“I have one thing I do want to say to you,” I stated.
When I knew I had their attention, I smirked and announced, “I will never marry Sam, even if he’s the last man on the planet. I love and only want Reign. As for the rest of you, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Kati, talk to her. You both need to come home. It’s been long enough,” Dad lectured Mom.
She stood tall and said loud and clear, “Savar, I’m never coming back. You’ll be receiving divorce papers from my lawyer now that this farce is over.”
As they stood there, stunned, my group and I walked away without looking back. I found it odd that Sam never said a word. He stood there with an almost blank expression on his face.
Sinner: Chapter 20
Our guests had all arrived. After the tension of Wednesday, seated in the courtroom, wondering if Sam would win his bogus lawsuit, we all deserved to relax and have fun. Everyone had made it to the cookout, and despite their insistence that they’d do all the cooking, Anastasia and her mom hadn’t been the only ones to get their hands in a kitchen. Each individual or couple had brought a dish or contribution to the cookout. There was a ton of food.
When Kathlyn saw Matea and Mason, she went into grandma mode. She admitted she was missing her grandchildren. Because of her refusal to go home to her husband or to put up with the males’ sexist ideas anymore, she hadn’t been allowed to see them.
She admitted that Savar was using the kids against her. He knew how much she loved them, and it was his way of forcing her to come home. However, she hadn’t given in. And after her declaration that she was divorcing him, he’d been silent.
According to Iker and his people, the only person seen outside any of our homes or offices was Sam. He never approached. He would just sit in his car or stand on the sidewalk, watching. I had no idea why, but we kept the guards.
We spent time hanging out in the apartment. For those who hadn’t been here before, we walked them through it and explained our expansion plans. Mr. O’Brien had given me theblueprint for the neighboring apartment so we could begin figuring out what we might want to do with it.
The paperwork and the payment will be finished next week. Side conversations and debates were happening among our friends as they examined the blueprints, but it was all in good fun. Later, we took everyone up to the roof. Again, those who hadn’t been here before were in awe.
And there was no need to worry about the little ones’ safety up there. To prevent anyone from falling off the building, the roofing edge was enclosed in six-foot sections of reinforced glass. You still have the view without the danger. It was up there that we cooked out and ate when the time came.
I kept an eye out for any discomfort from Anastasia’s mom. I hadn’t felt any from her toward me since my woman told her mom all about Lustz, but it could come out toward others. Zero.
In fact, I caught her questioning the other guests about their memberships and asking them what they get out of their various kinks. There was a lot of education, but both Kathlyn and Anastasia were eating it up.
Mikhail explained what being a primal meant, and Tajah shared what being prey meant to her. When Kathlyn found out Tajah wrote steamy romances and had a series that explored kink, she jotted down where to get the books.
Hoss and Cady detailed what it was like for them as a brat handler and brat. For Carver and his Lexi, he was a submissive switch who could be the Dom. Lexi tended to like to be the Domme, a female Dom, but would become a submissive, or a bottom, for Carver. Their power exchanges flowed between the two. Reuben was a pleasure Dom, and Cristiana his pleasure sub. Kathlyn had already talked to me about rope mastery and what having a willing bottom or model did for me. But she didn’tstop there. She asked Sawyer, Iker, and Sharlena what they liked best about the lifestyle.
Her openness was refreshing and unexpected. Usually, those of us in the kink life tend to keep it private. It wasn’t out of shame. It was due to how others might react and, in some cases, retaliate. Kathlyn was absorbing everything and seemed to enjoy learning. I wondered what she’d suppressed all these years with Savar.
What seemed to stun her was her asking Matvey and Victoria whether they were part of Lustz. Everyone grinned. Anastasia had told me she didn’t know what to tell her mom about the mobster and his wife, so she said nothing. Matvey denied membership to Lustz, but I noticed he didn’t deny having dabbled in kink. Instead, he smirked.
“What do you think I do? For work? That is far more interesting.”
“Matvey, behave,” Victoria admonished him playfully.
“Dorogoy,Sweetheart, I want her to guess unless Reign or Stasia told her.”
“We didn’t say a word. Mom, you’ll never guess,” Anastasia told her.
Kathlyn studied Matvey, then Victoria.
“Well, Matvey, you’re clearly a businessman and a very successful one at that. I can tell that by the way you dress, speak, and carry yourself. Victoria has the bearing of a lady. Are you in banking? Import-export? Or maybe precious metals. I don’t think you’re an oilman, but maybe something in the business line that has their fingers in the trade.”
“You could say I’m all those things and many more.”
There were a few more teasing remarks until he finally confessed what he was.
“Kathlyn, I admit, I am not like the others in this room. I have wealth and power, but it is not completely earned in the same manner as the others here.” He paused.
“What does that mean?” Kathlyn asked.
“It means that while I have legitimate money-making ventures, not everything I do is. However, that part of my life has nothing to do with my friends and family. I do not involve them in it. I hope that you will become a friend and not hold that against me. I was raised to assume a position. In Mikhail’s and my family, you do as you are told. Someone was expected to rise to assume the mantle of leadership.
