I stared into the accusation in her eyes and didn’t know what to say. It didn’t really matter how she knew. What did matter was the look of disgust she was giving me.
Nodding my head once, I moved towards the door. “You will stay here until you are ready to apologize.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Amy
I stared at the door as it closed with an audible click, and part of me expected him to barge back through. I realized that I wanted that. I wanted him to come back in here and shout at me because at least if he did, it would mean he still cared, even a little bit.
Only he didn’t, and the silence was a deafening roar.
“She ruined the painting,” I whispered again, this time to the empty room. There was no one there to hear my words, and I wasn’t sure that Alexei would hear me even if he was here. When it came to Violet, he was blind and deaf to anything else.
I was his wife, in name only. He had always told me I would be, so why did this realization hurt so badly? Why did it feel like my heart was being carved slowly out of my chest?
The sob that rose up my throat lodged there and made me choke. I fell face down onto the bed and tried to scream my frustrations into the pillow, but all that came out was a croak, the kind of sound that an injured animal made as it died. That was apt because it felt like I was dying.
I don’t know how long I lay there like that, mulling over everything that had happened and what I could have done differently, butby the time I rolled onto my back, a weird sort of calm had settled over me.
Maybe it was because, in the grand scheme of things, what Violet had done was a small act of pettiness. Yes, it had hurt my feelings because I had worked hard on that painting, which was meant to be a birthday gift for Alexei, a heartfelt gift. But I didn’t expect Violet to understand that.
She didn’t have a heart after all. I doubted she had done anything heartfelt in her entire life. She wasn’t the kind of woman who did anything without personal gain. And that was on her. If she could happily go through life that way, that was up to her. I wasn’t going to lower myself to her level.
I was better than that. I was better than her. And by default, I was better than Alexei as well. With that thought, I pushed myself to my feet. The anger still made me shake, but the realization made me calmer.
I showered quickly, scrubbing my tear-stained face and paint-splattered body under the scolding hot water. The next thing I did was check my phone, which I had luckily left in here when I went downstairs. I didn’t want to think of the calls I would miss if I’d taken it with me.
There were no calls, but I made doubly sure anyway.
The doctor had been pretty adamant that Alessia was top of the list now and that if anything came through, I would be the first to know. But I would need to go to the hospital straight away to make sure the paperwork was filed properly. There could be no more relying on Alexei for that.
I would not leave my sister’s life in anyone’s hands but mine. It was the way it had always been. In this crazy, hard world, I could only rely on myself and my sister. No one else.
That thought made me even calmer. There was something almost relaxing knowing my fate was back in my hands. I would let Alexei have his Violet and vice versa. They deserved each other, and I deserved better.
Keeping my cell phone close to hand, I curled up on the bed andfell into a book. I didn’t check the door or go in search of food even though the sun seemed to set really quickly, and my stomach grumbled. I wouldn’t give Alexei the satisfaction of rattling the door handle if it were locked.
It was almost completely dark, and I had clicked on the lamp next to the bed when the door handle turned, and Alexei appeared in the doorway. I glanced at him for a fraction of a second and then went back to the book. My eyes scanned the page without taking in any of the words.
“You didn’t come down for dinner,” he said in a flat voice. I opened my mouth to tell him I wasn’t hungry, and my stomach rumbled and made me a liar. “I assumed you wanted to take it with Violet,” I said, closing the book with a snap and dropping it to my lap.
“Amy,” he sighed heavily. “This is your home, of course, I want you to eat. Having Violet here doesn’t change that.”
My head snapped upwards. I watched as he shrugged off his shirt and placed it haphazardly over the back of the chair. Each one of his movements was stiff, like he was exhausted.
“I will gladly make myself a sandwich or something if I get hungry.” Opening the book again, I hid my face with it. It was easier to pretend to read than watch him get undressed because that just awakened a familiar hot ache between my thighs.
“I can get you something, Amy.”
“No, thank you.”
His sigh rattled the air around me. “I’m sorry, OK?” There was another sigh, this one even deeper than the one before. “I overreacted down there. The painting was a masterpiece, and I am so grateful you did it. I am sure we can fix it.”
I scoffed before I could help myself. A snort left my nose.
“I should have handled the situation differently.” Without warning, a hand closed around my ankle and yanked me down to the bottom of the bed. The book dropped on my face, and I let out a cry as it hit my nose. Grabbing it, he tossed it away, and suddenly he was over me. His weight held off me on his elbows as he hovered above me.
“I am sorry, Amy.” Dropping his head, he rubbed his nose into myfreshly washed hair. “About the painting, about the party, about your sister. I am sorry for everything.”
