Page 73 of Bought By the Ruthless Pakhan

Nadia's rejection was gasoline on the fire. Victoria's chest heaved, her red-painted nails digging tighter, her eyes threaded with fine red lines, the whites nearly swallowed by crimson.

"Fine... just fine!" She rushed forward, reaching for Nadia's arm. "Nadia, wake up! I'm your mother! Everything I've done is for your own good! That woman is not a good person at all. She's only after your father's money!"

My eyes widened. I moved to block her.

A child's skin is far more delicate than an adult's. I couldn't let her hurt Nadia. I caught Victoria's wrist and twisted it aside, just enough pressure.

She gasped and shrieked louder, drawing the servants from the kitchen.

I looked straight into Victoria's unhinged face—the deep lines at her eyes, her smudged lipstick. "Victoria, look at yourself. You look pathetic."

Victoria stared at me, shocked.

She probably couldn't understand how I—who'd always been so passive—dared to fight back.

But she didn't know.

Over the years, I raised Alex alone and built a life for myself in this city. When I sat in the emergency room hallway in the middle of the night, holding my feverish child in my arms, there was no one there to shield me from anything.

I learned to stand my ground and negotiate when my landlord raised the rent. I learned to stand at the supermarket checkout and cross the most expensive items off my shopping list one by one. The hardships of raising a child wore away the little fearfulness I had left inside me, and taught me how to fight back.

Victoria was too choked up to respond. Her face flushed darker, and she raised her other hand, swinging at my face.

I closed my eyes instinctively, bracing for the blow.

It never came.

I heard a pained cry.

I opened my eyes. Ivan stood in the doorway. He wore the same shirt from this morning, sleeves rolled to his forearms, top button undone.

He must've rushed back. His chest rose and fell slightly.

His tall frame was like a mountain, planted firmly between Victoria and me. Stormy gray-blue eyes churned with fury, his entire presence radiating cold, cutting menace.

But in that moment, looking at his back shielding me, he seemed more like an angel than ever before.

Chapter Nineteen

Anna

The moment Ivan's figure blocked my view, something jolted hard in my chest. My eyes started burning.

He stood tall, shoulders tight, right hand locked around Victoria's wrist.

I suddenly remembered that day outside The Ember Room—he'd done the same thing then, stopped Gary's violence.

This scene felt like déjà vu, even the angle nearly identical.

Turned out I'd never really forgotten. I'd just buried those images so deep, I convinced myself I'd moved on.

But the second he appeared again, the second he stood in front of me like this, it all came flooding back.

I'd spent years trying so hard to cut him out of my life, pretending I'd started fresh—but the truth was, I never let him go.

That admission felt like betraying myself.

All that love and longing I'd shoved down deep—it was like someone took a dull blade and split the seal. Everything came pouring out, filling my chest, clogging my throat, bitter and burning. My stomach clenched tight.