Page 66 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

Why wouldn’t the door open? I hadn’t locked it. Had someone—

I fell back as the first lick of flames lit up the door.

I was trapped in a burning building with no way out.

The bottoms of my feet hurt with every step I took towards the window, but somehow I made it. Even though I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t breathe.

Weakly, I smashed my burnt hands against the glass of the window uselessly. There were people down there in the street. Faces lit up by the flames so I could see the terror on their faces, but not one of those faces looked up at me.

They didn’t hear my screams.

They didn’t see me beat one last time on the glass before I crumpled to the floor and the black smoke overcame me.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ilya

She didn’t come home.

I’d thought she would. Her whole world was here. Alec was her whole world now; I saw it in her eyes every time she looked at him.

But she didn’t come back, and time seemed to crawl to a halt but speed up all at the same time. My son wouldn’t even look at me, and when he was forced to, the look he gave me was so full of hate that it made it impossible to breathe.

I'd known they were growing close, but that night at the engagement party when he had fought me to go to her, and the next day when he had stolen my phone to ring her, had really cemented in that their relationship was no longer something I could ignore as insignificant.

He loved her. Like a son loved a mother, and she loved him right back.

And maybe that’s why I thought she would come back. I knew things would have to change between us because I was going to be married, but her place was here.

With Alec.

With me.

"Boss—"

My head snapped up the second the man stepped into the open doorway, his hand raised to tap his knuckles on the wood.

"Alec?" I was already half out of my chair before he could open his mouth again. "Is he okay?"

The last time I had checked he had been fast asleep, in Daisy's bed, which was where he slept now. Curled up in sheets that still smelt like her. Honestly, if I could sleep, that’s where I would have been as well. Cocooned in the smell of her.

"He’s fast asleep. It’s not that. It’s..." He ran a nervous hand through his hair, his features tight.

"Spit it out. Unless it’s important, then—"

"Do you want the bad news or the worst news?"

With a groan, I fell back into my seat. "At this point, I’m not sure it matters anymore."

Wasn’t that the truth? I’d had all the bad news I could handle right now. My life was a complete shit show of my own making. Every decision I had made had made things worse.

I’d let my emotions, my need for revenge, cloud my judgment.

"Miss Marguerite is on her way."

On my lap, my hands curled into fists, so tight that my knuckles popped and turned white. In the days since the engagement party, I hadn’t seen her. I couldn’t bring myself to take her numerous calls, but I hadn’t broken off the engagement either.

Why?