At my deadpanned smirk, he rolled his eyes. “I know. Stupid thing to say. But…” He shrugged. “Something’s got to give, right?”
“It’s not going to be me giving her an apology,” I replied.
I had to stick with the firm belief that strength was the only path forward.
“And I’m not sorry,” I told him.
He nodded.
“I fail to understand how the fuck she’d even care about that man when he sold her to me. When he gave her up and sacrificed her life and freedom to spare a punishment for himself.”
“I don’t think she did care about him too much,” he replied. He quickly held his hands up. “I’m not saying Iknowher to make that claim. None of us know her like you do.”
Shit.I wondered if they knew I’d fucked her. If they were aware of how obsessed I was with keeping her. Or making her mine.
“But she never mentioned wanting anything else than working here.”
I scoffed. “Because she’s not stupid. She knew she was stuck here, with me. She wasgivento me.”
“Sure. But she never expressed any attitude about being here. Tell me I’m wrong. She never tried to escape. She never contacted her father. She never even fucking wandered around the property or went to the pool or anything.”
“Because she didn’t come here as a guest.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but is she just an employee? She’s not fitting into any category or label. Whatever she is, though, is loyal. Not to her father, but to you. To the family.”
I shook my head, not wanting to get my hopes up. “If she was so loyal and committed to this family, she wouldn’t be this down and moping about it.”
Maksim approached, walking up behind us on the patio. He must have overheard the end of our discussion because he said, “She’s not moping, you dumbass. She’s just lost.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Nikolai nodded. “The fuck?”
“It’s not so much that you killed Morovov that’s bothering her,” Maksim said.
I crossed my arms. “Did she tell you that?”
“No. I can tell, though,” he replied. “It’s not that you killed him, it’s that she has no one now.”
I stared him down, confused how he could even come to such an asinine conclusion. “That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.” I wanted to shout and rail against that. Elena was so down and sullen and detached from life because she had no one? That was bullshit. I was so possessive of her that I couldn’t believe he’d think such a thing.
“Her mother died when she was young.” He ticked up a finger.
“Both sets of her grandparents died before she was born,” Nikolai added. Maksim put another finger up.
For fuck’s sake.I loathed that she had opened up tothemat all, and not exclusively me.
“No aunts or uncles,” Maksim added, putting up another finger.
“Not that having an uncle is anything I’d want with the one we had,” Nikolai said. He frowned. “Or the one we still have, if that’s the case.”
“No siblings,” Maksim said. “No friends. She is a homebody and doesn’t even talk about going out. She hasno one. With you taking out her father, the last person who could’ve been part of her family, she is alone.”
“That’sbullshit,” I argued. While all that they said was true, this was not. Elena wasn’t alone. She was here. With me. Hell, even my brothers and cousins and that cook were all part of her life now.
More than anything else, though, she hadme. We’d come together, and it wasn’t a farce. We’d connected, albeit in a torrid, physical burst of lust both times, but it wasn’t as though she wasalone.
They both left me, and while I stood and let the sun warm my back, wanting the fresh air for a little longer before I headed back inside, I considered how wrong I was and how right they could be.
Admitting I erred wasn’t something that I did lightly.
