Page 74 of Forced Bratva Bride

“They brought me home,” she corrected, her voice gaining strength. “Where I belong. You were the one who kidnapped me, remember?”

The floor seemed to tilt beneath me as I realized she sounded angry. “I thought we had come to understand one another. You can't be serious.”

“I am,” she said firmly. “These past weeks, I've been... confused. I’ve been living in a fantasy. But now I see clearly. This life—your life—it was never going to work for me.”

“That's bullshit.” I clenched my knuckles tight as I understood what she was trying to say. “They're forcing you to say this.”

There was a brief silence, and then a scoff.

“No one's forcing me to do anything.” There was an edge to her voice now. “For once, I'm making my own choice. I'm choosing to go back to my old life,my life. I’m choosing to be with my family. Don’t you dare try to turn that into something it’s not.”

I felt my breaths grow sharper, fiercer, stabbing at my chest. The pain of her words lodged in my heart, and I felt my world crumble around me. I couldn’t live without her, couldn’t imagine life without her, and what I said next was as close to groveling as I’d ever come in my life.

“Why can’t you have both?” I asked with desperation. “You promised, Larissa. You promised that when this day came, you’d choose me too.”

I heard her suck in air, her breath hitching as she did. But she soon spoke, almost as though she didn’t want to ponder my words. “I didn’t know what I was getting into.”

“We can protect you,” I insisted, paranoia creeping in. “I know this isn’t you talking. I know it in my bones. What we had, it was real. You can’t convince me otherwise. Please, Larissa, give me a sign.”

She laughed hollowly, as if it were the right thing to do in that moment. “Protect me? Like you did on the boat? You and your family will always bring trouble to my door. I can’t live like that anymore. You’ve made enemies all around, and I want no part in dealing with it. With my brothers, I’m safe. I’m…happy,” she took such time to find that word, happy, that I couldn’t believe she truly meant it.

But still, her words cracked my heart, filling me with a sense of abandonment, rage, and disbelief. “You don't mean that.”

“I do.” Her voice softened, not in tenderness but in finality. “What we had... it wasn't real. It was exciting because it was forbidden. But it wasn't anything close to love, not really. Look, we tried it and it isn’t working for me now.”

My throat tightened. We had shared three glorious months together, fighting, understanding, and bridging barriers. We’d gone on adventures and made love until morning. I didn’t know what love was, but she was the first thought I had when I woke and the last before I slept. Despite moments of anger toward her, the idea of something happening to her was enough to make me forget. I didn’t know what love was, but in that moment, what we shared came dangerously close to it.

I needed to remind her of that, needed to show her she’d still remember those moments if she cared enough to. “You want to end this? Fine. But you have to meet me, you have to look me in the eye and tell me that.”

If I could just see her one more time, just once more, I could show her what we were. One chance… that’s all I needed.

“I don’t need to do that,” she said flatly. “And that's the point. We're done, Gio. I don't want any connection to you or your family anymore. It's over.”

“Larissa,” I pleaded with a rawness in my voice that made Caspian inch forward and place a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I need to see you. Talk to you face to face. You owe me that much.”

“I owe you nothing,” she said, in a voice so cold I believed this conversation must have been my imagination.

“Larissa,” I tried again, my voice barely a whisper. “This isn't you talking.”

“It is me. The real me. The one who finally woke up.” Her voice cracked, just slightly. “Don't call again. Don't try to find me. We're both better off this way.”

The line went dead.

I stood frozen, staring at the phone, desperately hoping that she’d call back and tell me it was a sick joke or that someone was in the room.

My hands shook as I sat there and moments slipped by. I heard nothing but the rush of sound gushing to my ears from how my blood heated. The helplessness, the rage, all of it stopped me from thinking.

“Gio.” Caspian's voice seemed to come from miles away.

I didn’t say anything, until I felt his hand on mine, grabbing the phone away. “No,” I roared, trying to lunge for it, but the pain made me fall right back down.

“Gio, I’m so sorry,” Caspian said in a tone that seemed final, a tone that grieved, a tone I didn’t think he needed to use because this wasn’t happening.

I glared at Gio, shaking my head. “She's lying. They've threatened her, or drugged her, or—”

“Or she's telling the truth,” Caspian said quietly. “Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one.”

I scowled. “You think she meant that? That everything between us was just a game to her?”

---