Page 76 of Plus-Size Bratva Bride

My heart pulses likes a stone, heavy and useless, aching and broken.

I was in love, and I was going to spend the rest of my life with her.

A road sign blurs past me and in fright, I slam on breaks, twisting the wheel hard to the right and causing the car to skid and then spin out of control.

It jumps off the road and onto the muddy edge of a cliff.

I scream angrily at fate. At the universe. I scream until my lungs are on fire and the car comes to a stop. A few feet from death. A few feet from sliding right over the edge and into the crashing waves below.

The engine stalls and numbing silence sits on my shoulders, weighing me down.

Breathe.

Just breathe.

My headlights pierce into the mist in front of me, pointing out towards the ocean, I can’t see anything but grey, but I know the drop. I know this corner.

My hands are shaking when I press the engine button and let the car growl back to life.

They shake as I push the gear into reverse and slowly back away, skidding in the mud until the tires find traction.

They are still shaking when I pull back onto the road and start driving home slowly, no longer in a rush. My emotions are spent. My heart is burnt out, numb and hollow.

Chapter 23 - Jade

As Renat drags me towards his car my heart relents to the fact that he is going to kill me.

It’s an acceptance I embrace with some form of peace in my heart. It’s what I deserve. I can’t blame any one of his brothers for wanting to do this, especially not Radmir.

He cuffs my wrists with cable ties and pushes me onto the backseat. One of his security guys is sitting there, a gun resting on his lap, a warning in his eyes.

Not that I will try anything.

I accept my fate.

I earned it.

Renat doesn’t say a word as we drive slowly through the city towards his mansion. I should be crying, or begging, or trying to reason with him for my life, but I can’t.

Inside I’m as cold as the frozen lake we used to skate on when we were young, before we knew how cruel life could be. That turquoise ice, clear and void of anything but cold—that is me right now. I can’t even pull a thought together. My body is rigid and immoveable. My heart is empty.

It’s a form of survival. I know this because it’s the same feeling I had when they told me my brother was dead. I remember it so clearly.

I was in the swimming pool with my sister. Malkov walked into the garden with the strangest look on his face and my heart sank the moment I saw him. Something was so terribly wrong. Arkady was following him. A blank expression on his face.

Malkov said the words.Grigor is dead.And I shook my head. The world moving in slow motion. I looked at my sister, waiting for her to tell me he’s joking. But it wouldn’t have been a very funny joke. And he wasn’t.

I remember Amber climbing out of the pool and running to Malkov. She was crying and demanding to know how and why and what.

I just stood there.

I couldn’t move.

I was the frozen lake then, and I am the frozen lake now.

Denial.

Shut down.

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