I felt my stomach drop, and tried to prepare myself for the worst. I should have known one of Stefan’s mistresses might seek me out eventually. I’d finally convinced myself that he wasn’t sleeping with the models, was just a workaholic, but maybe it had been wishful thinking.
Still, it was disconcerting that she’d found me so easily. First Stefan’s bodyguard, now this woman. How long until Konstantin started having me followed, too? Maybe he already was.
“Yes, Stefan is my husband,” I said, feeling more than a little unnerved.
After everything that had happened over the past few weeks—the drugging at the club and the horrible incident with my father-in-law—I was very aware that my life wasn’t as safe as it used to be. Stefan had warned me, told me that finding out about the dark, seedy underbelly of the KZ Modeling empire meant that I was a part of his world now. But now that world had hunted me down, right in broad daylight.
“I’m Irina,” the woman said, holding her hand out.
She was smiling at me, her expression warm and open. She didn’t seem dangerous, nor distraught in any way. I relaxed a little and shook her hand, but still I braced myself for what she had to say. Maybe she’d say she was pregnant. Maybe she’d ask me to leave Stefan.
But Irina just nodded, her face still lit up with that mega-watt smile.
“Will you please tell him that everything worked out?” she asked me. “He is, I think, a good man. A very good man. You are a lucky woman.”
I stared at her.
“I don’t understand,” I said, still waiting to hear the word “pregnant” or “relationship.”
“I cannot get word to him anymore,” she continued. “That is why I seek you out. Please tell him for me?”
I tried to process her words. She wanted me to tell Stefan that everything had worked out, so he wouldn’t worry. What had worked out? What had he helped her with?
Somehow, I nodded.
“I’ll tell him,” I said.
“Thank you.” Irina took my hand in hers and squeezed it gratefully. “So much.”
Before I could say another word, she got up, took her Louis Vuitton bag and her designer coat, and strode out of the coffee shop on her slick spike heels, disappearing into the cold Chicago air and leaving me gaping in her high-fashion wake.
I just sat there trying to process what had happened.
Stefan, a good man? It seemed like a bit of a stretch to me. He had definitely been easier to deal with lately, and there was no doubt that he was an extremely handsome and powerful man, but good? I couldn’t imagine it.
Yet clearly Irina felt indebted to him. He had done something to help this woman. Something that was so important that she had sought me out in order to pass him a message regarding her welfare. What the hell could he have done to help her? And why would he bother helping in the first place? My husband had never shown an altruistic side.
Maybe there was a good and noble heart hiding inside the human that hid inside the monster, a soft spot beneath the cold and ruthless front that Stefan put up every day. How many layers deep was he? His sister had said that he’d been different once, too. That when they were younger he hadn’t been as hard, hadn’t been as mean. That something big had happened to change him into the man he was today.
Did that mean he could change back?
I felt a twinge of hope. Maybe he really could be the man I wanted him to be. The man I had first thought he was, the man he’d been on the night we first met.
And maybe I could help him be that man.
I thought back to what my stepmother Michelle had told me shortly after my wedding. About how when you married a busy, important person, it was your job to make their lives easier. She’d said people like my father and Stefan were under so much pressure on a regular basis that they needed someone to come home to who could be the calm in their storm.
Maybe if I did that for Stefan, and tried to be the kind of wife that Michelle had told me I should be, he would be able to become the man I needed him to be. The man I hoped he still was. But first, I needed to know more about Irina and the reason behind her cryptic message. And there was only one way to find that out.
I’d have to confront my husband.
Tori
Chapter 21
By the time I arrived back at the condo I was practically vibrating with a combination of caffeine and anticipation. Unfortunately, Stefan wasn’t home yet. I couldn’t stop imagining how our conversation would go. How he’d react, and what he would say, when I dropped the bomb and told him about the “friend” of his who’d come to see me at the coffee shop that afternoon.
He had finally started opening up to me about KZ Modeling recently. Not necessarily the details regarding the agency’s shady dealings, but about his role in handling the legitimate side of the business. I hoped it was a sign that he was beginning to trust me more, and that he’d continue to grow increasingly comfortable about confiding in me. Especially when it came to Irina and what she’d meant by saying that everything had worked out.
