Page 145 of No Longer Mine

Then, from the back seat, a softer voice.

“Wait,” my mother said. “Benson?”

“Yes, Mrs. Cristof?”

She straightened a little beneath the coat Don had tucked around her. “Please hire a security detail for me… and keep eyes on the upstate estate. In case he goes there. If you need passwords, I’ll send them.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll take care of everything.”

I exhaled a shaky breath. My mother—always elegant, always proper—should never have been dragged into this. And until Sinclair was in the ground or behind bars, she would never truly be free.

From the passenger seat, Alexei turned to look back at her. “You can stay with us, if you’d like.”

She smiled faintly, the lines in her face deeper now. “I appreciate that. But I’d like to live my life on my own terms from now on.”

No one argued.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Scarlett

The grannies were sittingin Dimitri’s living room when we finally entered the building. They took one look at Dimitri’s mother, and Russian erupted like gunfire—sharp, furious, and unapologetically loud. Audrey stepped out of the kitchen first, Carina right behind her. They both froze when they saw us.

Audrey’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God.”

Carina blinked. “What the hell happened?”

We must’ve looked like we’d walked straight out of a warzone—because, in a way, we had. Dimitri’s shirt was bloodstained at the collar where I’d leaned against him, Don cradling Mrs. Cristof even though she insisted she didn’t need to be babied, and I probably looked like a ghost dragged out of hell.

“Why didn’t you call us?” Grandmother demanded in English, her eyes blazing. “We would’ve come with knives!”

“Or guns!” Nana shouted as she inspected her daughter on the couch.

“We didn’t know what we were walking into,” Dimitri muttered, voice tight. He hadn’t looked away from me once. “I didn’t exactly know he had our mother.”

“She’s bleeding,” Grandmother hissed, her gaze locked on my ankles. “Bring her here.”

Dimitri hesitated for only a second before gently easing me onto the other couch, facing Mrs. Cristof. The moment I sat down, I was surrounded—blankets, towels, a mug of something warm pressed into my hand. Carina grabbed the med kit from the hall closet. Audrey hovered beside me, chewing her lip like she wanted to cry but wouldn’t.

“Scarlett?” Audrey finally whispered, crouching in front of me. “Are you okay?”

No. I wasn’t. My shoulder throbbed with every breath. My body felt like it had been slammed through concrete. And my mind? It was stuck—looping on the elevator, the duct tape, the secret room, and the moment I thought I might never see Dimitri again.

But I looked up at her and nodded anyway.

“I’m here,” I whispered. “That’s enough for now.”

As if I wasn’t in the room, Carina leaned toward her husband. “Should we bring them to a hospital?”

Audrey crouched in front of me. “Did they… they didn’t… Uh. Um. Maybe we should bring you to a hospital?”

“No,” I said quietly. “They didn’t touch me.”

A collective exhale swept the room—relief, tempered by horror.

“But they were going to,” I added, my voice cracking. “He mentioned he was going to sell me… break me…”

Everything stopped.

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