Page 96 of Mistaken
Goodbye? I love you? I wish you could love me back? Thank you for letting me go but I wish so much that you could feel the same way and want me to stay?
I settle for, “Just tell him goodbye. And thank you.”
Ivan moves to get in the front of the car with the driver and I reach out, grabbing his sleeve. “Sit back here with me?”
He does, sitting straight with his hands placed on his knees.
I eye him, trying not to smile. “Are you stuck with me for the immediate future?”
Ivan sniffs indignantly. “I requested this position, of course. And the Pakhan trusts me to keep you safe at all costs.”
“It won’t be for that long,” I assure him, forehead pressed against the car window. “Once there’s an exit plan and I’m relocated somewhere.”
There’s a grunt or something and I turn to see a tear course down his square face before he hastily brushes it away. I pat him on the arm and we sit together in companionable silence.
The apartment is certainly magnificent,I think, walking around the place where Maksim has “relocated” me. Beautiful windows overlooking Madison Avenue and the usual high-end touches like the stainless-steel gourmet kitchen and an expansive deck off the master bedroom with comfortable wicker furniture and lots of plants.
Ivan and the other bodyguard have carried the last of my things into the bedroom and they’ve discreetly removed themselves to a small room by the entry. I sit down gingerly on the huge leather sectional and rub my hands together.It’s so quiet,I thought, looking around,where is everybody?I’d gotten used to the hustle and bustle of the penthouse, I used to jokingly call it “Pakhan Central.”
I’ll just have to get used to it.I think. I can’t work or really go out much until Maksim relocates me with a new identity.
A moment later, Ivan came into the room. “You have a visitor, Mrs. Morozov.”
“C’mon Ivan, just call me Ella,” I sigh. “Who is it?”
Faintly from the entry I hear, “Hey Els! Tell them to let me in!”
Dropping my head with a sigh, I ask, “Yuri gave her my address, didn’t he?”
Ivan shrugged uncomfortably, his grey suit bunching up a bit across his big shoulders.
“Okay, thanks, can you send her-”
Tania had apparently already side-stepped the other bodyguard and burst into the living room. Putting her hands on her hips, she said, “I want you to know I’m not holding this against you since I ghosted you for like two weeks.”
Naturally, I burst into tears and she ran over to hug me. “Hey, Ivan, can you go grab us a bottle of wine and some snacks?”
He turned toward the kitchen, mumbling something about, “I am not the maid.”
Settling back on the couch, Tania stubbornly hugged me until I stopped crying; primarily out of self-defense so she’d stop squeezing me.
“Okay, talk to me,” she demanded.
“What is there to say?” I shrugged helplessly as I rubbed my eyes, which smeared any remaining mascara over the rest of my face. “Being friends with me has nearly gotten you killed twice. I’m a coward. I was hoping to just… vanish from here before you saw me again. I’d leave you a big long letter telling you that I love you too much to let you almost get killed again. But that idiot Yuri just cannot leave well enough alone, can he?”
She drew back, outraged. “You cannot seriously think I’d let you slink out of town, never to be seen again? Are you high? Because that shit is not happening.” Tania paused to pour an overflowing glass of wine and handed it to me, then taking one for herself.
“Okay, let’s go over what I know. First, you were hurt pretty bad and if that bitch Katya was still alive, I would kill her myself.”
Her expression was a level of rage I’d never seen before, and I was sorry that I was the one who sparked it. “That’s dark, Tania. But understandable.”
“Second, you had A Moment with your husband. Yuri said that his brother was actually smiling and happy the entire morning. And that’s while they were discussing who else they wanted to kill, or something.”
I’m frozen, clutching my wine glass. Maksim smiled? He washappy?
“And then, third, you woke up and there was a big talk in your bedroom and then Maksim walked out like someone has just torn his heart out and then all of a sudden it was moving day. Have I missed anything yet?”
“No, that’s pretty good,” I agree, gloomily taking a sip of wine.
