Unwilling Pawn by Measha Stone

Chapter 26

Christian

Two days.

For two days, Amelia locked herself in one of the guest rooms and refused to come out or speak to me. I considered it a victory when she allowed Maggie to bring food to her.

“You could just kick down the door, you know.” Lukas walked past me in the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. I stood at the doorway, looking across the expansive space between me and the closed door barring me from my wife.

“What would that solve?”

“You’d be in the room at least.” He popped open the bottle and took a long pull. “A month ago you would have kicked down the door.”

A month ago, I would have tied her to my bed and made her listen to me. I would have demanded her trust and her loyalty without so much as a thought if I had earned it.

But this wasn’t a month ago.

“You’re leaving soon?” I asked.

“Yep. Leaving for the airport in an hour.” He climbed onto the kitchen stool. “Maggie’s coming with me, so you’ll have your wife all to yourself again.”

“Maybe Maggie should stay.” She’d been Amelia’s lifeline over the past two days.

Lukas put his beer down. “No, she shouldn’t. She’s a crutch right now for Amelia. You need to pull it away.”

I looked over my shoulder at him. “Since when did you get so wise?”

He laughed. “Always have been. You were too stubborn to admit it.”

I slipped my hands into my pockets. “Romanov wants a meeting with her. No, he’s demanded a meeting.”

“She’s his niece. It’s time to get this over with, Christian. She’s your wife, nothing will change that. Hell, maybe this will work to our benefit. Having our families tied isn’t the worst thing.”

“I won’t bow down to a Romanov. That’s not fucking happening.”

“And you think because she’s his niece that you’ll have to fall in line like his sons, his nephews? I don’t think it has to work that way.”

Lukas was right. Now that Amelia knew who her family really was, there was no going back. And the mess needed to be sorted out.

“You don’t want to sit in on the meeting?” I asked.

He lifted a shoulder. “I have my own thing back in Chicago. I’m still getting it all squared away. If you need me, I’ll be back, though.”

“And Hanna. Have you heard anything from her?” I asked.

“She’s pissed at you, but there’s nothing new. I promised you’d let her come home for Christmas.”

“You promised on my behalf? It isn’t safe for her to come home. Not while the Romanovs are sniffing around Amelia and Gorecki is slithering around.”

“I get it. It’s your little sister that doesn’t.” He took another sip of his beer then slid off the barstool. “I better get ready.”

I grunted and turned back to stare at the closed door.

“The words you need are ‘I’m sorry.’”

“I’m not sure that will be enough,” I said with a sigh.

“You’ll figure it out. You have the rest of her life to get it right.” He smacked my back and whistled his way down the hall to his room.

My phone vibrated in my back pocket.

Let’s meet for dinner. Tonight.

Romanov wasn’t giving up.

I looked back at the door. It might be the only way to extract her from her hiding place without having to break down the door.

Fine. Eight o’clock.

* * *

Amelia

The car was silent as it rolled down the streets of Manhattan. Christian sat beside me, his hands folded in his lap and his eyes focused ahead of him. The driver had flipped off the radio as soon as we’d gotten in the car, and Anthony was playing a game on his phone in the front seat.

My stomach twisted tighter and tighter with every street we passed. Soon, I’d be face to face with my uncle. My actual uncle.

When Maggie left a few hours before, I clung to her like a toddler hugs their parents’ leg. She had pried me off and promised me that nothing would change. Blood didn’t make us family. And once she’d been taken to the airport, Christian had come to my room.

He hadn’t tried to come inside; he’d stopped doing that after the first day. He’d simply called through the door that we were meeting Igor Romanov for dinner at eight and he expected me to be ready.

When he’d come back to the door at seven forty-five, I’d opened the door and breezed past him to the elevator. He followed behind me in silence.

The indifference was enough to crush me, but I kept my lip steady, my chin high. I would not allow him to get the pleasure of knowing how much he’d hurt me. How easily he’d broken my heart.

I’d been so stupid. Maggie accused me of not believing that he cared for me, but she’d been wrong. I wanted desperately to believe it. I needed to believe it, but in one short conversation, it had all been wiped away.

“Will my uncle have his family with him?” I asked, swinging my gaze from the window to Christian.

“I asked him to keep it simple. I didn’t want to overwhelm you,” he answered, slowly turning his head toward me. “Amelia—”

“Thank you. I think that’s a good decision. I can meet my cousins another time.” I moved my body to the side, turning my back on him.

He let out a long breath that ended with a low growl. I was testing his patience, but I didn’t care. Let him stew. Let him know what it feels like to have no worth other than what other people put on you.

When we arrived at the restaurant, Anthony got out of the car first and opened my door. I muttered a thank you, then walked ahead.

Christian caught up to me in three strides, grabbing my elbow and pulling me back to his side.

“I understand you’re angry with me, Amelia, but there are still expectations. Be good tonight.”

I rolled my shoulders back. “I’ll play the dutiful wife for you, Christian. That’s my job, right? I’ll do it, but soon we need to discuss what I get out of all this.”

“What you get?” he asked, pulling me to a stop right before the hostess.

“I don’t really need to live here in New York full time. I don’t see why I can’t move back to Chicago with Maggie for part of the year. The inheritance you finally told me about can cover my living expenses in Chicago. I’ll come back when you need me for a function.”

His eyes went cold. “That’s not—”

“Ah, you’re here.” Igor Romanov walked up to us with a bright smile.

“Hello.” I inclined my head, gently tugging my arm from Christian.

Igor brought us to the back of the restaurant to a private room. The table had been set for the three of us, with food already placed on the table. While it smelled mouthwatering, I wouldn’t be able to get any of it down.

“I’m going to give you two a few minutes.” Christian walked me to a chair and held it out for me. I glanced up at him only briefly. He was leaving me alone with this man?

“I appreciate it.” Igor took his seat.

Christian touched my shoulder. A warm tingle spread from the point of contact throughout my entire body. I curled my toes inside my ballet flats. I wanted too much to hold his hand, to ask him to stay, but I couldn’t. I shouldn’t. I needed to put space between us and stop hoping for anything other than a business arrangement of a marriage.

Once Christian was gone, Igor smiled at me.

“You really do look like your mother, but I see my brother in you.” His smile fell at the edges. “It’s important that you know, I never knew of your existence. My parents told no one. Any family member that did know, took it to their graves. I didn’t know until my brother, your father, died.”

I picked up the water glass and took a long sip of the cold water.

“I know Christian said we’d have dinner with you, and I don’t want to disrespect or insult you. But if you wouldn’t mind, I just want to know what happened, who I am. And then I want to leave.”

He frowned; his shoulders sagged. “Of course. It’s been a shock, I’m sure.”

“A surprise party is a shock. Finding out my father isn’t my father is a bit beyond that.”

“I would imagine.” He sat back in his seat, dropping his hands to his lap. “My brother, Raffa, was your father. When he met your mother, he was already married and had a son. When she became pregnant, her family refused to allow her to stay in New York to raise you. They were afraid that my family would harm you in some way.” He shook his head. “Idiots. Even as a bastard, you would have been taken care of.”

I blinked a few times. That’s what I was now, a bastard.

“I’m sorry.” He put his hand up. “I didn’t mean to offend you. Obviously, I don’t see you like that, it’s just the term.”

“Of course.” I took another sip of water. “Go on.”

“Raffa feared retribution from his wife’s family. From what I’ve been able to piece together, Raffa used up a favor in Chicago to marry your mother to Kacper Dudek with the understanding he’d be financially compensated for claiming you as his own.”

Another punch to my stomach. “He was paid to be my dad?”

Igor’s frowned deepened. “He was, but I don’t think that colored his love for you.”

“I haven’t heard a word from him since he gave me over to Christian. He didn’t come to the wedding celebration, and he’s not returned any of my phone calls. I think it’s safe to say, now that he’s been compensated for the job, he considers the job done.”

A dark shadow cast over Igor’s expression. My chest tightened at the sight of his anger. As soft spoken as he’d been with me to that point, he looked ready to kill.

“Then he’s a bigger fool than I took him for.” His voice dipped in the same manner Christian’s did when he was already plotting in the back of his mind.

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t. It hurt. But I could just pile it onto the other men in my life who’d harmed me.

“When I found out about you, I sent my men to find you. They weren’t to hurt you, but I wanted to speak with you. But by the time they traced the money coming from my brother’s estate you were already married to Christian.”

“Is my father’s wife still alive?” I asked.

“No.” He leaned forward. “But you have a brother. Gregor. You’ve already met him, I understand.”

My mouth dried. “He’s my brother?”

“Well, half-brother, but it all means the same to us. Blood is blood, Amelia.”

I picked up my ice water, but put it back down when my hand shook too much and some of it spilled.

“So.” I ran my hands over my black slacks. “What happens now?”

“Now?” He raised his brows. “Now, we get to know each other. I have three children of my own and you have your brother. My wife passed a few years ago, but I also have another brother. He’s back home in Russia, but he comes to visit now and again. We have a large family, Amelia. And now you’re part of it.”

I tightened my jaw. A large family. “Why didn’t you tell me this that day we met?”

“Because it would have been an insult to your husband to go behind his back to do so. I didn’t want to trigger problems that were easily avoided.”

I nodded. “And Sebastian Gorecki? You mentioned him the other night. How does he tie in here?”

His eyes flashed angry again. “Sebastian Gorecki had found out about your actual father. I’m still unsure how, but he wanted to marry you in order to get into my family.”

“Seems the only reason anyone wants me is for an alternate goal.” I raised my chin again.

“Forget Sebastian.” He waved a hand through the air. “And if you mean your own husband, change your thinking there as well.”

“He married me out of revenge. I don’t see how that’s different.”

“He may have had his reasons in the beginning, but not now.”

“I thought you and my husband were enemies? Why would you stick up for him now?” I asked, playing with the prongs of the fork beside my plate.

“We aren’t enemies, but we don’t play well together sometimes either. It’s complicated.”

“I’m sure it is.” I rolled my eyes.

“That night at the museum. When you were hiding behind the pillar.” He smiled as though he fully approved of my actions. “I asked him if he would give you up in order to get his own personal revenge on Sebastian. There would be no repercussions, he could do exactly as he wished, but he had to give you up.”

I remembered the question being asked, but Maggie had popped up and I hadn’t heard his answer.

“He said no,” Igor said quietly. “I offered him exactly what he wanted if he would give you up, and he said no.”

The door to the room opened and Christian stepped inside. I didn’t have to turn around to see him to know he was there. My body could sense him. I could feel his presence.

“I think I’d like to go now.” I stood up from the table. “Thank you for tonight and I would like to meet again; maybe you could come to the penthouse for dinner.”

Igor’s chair slid over the carpeting as he stood. “I would like that very much, Amelia.”

I froze for a second. He was my uncle. Did I hug him? Give him a kiss on the cheek?

In the end, I smiled, gave a nod, then walked toward Christian. He glanced over my shoulder at Igor but stayed silent as he opened the door for me, then followed me out of the restaurant.

Once back in the car, I rolled down the window to let fresh air into the car.

I had an uncle.

And cousins.

And a brother.

But what threw me, what twisted all my thoughts together in a perfect pretzel formation, was Christian.

He could have called all of this off, let me go, be rid of me, and finally have the revenge he wanted so badly. But he’d said no.

He’d chosen me.