Page 105 of Toxic Temptation
Yana lunges. For a split second, I consider stepping back and watching this play out.
The moment passes. I grab Yana around the waist and hurl her back before she can lay a hand on Vesper. She stumbles but manages not to fall, eyes blazing, nails outstretched like talons.
“I told you to get out once already,” I repeat. “I won’t say it a third time.”
“You can’t keep this up forever, Kovan. Luka belongs with me. You’re just using him to punish me.”
“Why would I give a damn about punishing you?”
“For remarrying so fast. For not mourning Vitalii the way you wanted.”
I shake my head slowly. “I don’t care about your choices, Yana. I care about how you treat my nephew.”
“Look at you on your high horse.” She sneers again. Her face has never been more hideous. “We both know you don’t have time for anyone but yourself. Vitalii said so all the time.”
I don’t let her see how deep that cut goes. I know her tactics too well to fall for them.
But Vesper doesn’t.
“How dare you cast Kovan as the villain to excuse your failures?!” Vesper’s face burns with outrage. “He’s done everything to make Luka feel at home.Everything.And guess what? Lukadoesfeel at home here. No one pushes him down the stairs. No one here stubs out their cigarettes on his fucking neck.”
“Don’t pretend you know my son!”
“I know more than you do. Do you know what games he likes? What countries he wants to visit? What he wants to be when he grows up? Do you even care? Are you evencapableof caring?”
I feel an unusual kind of glow in my chest. Pride, perhaps. No one outside my family has ever defended me like this. The fierce protection in her voice does things to me I don’t want to examine.
But this isn’t her fight.
“Vesper.” My voice is sharp, undeniable. She turns to me, eyes wide and I say, “That’s enough.”
Her face crumples. She presses her lips together and turns away from both of us.
“That’s right, Kovan,” taunts Yana. “Put the skank in her place before she gets ideas. A woman like her only wants?—”
“You don’t know any women like her. Leave before I throw you out myself.”
“Fuck you, Kovan Krayev.” She flips me off and storms toward the door. “This isn’t over! I’m getting my son back one way or another!”
The front door slams with enough force to rattle the windows.
Unfortunately, that’s the only thing she said that I believe.
This is definitely not over.
35
VESPER
The silence after Yana’s departure is unbearable. My skin is still crawling from her words; an acid taste lingers in my mouth.
I’ve faced down hostile family members in hospital waiting rooms; I’ve seen ugliness in the ER that defies logic—but nothing could have prepared me for that level of pure fucking poison.
That’s the only word for it.Poison.Eroding everything it touches.
In a strange way, it brought me back to the night Kovan and I first struck our deal. When we were sitting under the stars in the planetarium and I asked him why he didn’t just kill Ihor. I was horrified that I could even manage to voice the question.
Having met Yana, I now think the fact that Kovan hasn’t throttled her himself is nothing short of a divine miracle. Against all odds, he might just be the most patient, forgiving man alive.
