CHAPTER 8
Naomi
I idly turned the pages of the magazine in my lap, not really reading the words. All day I had been restless, and nothing seemed to satisfy me, no matter what I tried to do.
I couldn’t even sleep for more than a few minutes, which was what I usually did when I couldn’t find anything else to do.
Gavril had been MIA since breakfast, not even showing up for our normal workout time or for lunch.
It hurt a little bit to know that he had already busted our routine up for God knows what. Sometimes I wondered if any of what we had experienced over the last few weeks was just a lie, a dream that I had finally woken up from.
I didn’t want this rift between us. No matter what I had seen or what I thought he was doing, he was still my husband and the man I depended on for my very livelihood. To have him upset with me was almost like he had cut off my right hand. After nearly two months of being attached at the hip to him, I could feel the distance between us, and mentally, I wasn’t ready for it. After all, I had no one else to vent to, no one to keep me company or to fill my days.
I had relied completely on Gavril, and that had been a mistake.
Not that I had a whole lot of choice in what my days were like right now anyway. Gavril might not be there in person, but he sure as heck wasn’t going to let me far out of his sight now that I was carrying his child.
I was a virtual prisoner again in the ivory tower, with all the wealth and opulence surrounding me when I really just wanted to be around others.
Tossing the magazine onto the floor, I leaned back against the chair and closed my eyes, letting the late afternoon breeze blow over my body. Instead of a usual Sveta-worthy outfit, I was dressed in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, void of any makeup, and my hair was pulled up in its usual place on top of my head.
I was comfortable but restless, and I didn’t know why.
The door to the bedroom suddenly opened, and Gavril stood in the doorway. My traitorous heart leaped at the sight of him. Immediately, I noticed the stone-cold expression on his face, and when he started toward me, my heart started racing for an entirely different reason.
“Gavril?” I asked hesitantly. “Is something wrong?”
He didn’t stop until he was standing before me, and I could see the tension vibrating off him. “Did you leave the mansion last week, Sveta?”
The color drained from my face and nausea rose in my throat.
He knew.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat and met his gaze head on. I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me. At least now it was out in the open now, and I could quit hiding behind what I had seen.
“I wanted to tell you about the pregnancy in person,” I started. “So Ivan took me to where you were. He called Anatoly to find out where you were.”
When Gavril’s expression didn’t soften, I pushed on.
“You told me I could do whatever I wanted, remember?”
He let out a bitter chuckle, one that chilled the blood in my veins.
“And what did you see when you found me, Sveta?” he asked harshly, each word almost like he was forcing it out.
Was that what he was worried about? I knew this moment was going to come; I just hadn’t expected it to be from him, and no amount of prep could prepare me for the way he was reacting, like I had broken some sacred rule by spying on his business transactions.
How was any of this my fault?
“I saw everything,” I answered, fighting to keep my voice even. “I saw those women. Those girls. The ones that you gave to those…” I couldn’t finish my words, the reality of what I had seen that day finally hitting me full force.
Gavril’s cold stare didn’t change, not even a flicker of acknowledgment at the way I’d dropped off my words.
“You could have waited,” he said flatly. “Until I came home.”
“I thought you would want to know immediately about the baby,” I fought back, my throat growing tight with emotion. “It’s what you had been waiting for, wasn’t it? This baby?”
His jaw ticked, but he didn’t respond, and I felt a well of despair building up inside me. There were parts of my fractured heart that wished I hadn’t even gone that day, that I was still in the dark about his business dealings, but if nothing else, it had shown me what Gavril truly was.
“Why would you do that?” I asked, unable to help it. “Why would you take those women?”
I wanted to throw in the fact that we had just promised to be truthful to each other yesterday in the nursery, but the look on Gavril’s face gave me pause.
Gavril’s eyes darkened, and he started toward me. I shrank back into the chair further. He braced his hands on the arms of the chair, his face inches from mine.
“Why?” he asks softly. “Why do you care?”
My lips parted. Was he serious? Why did I care? Because it was wrong! All of it was wrong!
“It’s wrong,” I blurted out, wetting my lips with my tongue between words. “I can’t condone that sort of business, Gavril. It’s wrong, and those women…they didn’t deserve to be ripped from their families to be hurt by those men.”
Surely he saw the same thing! Surely my words would trigger that part of Gavril I had just started to find, the one who was caring and thoughtful, even if it was for brief periods of time. Surely he couldn’t condone that type of abuse.
I didn’t want to believe that he would.
Gavril’s lips turned into a hard smile. “Tell me, Sveta,” he said, the words coming out of his mouth almost like a lethal dose of honeyed poison. “Do you like this mansion?”
I didn’t answer because I didn’t know how to. Where was he going with this?
“What about the clothes you are wearing?” he countered. “Or the diamonds on your person? Do you like those? Do you enjoy the food you have been eating or the bed you have been sleeping in?”
“Gavril,” I started, wanting to find some common ground between us. This couldn’t be happening!