“Everything. I… I… We got it wrong. Wolfgang never harmed Anya and my mom. He lied to everybody.”
Silence hangs between us.
My chest heaves, and I curl into myself with the phone at my ear, trying to calm down.
“Whatever you did, you couldn’t have known…”
“Donotpamper me! You’ve never lied to me, so don’t you dare start now.” I grip my phone tighter. “I ruined him. And he won’t talk to me, won’t even look at me. Sasha… I need you to tell me what to do. I need…”
“Where are they, then? If he didn’t sell them, where did he take them? Are you absolutely sure this is true?”
“Yes. Yes, I’m sure. I believe him. He sent them off to Russia.”
Sasha lets out a sigh. “After he called me to get you that horse, I should’ve known…”
“Know what?”
“That he loves you. Of course he came up with some sort of plan, even if he never told you about it. We didn’t see it comingbecause… well, his reputation precedes him. He’s not exactly known for being a good man.”
I turn on my back, wiping the trails of my tears with the palm of my other hand.
“Maybe he did love me then. But now… trust me, it’s all gone. He wants nothing to do with me.”
“Come on, sweet girl. Surely, I taught you better than this. Didn’t I?”
I sniff, my body slowly coming down from the height of my emotions.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… if a door closes, you kick down the next. And if you can’t do it, then you bring out an axe. And if you don’t have an axe…”
“…then you find stone and wood. And if you can’t find that, then you give up the axe. And bring a machine gun.”
“There you are.”
“I know, Sasha. I know all of this. But there really doesn’t seem to be anything I can do to get him to listen to what I have to say…”
“Yes, there is,” he says patiently. “Find your machine gun, Victoria. Find the one thing he cares about and give that to him.He still loves you. Love doesn’t go away in the blink of an eye. All you need to do is make him remember.”
***
Wolf doesn’t come home the next two nights. I kept waiting in the hallway and he never showed up. And when I asked Corinne, she told me he was, indeed, gone—to New York.
Now, he’s back, right here behind his office door. He’s not alone. I saw him come in with people—men I’ve never seen around the house. I have no idea what their meeting is about, nor do I need to know.
I thought about Sasha’s words a lot since we talked, and I might be wrong, but I figured the best way to show Wolf how sorry I am would be to put myself in the same situation I put him. He was blindsided that day. Humiliated, and at the mercy of the family who never gave him love.
This is me now, doing the same thing to myself. He might still not want to talk to me, but at least he’ll see me, and he’ll know I’m not giving up on us. No matter what it takes.
Heart pounding in my chest, I wrap my hand around the handle and push the door open. Four big, muscular silhouettes come into view through the small crack it makes. And in between their heads, my husband appears sitting at his desk, talking to them. His eyes slide over to me, squinting before resuming his conversation as if I’m no one. Hurt flashes through me, and I swallow it down, advancing into the room.
“What can I do for you, Victoria?”
My heart pulses faster. He can’t ignore me now.
The other men turn their heads slightly, taking me in, then turning back to Wolf. I hold my husband’s stare, getting closer, closer, closer, until I’m by the desk, and I can feel his energy rolling off him in waves. He’s so imposing, so big. So hurt.
I lower myself to my knees. His jaw clenches, nostrils flaring as he follows my movements. The way I fold my hands in my lap. The way I continue to look at him. The way I sit down on my heels in a room full of men, submitting to him.
