Chapter 71
Something passes through her eyes, like she’s decided to hold back from something and chooses to forne on me instead. “Talk to me, Daph. Did he hurt you?”
I don’t realize I’m literally trembling until I try to answer her question. “N–no. N not yet”
That something pulls a reverse and settles itself in her expression. It’s the same something I’ve seen in Pasha right before he does something particularly heinous against a perceived enerny.
Behind her, Conrad slowly wobbles up to his feet. Blood and spittle flies from his mouth as he points are accusatory finger at her. “This is none of your business! I’ll have you arrested!”
Something about the way he threatens her snaps me out of my shock. And my fear. Now, I’m the one standing between him and his new target, even though she grabs my arm to keep me back.
“I told you to get the hell out!” I thrust my finger toward the door. “Leave me the fuck alone!”
“But, Daphne-”
“You heard my sister–in–law.” Sofi loops her arm with mine as she joins me at my side. “Leave her the
fuck alone. Now.”
Conrad freezes. Blinks at her. Then at me. “What?” The word sounds like she kneed him in the dick all over again. “You’re married? You… you can’t be married. You can’t! You can’t marry someone else! We’re supposed to be together!”
He is so delusional, I’m literally almost laughing at his blind audacity. Or trying not to cry. Probably both.
“You left, asshole! You cheated on me, and you threw me out of my own goddamn home! And then, just to make things extra special, you proposed to another woman right in front of me! So no! We are not, in any way, getting back together!”
Is there a difference between delusional and unhinged? We may be witnessing the transition between the two, because Sidney Conrad Ewing is extremely not well. He runs his hands through his hair over and over, glancing around the floor with a wild, unfocused look in his eyes.
“I don’t… It all went so wrong. I made a mistake.” He meets my gaze and tries to reach for me. “I made a mistake. I never should have left you. It was a mistake, proposing to her.”
Sofi swats his hand away. “You made your bed. Now, go die in it.”
Conrad glances between us. “I… I thought… I thought you were punishing me. All the silence, the avoidance, pushing me away… How could you go and marry someone else?”
6100%
This time, he lunges for me,
And this time, Soli simply snaps her fingers.
Four men in tailored suits materialize out of nowhere. Two of them grah Conrad by the arms while the other two create a human wall between him
and us.
“Daphnet Daphine!” Conrad screams my name like a madman, his face bright red. No amount of struggling is going to free him from these behemoths, no matter how hard he tries. Soff’s two guards drag him out of the room as easily as if he’s limp. By the time they pass the threshold, he is.
Todd and Keith burst onto the scene just in time to see Conrad get physically dragged away. Their gazes simultaneously fall on the blood trail and follow it across the room to where I’m standing with Soff–who braces her hands on her hips in full preparation for war.
“Are you the owners of this establishment?” she demands.
“You better believe we are!” Keith is fuming. “And we are going to sue the pants off of you and your little entourage for threatening our client!”
She laughs, “Oh, really? You’re going to sue me?” “Listen, lady, you can’t just come in here and-”
Again, she does that thing with her hand that tends to shut up every asshole we ever encounter. “Oh, believe me, I absolutely can and I absolutely will. Just like how I will absolutely help Daphne file a very hefty lawsuit against you and your establishment for not only allowing a sexual predator to corner her and assault her, but encouraging it.” She looks to one of her remaining men. “What’s that called again, Sergei?”
“Facilitation, ma’am.”
“Ah, yes.” She turns back to The Tweedles with a sharkish grin. “Facilitation of sexual assault.”
Todd sputters. “We we did n–not-”
“Y–y–you d–d–didn’t?” Sofi mocks his fear, tilting her head to one side. “Who assigned him to her, huh? Who insisted that Daphne be forced to work with her stalker ex–boyfriend even after she told you her reasons for refusal? Who chose to ignore her screams for help not even five minutes ago?”
Neither of the brothers has an answer.
As for me, I’m more than speechless. I’m seeing Sofi in her element, and yet I have this feeling that she’s holding back.
She’s the cat playing with her food before going in for the kill.
Chapter 71
“If you plan on keeping your money and your company, I highly recommend you stick to your own business and remove your nose from Daphne’s. I will be escorting her to lunch, and you will be ensuring she is comfortable when she returns. That might not be until tomorrow, and you will be perfectly fine with that. You don’t want to be the two assholes who forced a traumatized woman to work the same day she was assaulted on your property under your watch, do you?”
The Tweedles shake their heads. They also can’t move fast enough, scrambling for the closest exit.
Sofi sighs, rolls her eyes, and turns to me. “I’m dead serious, Daph. If either of those two threaten your job after this, we will take them to the cleaners. Fucking ridiculous.”
I don’t know what to say. I’m not used to having someone look out for me like this. At least, no one but Melanie, but even then, I’m usually the one always looking out for her.
She walks with me out of the showroom and through the gallery, our arms looped together like the sisters she suddenly claimed us to be. Talking about, Where we should go for lunch; what is her little niece craving? Since we have the day ahead of us, should we go to the mall? Have I checked out the baby store near Nordstrom’s?
It’s right when we finally reach the main doors that I find my tongue again. “What did you mean by ‘sister–in-law‘? Pasha and I aren’t married.”
“Yet.” She grins and winks at me. “That’s the operative word, Daph. Yet. If you think he’s going to let you go, that he’s not in it for the long haul, then you haven’t been paying attention.”
Something warm and wonderful blooms inside me. I shouldn’t think of him this way, or of our relationship as anything other than what it is. And I don’t even know what it is because we’ve never outright talked about it.
But damn, is it hard not to imagine what it’d be like to be Pasha’s wife. To be Sofi’s sister–in–law.
And–especially when I take in the sight of Asya leaning against the waiting car, beaming at us–what it’d be like to have a mother–in–law like her.
“There’s my beautiful girls!” Asya finishes wiping her hand with a handkerchief before she extends her arms out for a hug. “Look at you, my sweet Daphne! You’re glowing!”
“And you’re bleeding.” I stare at the fabric speckled with blood, as well as the few spots still on the back of her hand.
“Oh. It’s not mine.” She laughs it off, stuffing the fabric into her wristlet. “Anyway, where are we thinking of going for lunch?”
“Baby’s hungry for tempura, apparently.” Sofi opens the door for me with a playful wink. “What my niece wants, my niece gets.”
Chapter 71
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I quietly ask Asya.
She pats my cheek lovingly and simply smiles. “We’re family, solnyshka. Family looks after each other. Anyone lays a hand on mine, I snap his head off.” She smiles at Sofi and opens her own door to get in. “Tempura sounds delicious!”
