“Amy, can I be blunt?”
I did a double-take.” Of course.”
“Violet ripped his heart out, over and over again, but the last time was the worst. We all hoped it would be the last we saw of her, but somehow she’s managed to worm her way back in. Don’t let her fool you. Violet is extremely manipulative. Do not be fooled by her. If she is back, then she has a reason.” He went back to looking ahead.
“Was Alexei,” I began to say, in love with her, and stopped myself. Of course he was. You didn’t stay with a woman that long if you weren’t.
“When it comes to Violet, he’s a fool.” He shook his head. “And the last few days just go to prove that,” he mumbled.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’ve already said too much, Amy. Alexei would castrate me if he knew I was telling you his personal business. The only reason I am is that you deserve better.” For a second, his eyes flickered to me. “We all think so.”
I sighed. “He’s been spending a lot of time with her.” I didn’t ask it as a question because I already knew. No wonder we hadn’t been intimate. No wonder we no longer had breakfast in bed together. Alexei didn’t need an inexperienced girl in his bed when he had his first love back.
I was a complete fool to believe he ever cared for me at all. It hadall been an act. To Alexei, I had been nothing but a warm hole to stick his cock in until the woman he really loved came back.
Tears prickled my eyes, and I blinked them away angrily. I wouldn’t cry. I just wouldn’t.
“Alexe is a smart man,” Micah said firmly. “He will realize you’re the best person for him, Amy. Anyway, you don’t need to worry. Nikolai won’t let him divorce you and marry her. He hates Violet. He would never let Alexei throw you aside.”
My head snapped up. That hadn’t even entered my mind. “Would Alexei do that?”
“No, his grandfather won’t allow it. The baby might complicate matters, but—”
I cut him off sharply. “Baby?” I swallowed hard. “She’s pregnant?”
Micah looked panicked. “You didn’t know?”
Mutely, I shook my head. But it made sense now. No wonder he was so doting towards her. Violet was having a baby.
My husband’s baby.
Chapter Twenty
Alexei
“I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for me, Alexei.” Violet’s voice jolted me out of my daydream, and my eyes flew open. In a way, this was better than any daydream I had ever had because reality meant she was right here in front of me, wearing the clothes I had bought her, draped in the diamonds I had put around her throat.
Violet deserved all of it. She might have been born poor just like Amy, but unlike Amy, Violet had been born for this kind of life. She had always fit in so well.
Leaning back on the sofa, I watched her move around. Her painted nails scraped against the wood grain of the bookshelves.
“I thought you would have changed all this.” Her nails click-clacked on the old wood. “I know how you hate old, worn-out things.” Turning, she smiled at me, and I felt a familiar flutter in my chest.
Why did she have to look at me like that? Like she knew all of my secrets without me even having to say anything. Maybe because she did, I reminded myself.
It was Violet herself who was still keeping it a secret from me. Ithad been three days since my birthday party and almost two weeks since I had found her in my grandfather’s room, and all she would tell me was that the man who got her pregnant was a bad man.
I knew bad men, I knew how to handle them, but I couldn’t protect her or her unborn baby unless I knew the specifics.
“Sit down Violet,” I said in a quiet command.
She ignored me completely. “I always thought you would spend your married life in the penthouse overlooking the park.” Her eyes skidded over to me. “But then again, I always thought it would be us who were married,” she added sadly.
So had I. “Things change, and Amy likes it here. It’s closer to her sister.”
“It is such a quaint home. I can see why she would feel at ease here.”
