Page 5 of Plus-Size Bride Forced By the Bratva
When my brother noticed her, he flinched and pushed the other woman aside. Viktor rushed toward her, trying to defend himself, but she moved past him without looking back.
“Ravyn—Ravyn—listen to me!” he called after her, rushing to catch up.
“Leave me alone, Viktor,” she said, quickening her pace, her heels clicking against the floor.
It wasn’t until she’d made it to the main hall that he caught up and grabbed her hand from behind.
“Ravyn—”
Smack!
The slap was so loud it turned people’s heads in their direction. Voices fell silent, and even the live band performing on the stage stopped singing.
I locked my jaw, displeased by the humiliation.
Viktor’s frown deepened, his fingers clenching into fists at his side, but he didn’t react. He stood there in front of her, seething quietly.
“That’s for taking me for a fool,” she snarled at him.
“You ungrateful bitch!” The other girl stepped forward, her voice laced with disdain. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are that he’s your boyfriend?”
“Well, you can have him all to yourself,” she replied, expression dark as the night itself. “I’m done with him anyway.”She paused, glanced around at the eyes pinned on her, and then walked out of the hall, calm and confident.
My brows arched at her bravery. She knew exactly who Viktor was, who his brother was, what this place was, and who it belonged to. Yet, she pulled a stunt like this without a shred of fear and then walked out as though she was certain no one would dare touch her.
Her spunk was admirable.
Viktor’s face flushed red, his pride smarting. Furious by the gazes lingering on him, he snapped at the guests. “What’re you all looking at, huh? Mind your fuckin’ business!” They shrank under his glare and the venom in his tone. “And you…!” He swung toward the stage, barking at the band. “Well, don’t just stand there like morons—play, goddamn it!”
The music came back on, and the atmosphere returned to how it had been before the incident.
Viktor spotted me by the champagne tower and walked over to meet me, seething. “Brother, did you see that?” He halted before me. “That little shit embarrassed me in front of everyone. Can you believe that?” he grumbled, barely able to stand on his own two feet.
He reeked of alcohol; I could smell it in his breath. Everyone could tell that he was drunk.
“She…she smacked me across the face.” A crooked chuckle fell off his lips as he fumbled another glass off a waiter’s tray like he hadn’t already had too much to drink.
Wine sloshed over the rim, but he didn’t notice.
He continued, “If she—hah—if she thinks she can get away with this, then she doesn’t know my brother!” he announced, patting my shoulder.
I brushed his hand off me, and it fell loosely at his side. I should shrug this off and pretend it never happened, especiallysince Viktor was at fault. However, the humiliation wasn’t something I could simply turn away from.
The Bratva had rules, and in our organization, pride and perception were currencies—both of which she’d stolen from my brother.
The girl had been brave for a moment. And now that bravery had gotten her into more trouble than she could have imagined. This humiliation wouldn’t sit well with the Bratva Elders because she hadn’t just slapped my brother; she’d slapped the Tarasov name. And with that came some harsh consequences that she wasn’t ready for.
Chapter 3 —Ravyn
It had been six months since I ended things with Viktor. But sadly, this had been the worst period of my life, not because I was hurting from the breakup. No. It was because my father’s empire was slowly crumbling to the ground right before our eyes.
What he had worked so hard to build his entire life was taking a massive hit. And over the space of six months, he’d lost millions of dollars’ worth of property and investment.
No one knew exactly what was going on, except that business was no longer booming. It was almost as if the Jensen family was cursed, and someone had slammed the doors of success in our faces.
Nothing was working, and every day it was one piece of bad news after another—missing shipments, court cases, torched warehouses, et cetera. Dad was gradually losing his mind, most especially because he was in the dark, just like the rest of the world.
Nobody could tell what exactly was happening to the Jensen family or why these accidents kept recurring. This series of unfortunate events had persisted for almost half a year and had become a major problem.
