Gavriil, admitting aloud that he made a mistake? I must have dreamed that part.
“What’s your offer?” I ask and he lets out the breath he was holding.
“Eat breakfast, drink a glass of water, and I’ll let you see him.”
I manage to gather enough strength to halfway sit up, feeling his hand linger on my spine to support me. My temples pulse for a few seconds, but once I’m upright, I feel somewhat steady.
“What?” I ask.
Gavriil sits up as well, his upper body crowding mine since we’re still so close together. “Eat, drink, and I’ll let you see Dominik.”
My eyes dart up to his blue ones, the air leaving my lungs. “You’re lying.”
His expression remains blank. “I’m not. Don’t you want to see him?”
Despite how much I miss Dom, I don’t jump to answer Gavriil’s question. I can’t because how I feel about seeing him right now is too complicated for even me to comprehend.
He killed my brother, and even if he had his reasons for it, I can’t bring myself to forgive him. Just like I can’t forgive myself for the part that I played in Archer’s death too.
So many people are at fault, and it kills me that the man I’ve grown so close to is one of them.
“You should’ve killed me and Archer yourself. You shouldn’t have made Dominik do it.” The words scrape out of me, bitter and raw, like they’ve been waiting for air. He ruinedeverythingwhen he gave that fucking order.
Gavriil looks away from me, his brows knitting together. “I couldn’t kill you then, and I won’t let you die now.”
“Because of Dominik? Who you locked up in a cell?” I question him with a shake of my head. He claims to care about his brother, but he certainly has a funny way of showing it.
Gavriil exhales long and slow. “He would never forgive me if anything happened to you. He already blames me for losing the first woman he loved.”
Shock hits me like a punch to the stomach. Picturing Dom with another woman is inconceivable. “What?”
Gavriil turns his head toward me, eyes sharp and captivating. “Daria. She was pretty. At least on the outside.”
“What…what happened to her? What did you do?” I ask, assuming the worst.
The sides of his mouth wilt a little. “You think I killed her? You always think so badly of me.”
Does he actually sound…offended?
“You said that Dominik blamed you for losing her.”
Gavriil clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “I didn’t kill her. The thought crossed my mind, though.”
I blink at him. “Why?”
His eyes sharpen a degree. “Because of how badly she hurt him.”
That smidge of emotion makes my pulse quicken.
“What did she do?”
“She cheated on him. Got pregnant. And ended it without telling him whose child it was.”
My head spins as I try to imagine all of this, Dominik in love with another woman who stabbed him in the back in one of the worst ways possible. Of course, I shouldn’t expect to be the first person he’s ever loved, or claimed to love, but this just proves how little I know of Dom’s life before meeting me.
“The baby may have been his…”
“She never confirmed either way,” Gavriil tells me.
