Page 66 of Claimed By My Ex's Dad
“For a murder he didn’t commit. He was sent away to a small village on the border of the arctic circle to serve time in the freezing cold. And die.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah,” agrees Valerian, sipping more coffee. “It was.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way—how do you know he was innocent?”
“Because he was framed.” I can hear the anger creeping into his voice. “He was a big politician. And I fucking hope he paid for what he did. With his death.”
“Didn’t you make him pay?”
“I couldn’t.” Valerian necks the rest of his coffee. “I was a boy. And I didn’t have any money to make anyone believe me.”
“Which is why you left…”
Valerian shrugs. “There wasn’t anything left for me in Russia. I needed to start over.”
I grab another slice of pineapple. He came over here tostart overand do what? Strangle people to death when they don’t do what he says?
Valerian sets the empty cup down and folds his giant arms over the table, watching me. “What about your family?”
“It’s just me and my mom.” I pin him a look. “She’s the only family I have left. And you made me lie to her.”
I bite my lip. I shouldn’t be talking to him about his family, caring and feeling sorry for what happened with them when he’s keeping me away frommine.
I finish the rest of my pineapple and rise from the table, the chair scraping under me.
Valerian watches me. “Where are you going? You’ve barely eaten.”
“I’m not hungry.” I don’t bother tucking the chair in. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on escaping.”
I storm away into the drawing room, searching for something to read that will take me out of my head. I can’t do this anymore. My head is scrambled.
One part of me feels sorry for Valerian, wanting to get closer and be around him more. The other part of me is so fucking angry.
I run my hand along the bookshelves until I come across something fictional.The Hobbit.That’ll do. I need to press pause on this world for a while and enter a new one.
I throw myself onto one of the loungers and open the first page, reading. But the words on the page are just that. Words. I can’t take anything in. Ten minutes go by. Twenty. In the end, I shut the book and stretch my legs out, trying to sleep instead.
As the morning goes by, the sun starts to heat up. I’m sweating in my clothes. Maybe I’ll change into my bikini and go for a swim. You know, taking it easy, like Valerian keeps telling me to do.
At the end of the day, there’s only so much of that you can do before you’re bored out of your mind.
I stretch my arms over my head, leaning to one side. Maybe I should raid the closet. See if I can find any activewear. No doubt, it will have belonged to Igor’s mom.
It’s like she’s haunting the walls. Galina looked petrified when I asked about her. Even when I made her breakfast, something felt off. Something about needing to follow rules…
I rise from the pool lounger. I’ll do yoga in the clothes I’m already wearing. It’s a ten-minute trek all the way back upstairs. Very unnecessary. This estate might be impressive, but it’s not practical to live in.
I stretch into a downward dog, doing alternating leg raises.
Between each stretch, I remember my last Pilates class. It was the night before I was taken. I couldn’t get Valerian out of my head. There was something about him that I just couldn’t shake.
What if he’s not the man I thought he was?
I extend my front leg forward, coming into a front split.
He must have buried a lot of shit over the years. Some parts of his childhood seem worse than mine.
