gray and balding at the top. And he seems to have let himself go after the accident. His once-fit body is now rounded and tired. But it’s his eyes that I hate the most. They’re dead. Always. And now they’re flickering between me and Aurora with carefully crafted hatred.
It’s the kind that takes years to uncover. But I know my father all too well. And I know one or more of us isn’t walking away without a scratch.
“I hear you’re engaged, yet my son has been trying to hide you away from me the whole evening, but it’s high time for me to meet the woman who wears my daughter-in-law’s heart, don’t you think?”
One sentence. One perfectly placed blow shatters the past that I kept under lock and key.
I hear Aurora’s breath catch and the said heart skip a beat at his words as her face dons on a mask of confusion so profound, it can be felt from a mile away, and my father—the shark that he is—caught whiff of her blood.
And the sick fuck is enjoying ever beat of this.
“I beg your pardon?” Aurora asks, her eyes darting between him and me.
“That’s enough from you.” I step between them.
“Oh, don’t be so rude, son. Let me introduce myself. Igor Minaev.” He dares to outstretch his hand for a shake, but a growl that rips out of my chest makes him think twice about it and he pulls it back. “I must say, it’s mighty nice that Nastya’s soul gets to live on, and in such a beautiful woman like yourself, Aurora. It’s no wonder Severin was drawn to you. He gets the best of two worlds. His wife and a new beautiful shell for her.”
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
“Sava…Sava what is he talking about?” The broken note in her voice rips right through me.
Time is up.
I need to explain. I need to tell her everything before she hears it from him, but I can’t make myself move. My fists are pressed tight at my sides and my jaw clenched as the memories of that night…the next few days…weeks flow through my mind like a series of film.
Aurora’s broken body.
Nastya’s still beating heart.
The tears and an inexplicable pull down the hallway in that hospital.
“Your heart, my sweet girl. I’m talking about your heart,” my father sneers, his gaze set on the thin scar running down Aurora’s chest. The scar that’s visible in this dress.
My feet move without thought, blocking his view.
“My…my heart? Severin, I don’t understand.”
“Go to the car. I’ll explain later—”
“What’s there to not understand, Miss Johnson? The heart that was transplanted into your chest belonged to Severin’s first wife. His first and only love.” He shakes his head with a horrid smile. “You didn’t actually think he wanted to be with you just for you, did you? It’s all a sick game to him.”
“I said, shut the fuck up before I do it for you.”
“What? You’ll kill me too? Like you killed Nastya?”
“Sava…” Aurora breathes out, and I turn sharply to find tears streaming down her cheeks as she clutches at her chest, but her eyes never leave mine. And those eyes? They are connecting the dots as her feet taking a step back, slowly, one after another.
“Aurora…let me explain.”
“No, no, I-I get it now. I do. I get it all.” Her voice breaks, and just as I’m about to lunge for her and keep her in my arms until she hears me out, she turns and runs out into the street.
