Page 87 of Captive Vows
Alexsei seemed as intense as the others I wanted to call my found family. He was nice. Obedient, though.
“What’s on your mind, Gabriella?” He wasn’t prying. I doubted he was spying for Luka.
I shrugged. “Too many things.”
“Like what? Ask me anything.”
That seemed like a generous offer. “Okay. Um.” I recalled how he’d surprised me, taking my side against that maid. Like it was automatic to stand up for me, for family. “Have you ever considered a different life? Not being mandated to serve your uncle?”
He shook his head. “I was never mandated. Family is family. Loyalty to family is everything.”
I frowned.
“Is that bad?”
“It’s just that I don’t have any family anymore. Or ever. My mom died. My dad is trying to pawn me for the highest profit. And I’m stuck here, unable to escape to raise my child on my own—with love, not a demand for loyalty and service.”
Furrowing his brow, he regarded me closely. “Are you telling me that you really don’t see how Luka cares about you?”
I sighed, having no spark of my former sass anymore. No sarcastic quip was ready for him.
Shrugging and hating how low my morale and mood had sunk, I shook my head. “Luka doesn’t care. I’m just his thing to treat as he pleases. And if actions speak louder than words, he’s made it clear he doesn’t truly want or need me in his life.” Owning up to that hard truth hurt, but this dejection and dismay weren’t letting up anytime soon.
33
LUKA
Ileaned against the wall. Further down the hallway from the study, I couldn’t help but overhear Alexsei talking to Gabriella.
I’d planned to go to the study to drink and mull over how I was handling her being here. This distance was going on too long.
But when I caught word of Alexsei calling for guards, I stayed pressed against the wall, slightly out of obvious sight. Two men hurried to haul away that maid who’d dared to talk so horribly to Gabriella.
Then Allen strode by, taking Misha to the kitchen.
Still, I stayed put. Since she’d stopped dancing in her studio this late into her pregnancy, I had no means to watch her from afar, in hiding.
Like this, I heard her voice. I felt her presence so near, but seeming so distant in the study while I lurked out here.
I was doing this to myself. I was punishing myself to keep away from her. Part of it was to punish her, too. I was still bitter about how she’d ever thought to hide her pregnancy from me, to decide to be deceptive like that.
I supposed in that regard, we really were well-matched. She would never forgive me for how she’d been kidnapped and taken. And I’d never get past how she’d lied by omission for so long.
She sounded down, low in spirits, and that tugged at whatever heartstring I still had.
As she talked a bit with Alexsei, I felt the sadness that gripped her.
Well, you’ve fucking done it now.
I’d broken her.
I “won”.
I’d kept away to teach her a lesson about what it was like to fight me, and she was no longer the woman I’d desired so much.
She was a shell of her former self.
Hearing her assume that I didn’t care about her chipped at my pride.
