I can see the anger in her eyes. She hates the fact that I’m carrying his baby. Despises it. It burns her up like nothing else.
“But once that runt in your womb is gone,” she continues, “he’ll have no reason to keep you around.”
“Other than the fact that he loves me,” I say.
Her expression turns murderous. “Loves you?” she scoffs. “You stupid girl. You actually think someone like him could love someone like you? I was always meant to have his children. Me. No one else. Definitely not you.”
“So that’s your plan?” I ask. “You’re going to kill me so you can resume your role as his wife? Do you really think he’ll just go along with that?”
She raises her eyebrows. “You think that’s my plan? Fuck, you really must think I’m crazy.”
“You’ve made it easy to think that.”
She shakes her head. “I always knew what I was doing, Jessa. Right from the beginning. I may have loved Anton, but he was too stubborn, too bullheaded to realize that I could be an asset to him. Right up to the end, I thought there was hope of changing him. That’s what every girl wants, right? To reform the bad boy? But when he told me he was going to divorce me, I knew then that it was over between us. And I will beg no man to be with me.”
“Then why all this?” I ask. “Was it just revenge?”
“Of course it was revenge. He married me because he wanted my father’s Bratva. I was a means to an end.”
“No, he didn’t,” I say. “He never wanted the Ivanovs. That was his father’s idea. It was pushed on him. He never thought marrying you would be worth it.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I heard it from Anton’s own lips.”
“Then he’s lying to himself, too,” she snaps. “He wanted to marry me. He wanted to fuck me from the moment he laid eyes on me. Most men do.”
“Anton is not like most men,” I whisper.
Some of her confidence slips away. “Don’t act like you know him.”
“But I do know him,” I say, only now realizing how true it is.
Maybe we haven’t known each other long, but connections are formed on other things than time. We are drawn together by something greater than both of us. I know him, and he knows me.
And no matter what happens now, Marina can’t take that away.
The edge of the bedside table cuts into the back of my leg, and I remember with a jolt that the dagger Anton bought for me is sitting in the drawer. If I move fast enough, I may be able to arm myself.
Of course she’s still holding a gun. But at least I’m not as powerless as she thinks I am. I remember some of Anton’s last words to me before he left.
You’re strong enough to protect yourself.
It’s like he knew I’d need the encouragement in the moment that mattered most.
“So if you can’t have him, no one can, is that it?” I ask.
She smiles, a cruel slash of a smirk. “That’s about the gist of it. You wouldn’t have been able to make him happy, anyway. I was the perfect woman for him. He was just too proud to see that.”
“He’s been doing fine without you.”
Goading her is probably not the best idea, but my emotions are getting the better of me. Also, a part of me feels like keeping her talking is the best possible option right now.
Because even if I manage to get the dagger in my hand, I’m still not sure I’ll have the guts to use it.
She shakes her head. “You distracted him and now, he’s going to pay for that mistake.”
“What are you going to do?” I ask bluntly.