It was only a short journey back to the house, a few hours at the most, but I could imagine the exhaustion catching up to her.
She’d had a rough time of it.
I really felt for her.
I hated that she was going through the pain of losing her father, but I was glad the bastard was dead. Maybe one day she would learn the full extent of how awful a man he was but not today, not the day of his funeral.
Even to me, that seemed excessively cruel.
The car went over a bump in the road causing Anastasia to stir. My eyes snapped angrily to meet Edmond’s eyes in the rearview mirror. Luckily, Anastasia was wiped. She turned so that she faced me and fell back into a deep sleep.
The car veered up the driveway before pulling to a complete halt. Not wanting to disturb Anastasia, I opened her door and carefully folded her into my arms. I carried her all the way up the stairs but paused when I got to the end of the corridor.
The room I’d had set up especially for her was to the left, mine was directly opposite. I didn’t like the idea of us being so far apart but Heather had advised that she might’ve felt more comfortable if given her own space. While Heather was only my maid, I trusted her opinion on this matter more than my own.
But still, I hesitated at her door.
A mammoth of a second later, and I was forcing myself through the open door of her bedroom.
As much as I wanted her in my room, it wouldn’t have taken her long after she woke up to realize where she was. I didn’t want her to think I had taken advantage of her. If she was going to hate me for anything I wanted it to be for stealing her, not some other imagined wrongdoing. I was the one who stole her, took her away from her family. Of course she was going to hate me right now. I only hoped that in time she’d come to see things my way, maybe even care for me the way that I cared for her. But today wouldn’t be that day.
I made sure to lock the bedroom door behind me. I wouldn’t want her wandering off, running away from me before I even had the chance to convince her to stay.
The click of the lock rang heavy in my ears. I couldn’t help but sigh at having to lock her in, but deep down I knew at the moment it was a necessary evil.
Even if she was going to hate me for it.
It was just something that I had to endure.
And pray, that it wouldn’t last forever.
* * *
I fell back into the seat across from my brother with a loud thud. The hard leather barely moved under my weight. I would never understand why Finch chose those chairs. Maybe their uncomfortable nature was exactly what my brother had in mind. I could only imagine the scum that must come through here, of course, my brother wouldn’t want to chance that his enemies would be comfortable.
“How did it go?” he asked. His hand still scrolling across the paper laid out on the desk in front of him, hand gripping his pen as if it were a poised weapon.
“It could’ve gone better,” I admitted reluctantly. We had a rocky start but that didn’t mean that I should give up. My brothers had warned me about exactly this, I was to expect resistance.
“My brother, the man of many words.” His pen finally dropped, head raising to take me in as he leaned back in his chair.
“Things can always go better, Nikolai. Just don’t forget that this is a lot for her to take in. She may have been on your mind for years but you haven’t been on hers. This will all be very new to her.” With my teeth clenched I nodded my head, but the truth was, I was impatient. I’d waited for her for years, I didn’t want to wait any longer.
When I came to my brother all those years ago asking for his advice, I had a simple crush.
I’d seen a pretty thing that I wanted to own. Now...it was different, I knew her. Anastasia wasn’t just a pretty revenge piece now. I had spent hours, days, weeks, years getting to know her. I had watched her, studied her - and fallen in love with her.
It was only natural for me to seek my brother’s advice because that’s what I’d always done. Out of all of my brothers, for as long as I could remember, I was closest with Finch. Not just in age although maybe that had unknowingly helped our bond.
There was never a time that we were apart. We shared everything, helped each other with everything. I would protect him from the neighborhood bullies on the playground, and he would spend hours teaching me how to speak, without a stutter.
“So, when will we all get to meet her?” My brother's hands clapped together as his demeanor suddenly changed - lightened. We’d always been as thick as thieves, I could understand his piqued curiosity.
I had a stutter when I was younger. I had been so embarrassed by it that I would rather not talk at all. Finch taught me that it was okay to take my time, and then he spent hours practicing my trigger words with me. Over and over.
It got easier to deal with, little by little and then it went away altogether.
“You know you’re always welcome at the house, it’s your home as well,” I emphasized like I always did when it came to the family property.
