Page 82 of Auctioned to My Bratva Boss

"I'm sorry, Riley." I'd owed her a real apology for so long.

She looked up, tears pooling in her eyes. "This isn't fair. You apologize when you feel like it, you hurt me when you feel like it. All I can do is take it. Can you please stop torturing me?"

Those words felt like a truck rolling over my chest.

"I know I hurt you. I know I'm a bastard." I closed my eyes in pain. "But listen—those people who wanted to kill you? That wasn't me. It was Veronica. She wanted to scare you. Wanted to force you away from me."

"The remarriage was fake, too. My shipping channels were compromised. I needed her family's influence. It was just business."

"What about the pregnancy? Was that fake too? Everyone says she's carrying your child!"

"That's just gossip. She's been spreading it herself. I—"

"Stop it. Don't insult me with this pathetic act." Riley cut me off, shaking her head in despair. "If it's really like you say, why didn't you tell me back then?"

"I'm not lying... I just didn't want you caught up in something dangerous. I wanted to protect you."

"But you already dragged me in!" Her voice broke. "You pulled me into your world, made me fall in love with you, then pushed me away over something else! You say you love me, but you hide everything from me. What the hell am I to you?"

I had no answer. She was right. My self-righteous secrecy was what hurt her most.

I was used to controlling everything. But I'd forgotten love isn't a mob negotiation.

"I'm sorry." All I could do was repeat it. "Riley, I'm sorry."

Tears spilled from her lashes. "Are you done?"

My heart plummeted into ice.

"Yeah."

"Then can I go?"

No. Never.

I grabbed her hand in panic. "Don't go. Please, Riley. Don't leave."

"I know I screwed up completely. I never learned how to love someone." I pressed her hand to my chest, my voice shaking. "Riley, you're the one who makes me feel like I'm still human. Give me one chance to prove I can change for you."

"I love you, Riley."

Riley was quiet for a long time.

"You know how long I waited to hear you say that, Matvey." Her voice was barely a whisper. "You know what? When thosepeople said you were going to kill me, my first reaction wasn't fear. It was heartbreak."

My breathing stopped.

"I didn't believe you were that cold. So I confronted you, wanting to hear you deny it yourself. But you said nothing." She continued. "I've survived losing both my parents. I've survived life beating me down. I'm a lot stronger than you think, Matvey. I just wished that when you were making those choices, you would've let me face them with you instead of shutting me out."

I looked at this twenty-four-year-old woman. Her soul was far stronger and brighter than I'd ever imagined.

"Riley, I swear. I'll never hide anything from you again. You're everything to me."

"It's too late, Matvey." She pulled her hand from mine. "Whether it's you saying you love me or you telling me the truth—it's all too late."

Outside, the downpour had stopped. The mist slowly cleared. The whole world looked sharper than ever after the rain.

But Riley was slipping away from me forever.