Page 53 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
“Look, brother, I can see why you might get attached to a little slut like this,” Artem continues, leering at me as he holds me close to him. “But you never get these kind of women pregnant, eh?”
“Just because you never got what you wanted from our father doesn’t mean?—”
“It means that you don’t get it, either,” he snarls back, suddenly taking a step towards his brother. I stumble back, and Luna puts an arm around me, supporting me as best she can. I clutch to her, my entire body frozen in terror as I try to make sense of whatever will happen next.
“You were stupid enough to get this whore pregnant, and now she’s going to come between us if you let her,” Artem continues. Is he really trying to invoke a kind of brotherly code between them now, after everything he has done—not just to me, but to all of these women? It’s almost laughable. Anton’s expression does not shift for a moment, refusing to let his brother get under his skin.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” he tells him. “We could be in this together, you and I. Make some real money. Start by getting rid of her, eh? And make it so she can never…”
Anton takes the shot, burying his gun in his brother’s guts before he pulls the trigger. For a second, Artem’s eyes widen, and he grabs for Anton’s shoulders.
He leaves a smear of blood as he falls away, staggering back towards the doorframe as his gaze goes blank. And then, at last, he slumps to the ground, dead.
None of us say anything. Luna is still holding tight to my arm, and Anton is breathing hard, the gun gripped tight in his hand.
“Oh, God,” Anna whimpers, and I snap out of it, dropping down to my knees beside her and clasping her hands in mine.
“Hey, it’s over now,” I assure her softly, and her gaze lifts to search mine, distant and bleary, as though she has just woken from a dream.
“Maya, we need to get out of here,” Anton tells me, and I feel his hand resting on my shoulder, trying to coax me to my feet. Anna has started to shake, and beside her, Luna is just standing there, staring into space, as she tries to wrap her head around everything that has just happened.
“Anna, can you hear me? Can you talk to me right now?”
I understand the urgency in Anton’s tone, but there is no way I’m going to walk away from this without these two women. I don’t care if it means putting myself at risk; with Artem gone, the threat seems so much more distant now, anyway, I can hardly believe it existed in the first place.
Anna finally manages to look at me again, and she glances up at Anton, obviously still terrified. She doesn’t know that he would never, in a million years, let us come to any harm. As far as she is concerned, he might be just as much of a threat as Artem, from the frying pan and into the fire. But I need her to trust me, I need them both to trust me, as hard as that might be to believe right now.
“You can come with us,” I tell her, and I offer her a hand. She stares at it for a second, but then, much to my relief, she manages to take it, and I guide her to her feet. Beside me, Luna still has her arms wrapped around herself.
“Can I change before we go?” she asks bluntly. “I hate this shit...”
She plucks at the lingerie she’s wearing, and I glance over at Anton for confirmation. He parts his lips at first, as though thinking of arguing with me, but I guess that he can see in my eyes that there is no point. The only way I’m going to leave is if I can do it with these women, with as much dignity and grace as this situation will allow them.
“Yeah, of course you can,” I reply. “Anton, can we have a few minutes?”
“I’ll be waiting right outside,” he tells me with a nod. And, before I can stop myself, I lean forward and plant a kiss on his lips. I don’t think I will ever be able to express just how grateful I’m for what he has done for me here today, but I will spend the rest of my life trying to prove it, if that’s what it takes.
He pulls me close, just for a second, as though reluctant to break this moment between us. Breathing in deeply, he presses his hand to my waist.
“Don’t be long,” he murmurs. And with that, he pulls back, and leaves us to get ourselves put together.
The three of us start to dress in silence. I suppose there’s not much to be said, at a time like this. The relief of knowing that the ordeal is over is about as much as we can all focus on right now, as we throw on our normal clothes over the lingerie, kicking off the awful heels for the shoes we arrived in.
“You’re really pregnant, Maya?”
Anna is the first one to speak, and when I turn to her, her eyes are wide, as though she must not have understood what was going on properly. I nod, resting my hands on my belly.
“Yeah,” I murmur. “I... I really am.”
“And he’s the father?” Luna points out past the door, to where Anton must be standing. I nod again.
“Yeah. He’s... He’s Artem’s brother, actually.”
Both the women inhale sharply, looking concerned. I can’t say I blame them. If I had heard that one of them was running off to be with the brother of the man who landed us in all of this in the first place, I would likely have felt the same way.
“He’s nothing like him, though,” I assure them swiftly. “I know how it must look, but we didn’t even meet through Artem. He actually—when Artem first tried to take me, he was the one to save me.”
I press my lips together, a swell of emotion passing through me as my mind fills with memories of that night. It had been so random, I can see that now, looking back. If he hadn’t been there to help me, if he hadn’t turned up at the auction on the night Artem first tried to sell me, I would be in a living hell right now. Every time, he has come through for me, proving to me over and over again how much he cares for me.
