Page 86 of Forced By the Obsessed Bratva
She smiled like she knew him. Like shetrusted him.
I frowned, and my jaw clenched so tightly that it ached.
Another photo slipped free from the stack, as if the past was peeling itself open for me now, bit by bit. I gathered the rest, every single scrap I’d brushed off before, and laid them out like this jigsaw was finally starting to make sense.
Then, I remembered at the wedding, there had been a waiter’s offhand comment I hadn’t paid attention to at the time, something about the wayhelooked at her.
Now that I pondered it, it was unlikely that the “he” in question was my brother. Rurik barely looked at anyonethatway. He was the living definition of stone-cold with a sprinkle of humor, sometimes.
To him, women were more of objects and tools, a means to an end, rather than actual human beings. So, it couldn’t be him.
Judging by the amount of evidence pouring in from different directions, the bigger picture was beginning to become much clearer.
I began searching through the photographs when another piece of information came to light. More like a flashback ofone time the entire house noticed a very expensive bracelet on Yulia’s wrist.
I specifically asked her, and she mentioned that Isaak had given it to her for her birthday. We’d thought nothing of it because…we were family?
And family didn’t cross lines. You could be the great-great-great Yezhov, and you’d still be held accountable for any stupid action you took.
That was what I thought.
But now all I could see were blurred lines, smudged and smeared in places I hadn’t looked closely enough.
And to crown it all, on the night of her funeral, I now understood that the rawness in Isaak’s eyes wasn’t grief.
Or it could be.
That strange, silent tension in his face, that clenched jaw, the way he couldn’t meet mine or Rurik’s eyes—it was all guilt.
I sat back in the chair, ignoring the old leather creaking beneath me as my fingers tapped the desk.
I had questions, and I didn’t care if I had to rip a heart out or cut a tongue; someone was certainly going to fucking answer.
And if it was Isaak who had to pay with blood, then so be it.
Chapter 25 – Zoella
Matvey paced the floor like a tortured predator possessed with rage and immeasurable fury while, by the corner, Eduard and Damien shoved Isaak forward and pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him to his knees.
I sat far behind Matvey but close enough to the scene to see the bloody saliva spilling out of Isaak’s mouth. I picked at my fingernails and chewed on my lips. My insides squeezed uncomfortably, and neither of the men knew how I secretly wished to bolt out of the room.
Groaning, Isaak coughed harshly, sputtering more blood on his shirt and the floor, and when he tried to raise his head, Eduard delivered a disastrous side kick, sending his shoe hard against Isaak’s jaw. I swallowed a gasp, thinking I heard something snap.
Matvey stepped forward. “What was your relationship with Yulia?”
I couldn’t see my husband’s eyes, but judging by the tightness of his broad shoulders and the terror in Isaak’s eyes when he looked up, I had a feeling that Matvey wore the expression of a monster ready to kill.
“I don’t….” Isaak shook his head, his voice shaking. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Standing stiff by the window, Rurik scoffed, and Isaak’s lack of cooperation seemed to piss off Matvey even more.
The first sound to break the eerie silence was a deep, dark animalistic growl, followed by an instant echo of a clenched fist flying across Isaak’s face.
Most certain that I heard a bone snap this time around, I ground down on my teeth to stifle a shriek as I watched Isaak fall on his side and hit his head against the concrete floor, folding up like a baby as he wailed in anguish.
“Pick him the fuck up,” Matvey barked.
Eduard practically yanked Isaak back on his knees, dragging him up by the hair. It was almost painful to watch the slow torture, but a smaller part of me felt almost no sympathy. I wanted the moment to be over, sooner than they knew, and needed to know the truth of what happened to my sister. I needed to be sure.
