Page 93 of Owned Bratva Bride
She let out a soft breath, and I smirked in pride.
We eventually had dinner in the bedroom halfway through the movie.
That night, I slept with Marielle’s head on my chest.
I wasn’t sure I even knew how to let someone in anymore, but I would try.
***
This morning’s Bratva meeting was held at my warehouse.
I had so much work on my table that I worried about where to start. It was the middle of the year, the time when Bratva pressure often threatened to choke me.
“Any personal business?” I asked Danil, who stayed behind as the other brothers drove off.
I noticed he now had a brown envelope in his hand.
“Let’s go to your office.”
I nodded once, leading the way back into the warehouse.
I had barely taken a seat behind my desk when he tossed glossy pictures onto my desk.
Marielle’s face stood out.
Alarms sounded in my head.
I picked them up.
“I know we concluded that she isn’t a threat,” he started, his tone clipped. “But I couldn’t bring myself to trust her. I thought to do some digging, just in case. I pulled the CCTV records of the last Bratva event. Found that.”
My eyes scanned each of the photographs, but I held one. The one that zoomed in on the text on her phone that read:
“We need to talk. -L.”
“And you didn’t disclose this at the meeting because…?”
He shrugged.
“You should know I trust your judgment. I’m disclosing it to you so you can look into it.”
I nodded, gathering the pictures.
“Brother,” he called, making me look up at him. “Your wife might be playing you,” he divulged, raising a brow.
Something in me shouted a solid ‘no.’
But I said nothing as Danil walked out of my office.
I hadn’t been with her for the most part of that night; she might have exchanged as many texts with whoever she wanted. And I knew who exactly could send a text signed with an L.
Fucking Lucien Navarro.
Was I wrong all along?
But I knew how happy she looked whenever we were cool. I knew how her hurt radiated whenever we weren’t talking. I knew how my touch made her want more; how she looked at me like she was happy to be mine.
But pictures don’t lie.
