“What is this?” she asked, zooming in to read the words.
“It’s the contract my father signed with Pavel and Dima Kuznetsov,” I said, pointing to her first name at the top of the screen. There was no other information regarding her whereabouts, ensuring my father and Franco Bellandi could broker the sale.
Even if Dima had known her full name and location, going into Bellandi territory and stealing a girl out from under him would have been a mistake. Paranoid men like Franco would have seen it as an act of opposition, something that could lead to a full-scale war under the right circumstances.
“To be delivered on her thirteenth birthday,” Isa said aloud, the harshness of that settling over her. They’d have taken her from her home and given her a life of abuse on her birthday of all days. It shouldn’t have mattered in the grand scheme of things, but from the way her face went slack, I knew it did.
“I killed my father on my mother’s birthday. A month before your thirteenth,” I said, pausing so the revelation of just how close she’d come to being taken could sink in. “I’d like to claim it was intentional, that I knew I would save you from the life they’d planned for you, but I can’t. Until I saw you on that street, I’d all but forgotten about the girl my father sold to Dima. The rivalry with the Kuznetsovs didn’t come until after I saw you and decided I wanted to rid the world of all the men like my father who would hurt girls like you.” I touched my lips to hers gently, deepening the kiss when she didn’t try to fight me off.
She stared into my eyes as I pulled back to look down at her, her brain processing everything she’d learned. “Your father sold me to Dima, and you.” She paused, swallowing. “You knew? All this time.”
“I didn’t think you were anything other than just another one of my father’s potential victims until you told me he threw you in the river, and even then, I hoped you would never have to know the truth about this. I wanted to protect you—”
“You wanted to keep me obedient!” she said, snapping back. “Don’t you dare insinuate that you did this for me. That you kept this secret formysake.”
“It was for both of us,” I said, reaching for her and grinding my teeth when she shook her head. “I knew that you’d never want to look at me again if you knew that I’d fucking sat there and watched them sign your life away and donenothing.”
“You were there,” she whispered, understanding finally dawning on her face. She’d thought I just discovered the truth when it had been said and done.
“You weren’t the first he sold. I didn’t think anything of it at the time,” I explained.
“That’s why you were so surprised when I told you the photos were from before the earliest dates,” she said, nodding as she opened and closed her mouth and tried to find the words for what I’d done.
“I did what I could when I could,” I said, meeting her eyes and hoping against all reason that the openness she’d shown me wouldn’t be lost to the revelation of my deception.
“How am I supposed to believe that you aren’t keeping more secrets? They never end, Rafael,” she said, her voice turning pleading.
“I swear to you on my mother’s grave, there is nothing else I’m keeping from you,” I said, and her body went still with the words. My mother was the only thing that had ever mattered in my life until Isa, the only thing I could swear on that would meananything.
Her eyes were wide as she stared at me, and then finally she did the one thing she could that shocked me.
She nodded, sighing as if she believed me. I somehow doubted it, but I’d take the concession for what it was.