Page 152 of Voracious

“I’ll get you another pony if you do it.”

Her authority is from her mother and she perches on my forearm, crossing one leg over the other, kicking me in the process. Her knuckles are touching her nose as she points her finger at me. “Mama says have to be nice.”

“What about what your papa says?”

“You said Mama winner,” she says easily.

I grimace at the sight of Dima guiding Vanya into the house with his nasty fucking hand on her back. Both of my daughters stare at me as I snap, “She can walk, you don’t need to fucking touch her.”

Vanya looks ready to beat the shit out of me but she holds herself back at the sight of her sister in my arms who’s smiling and singing, “Happy birdday!”

Her anger dissipates as she laughs then purses her lips to whistle like a bird. Verena’s face lights up and she tries to copy her as she kicks me to be put on her feet. I let her down and watch as she runs to her sister while butchering the fuck out of the bird noises to the point that it’s just non-sensical screeching.

She’s still cute though and I can’t look away from the two pieces of my soul finally meeting each other as Verena gently strokes the hem of her sister’s dress.

But I have to get the cunt away from my kids, so I turn and say, “Dima. Office.”

Vanya pauses her whistling in favor of a threat. “If y?—”

“I know,” I cut her off.

The bastard follows me and I wish he was this obedient every time I’ve told him to stay the fuck away from my daughter. Inessa stands at the threshold of the kitchen, her eyes hard and drilling into me with her own warning she’s been continuously repeating all night and day. I don’t give a fuck about Vanya killing me, it will be worth it if it gets this old cunt away from her.

Fucking stubborn women, that’s all I’m surrounded by and Verena is going to be one too. But she’s cute as fuck as she holds her sister’s hands and looks up at her with awe. She strokes the bottom of Vanya’s dress, cooing, “Is pretty, like mine?”

Her sister nods.

“Got presents. Papa give them.”

Unease crosses Vanya’s face and she looks at me then quickly looks away. I’m not going to force her to call me anything she doesn’t want to, I’d prefer if she stopped calling me an asshole or a dickhead but she’s like me and I know her insults are tied to her comfort.

She’s the perfect big sister as she swings Verena up and holds her hands so my youngest daughter is on her toes, twirling.

Dima pisses me off even more when his fucking head blocks the sight of them and my hand balls into a fist. He notices and grumbles, “You’re not going to upset her today.”

Prick.

Once we’re in the office, I close the door and ask, “Did you get any other details?”

Vanya only opens up to this cunt so I can’t kill him yet, that will change as soon as I know every house they ever kept her in and the name of every fucker who kept her away from me. All thescars on her body, the pain they caused will be repaid to every generation of their families until the anger inside of me is eased.

The useless fuck drops into the chair opposite my desk and sighs, “She doesn’t want to talk about it.” He tilts his head to look at the bags at the side of my desk and I watch the back of his head, fighting the urge to bury a bullet in his skull. He can see into the one closest to him and he actually fucking smiles, the grumpy bastard is capable of it after years of me thinking it was impossible. Looking over his shoulder, he says, “She’ll like that, you should give it to her and tell her it’s from you this time.”

“Fuck you, don’t tell me what to do with my own daughter.”

Inessa, Dani, and Dima have been giving Vanya everything I’ve bought for her since I don’t think she’ll accept them otherwise. She spends money like my wife, and she knows it’s my money so that’s got to mean that she doesn’t hate me. Part of me wouldn’t blame her if she did, but every time she hits me the force is less, and I leave my office to antagonize her so I can convince myself she doesn’t hate me.

My steps have an echo as I find the rest of my family around the pool. It’s cold as fuck but that isn’t the reason for my mood getting worse as Vitali smiles widely, announcing, “Congratulations, your husband is marrying your daughter.”

Fucking Dima.

The prick sighs as I turn and he mutters, “Not in front of her.”

Good. The dumb fuck knows he deserves death and he walks himself back to my office. The door slams behind me and I grit, “You’re supposed to fucking askme.”

The answer will always be no, it was the one thing that comforted me, but he shrugs and fucking smirks. “It’s not your answer I wanted or give a fuck about. She’s mine an?—”

“She’s not changing her fucking name, she’s a Vartanova,” I cut him off while debating whether to make his death look like an accident.

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