Page 97 of Married to the Don (Kornilov Bratva Duet 1)

As I’m talking, I realize Molly isn’t moving. She’s staring down at her lap, ignoring my breath on the back of her knuckles. My stomach flips.

“Were you going to say yes?” Maybe it’s my own vanity, but I never considered she would refuse me.

Her brown eyes are wide and glassy with tears when her gaze meets mine. She nods. “I was.”

I sigh with relief and grab her chin with my fingers, tilting her face towards mine.

She closes her eyes and leans into my kiss. Her hand fists in the front of my shirt, and I run my hands up her thighs, pushing her back into the cushions.

“I love you,” I mumble against her mouth.

Molly goes stiff and pulls back.

I don’t know how this could shock her, since she knows I was going to propose, but I say it again anyway. I look into her eyes and lay a hand across her smooth cheek. “I love you, Molly.”

I can count on one hand the number of women I’ve said those words to, and I can count on one finger the number of times I’ve said it and meant it. I love Molly. More than I ever thought possible.

She’s blinking up at me, dazed, and I expect her to break through the fog and return the sentiment, but instead, tears gather in the corners of her eyes, and she looks away.

I don’t understand until my mind catches on the tense. Was. She was going to say yes.

“Molly?” I ask. “You want to marry me, right? You …” You love me? The question hangs there, unspoken, too embarrassing to say out loud.

She nods. “I would have said yes, Viktor. I would have married you, but—”

“But nothing.”

“But Fedor,” she says passionately, before she remembers Theo at her side and lowers her voice. “It isn’t safe for us here. I thought it would be safe with you, but I was wrong. This is the eye of the storm. Chaos and danger are swirling around us at all times as long as we’re near you, and I need to get Theo out. I need to get him away from this mess.”

“Where is away from this?” I challenge. “Do you think Fedor will give up? He won’t. You are safest here where I can protect you.”

“You couldn’t protect us tonight,” she whispers.

Rage snarls in my chest. “George saved you, and I hired George. That’s a kind of protection. You won’t have that anywhere else.”

“We will start over somewhere new and change our names,” she says. “It’s the only way.”

I shake my head. “No. You can’t.”

“We have to. You know that we aren’t safe here. I have to do what’s right for Theo, and as much as I want to stay, I can’t.”

“You can’t,” I repeat, biting out each word.

Her brows pinch together. “Excuse me?”

I stare at her, knowing she heard me. Knowing she understands what I mean.

“Are you telling me I can’t go because you don’t want me to or because you won’t let me?”

Again, I stare at her.

She can’t go. If I let Molly walk out of this house with Theo, I won’t see her again. She’ll be dead, and Theo will be … I don’t even want to think about what Fedor has planned for Theo. I don’t recognize Fedor anymore. I’m not sure what he’s capable of.

“You can’t keep me here,” Molly says, standing up, towering over me since I’m still on my knees.

I rise to my full height and grab her hand. “I’m not trying to keep you here. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“That’s the same thing,” she says, her voice getting louder with every second. “You think you know what’s best for me, so you don’t care what I want.”

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