I leashed back my own temper, threatening to blow over. “I was trying to fix a misunderstanding.”
“You made me look weak in front of your brothers. Now they’ll go around thinking I don’t even know what my wife is up to.”
“Arko,” I said, carefully. “It’s not like I didn’t take them by surprise, either.”
“I am not them,” he hissed at me. “You undermined my authority, Beatrice.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” My voice rose to a mild screech in desperation. “That wasn’t my intention. I swear. I just wanted everyone in the same room so we could talk.”
“You went behind my back!” he roared, taking a turn. “Do you have any idea how foolish I felt?”
“How did I make you look like a fool?” I asked, genuinely confused. “I was trying to show them that you’re not the villain they’ve made you out to be.”
“Your family and mine have been at war long before you came into the picture, Beatrice. Can you, for once, stop being so selfish?” He glared at me with such distaste that I felt something inside me shrivel.
I froze, unable to say another word, my hands clenched on my lap as I stared at this furious man who, right about then, looked like an absolute stranger.
“Not everything has to be about you and how you feel. On one hand, you say you want to know me. But on the other hand, you keep secrets and plot and scheme!”
Each word hit like a dagger, straight to my heart. I’d never felt more misunderstood.
“I just wanted peace,” I said, softly, holding my position.
“You betrayed my trust around my enemies!” he said.
I flinched, feeling like this whole argument was moving in circles. “They’re my brothers.”
“Yes. They are. Maybe I was the fool for trusting you. The biggest mistake I made was forgetting you were a Lebedev first!”
My breath hitched in my throat just as tears stung in my eyes. I looked away just in time, out through the window at thetrees dancing by, swallowing back another defense. With Arko this angry, I knew words won’t help.
“After tonight,” I heard him say. “I’m not sure I can trust whose side you’re really on.”
Chapter 19 - Arko
The next morning, I scurried off to my office before Beatrice even made her way outside her bedroom. It wasn’t that I was busy. However, the hurtful things I said still lingered in my mind, and I didn’t want to see her just yet.
I had tossed and turned, unable to find sleep. On one hand, her act of defiance upset me. But on the other hand, once I cooled down, I also understood where she came from.
But some irrational part of me wondered, was it so hard for her to separate what we had from my relationship with her family? Was it so hard for her to trust me to do what was best for my family, including her?
I browsed through the news for the day on my computer, my mind half-registering what I read as I tried to clear my head. I just wanted the fighting between Beatrice and me to stop. I couldn’t care less about the tension with her god-awful brothers.
So couldn’t she, for just a little while, focus on us and not her family?
Even the simple task of reading felt futile. I groaned with frustration and slammed my computer shut. Swiveling on my chair, I reached for the cup of coffee on the trolley to my right when my phone started to ring.
Coffee in hand, I turned back to my desk and froze when I saw who was calling.
Dante Lebedev.
After last night, this couldn’t be good. I took a few settling breaths and put the cup down, preparing for what would be an animus conversation.
“Lebedev,” I said up at last.
“Pavlov. How are…things?”
I frowned, confused as shit. This was as close to asking how I was as Dante Lebedev could, and I didn’t know what to do with this surprising turn of events.
