For a second, she looked confused, and then she handed it over. “Who are you calling Amy?”
“Alexei. I need him.”
Opening his number quickly, I waited for him to answer.
“Mrs. Cole,” Violet’s voice was loud and hissing. ”You’d best get your old, wrinkly ass home now. I’m starving.”
Violet had his phone. Not only that, but he had taken her home and left me alone.
My heart hardened. “It’s Amy.”
“Ohhh,” she sang to me. “Not dead then? Shame.”
“I need to speak to Alexei. My sister—” I gulped in a steadying breath. “My sister, Alessia, died.”
“Good riddance, I say. It should have been you, though. You know that, right?”
God, she was an evil cow.
“Put Alexei on the phone,” I said coldly. My heart wasn’t hard anymore. It was made of pure ice. “Now.”
“He’s not here. He’s gone to ask his grandfather for his permission to marry me. You should see the ring on my finger, Amy. it was once his grandmother’s.”
I cut the call off before she could finish the sentence. So, Alexei was going to ask his grandfather permission to divorce me. I should have been heartbroken. And maybe before I would have been, but now? Now I had lost too much in too short a time to feel anything at all.
I was completely and utterly numb.
My sister was gone.
My marriage was over.
The only thing I had left was my child, and I was going to protect that baby with everything I had.
Chapter Thirty
Amy
Taking a deep breath, I pushed into Nikolai’s room, forcing a bright but sad smile on my face as I stepped through. He looked up from his bed instantly.
“Amy,” he sighed, and the relief in his voice was enough to make my heart break all over again. “Thank God you are alright. I have been so worried. Alexei as well.”
I didn’t believe that for a second about my husband, but I went to hug him anyway, holding him just a little tighter than I should.
“Where have you been, docha?” he asked gruffly as I took the hard plastic seat next to him.
“I’m sorry. I worried you, Nikolai.” I meant that from the bottom of my heart. “I didn’t mean to, after everything that happened, I just needed a little time.” My voice broke.
His old face softened. Reaching for my hand, he patted the back of it. “I am so sorry about Alessia.”
“Me too.” The lump was back in my throat, and I had to swallow it down. “The funeral is this afternoon and after that—”
He cut me off. “You’re leaving him, aren’t you?” There was no judgment in his voice, just sadness.
“I’m sorry, Nikolai.” There was no point lying to him. He would see right through it even if I did.
His sigh was one of resignation. “I know you are upset, Amy, and I know things with Alexei are,” he paused, “complicated, but don’t you think you owe it to yourself to try and make this marriage work?”
I couldn’t help but stare at him with my mouth open. “I don’t think that’s an option anymore. I know Alexei came to you.” Again, the lump in my throat made it hard to speak.
