“The only other option is to kill him, which I would gladly do, but you don’t want him dead.”
Tears hit my eyes. “I just… I just want to be happy. I just want to feel safe. And I can’t feel safe when he’s around.”
“I will keep you safe, Irina.”
“No. You can’t. Not when you’re… you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll always be in danger because of you. Won’t I?”
He can’t disagree because he knows I’m right.
“I can’t stay here tonight,” I say.
He huffs. “Where will you go? I’m not letting you just walk out that door unprotected.”
“Then get me a hotel room for the night. I just need space. Please, Nikolai. Give me that. I need to think.”
“You belong here with me. I’m not letting you run again.”
“Fine,” I snap. “Then I’m sleeping in the guest room tonight. And you can’t stop me.” I storm upstairs and to the guest room, even slamming the door behind me, which I know is immature. Nikolai doesn’t bother me for the rest of the night.
After a few hours of sitting in my anger, I decide to leave the guest room. I can’t stay in this house tonight. Nikolai gave me money. I can just get a hotel room somewhere.
I know it’s naïve to leave without Nikolai knowing, especially after what happened with Alexei but I can’t talk to my husband right now. So I leave the house without telling him. The guard on duty, Sergei, is out front but he has his back to me. I tiptoe past him and around the side of the house and climb the wooden fence. It’s fairly easy to do.
Then I take off running.
It takes me around an hour before I find a hotel to stay at for the night. I can’t use cash to book the room so I have no choice but to use my credit card. Nikolai will find me eventually but this will give me time to cool off in the meantime.
After booking a room for the night, I head across the lobby when I hear…
“Irina?” a female voice asks behind me. I spin around and come face to face with Simone, Nikolai’s ex-girlfriend.
“Simone. Hi.” I’m really not in the mood to talk to my husband’s ex right now.
“What are you doing here?” She makes a show of looking around. “Without your husband?”
“Just having a girl’s night.”
“Ah. I see. Where are the other girls?”
“They’re already in our room,” I lie.
She tilts her head to the side and gazes at me with an expression I can’t make out. “Why don’t you join me at the bar. We can have a drink together. Talk. I’m curious about you and Nik. How you met. How you fell in love and got married so fast.”
“I’m really tired…”
“I insist. It’s on me. Come on. It will be nice to chat.”
After how I acted with my father, I don’t have it in me to fight Simone so I agree to go with her to the bar in the hotel. We settle in at one of the tables. She orders a fruity cocktail for herself and a mocktail for me.
“Since you’re not twenty-one yet. Nik told me you were only eighteen. That’s young.” Her tone is judgmental like it’s my fault that I married Nik when he forced me into it.
Our drinks arrive and Simone starts talking about random things I don’t care about. I feel sleepy and annoyed and just want this night over with.
“You haven’t touched your drink yet,” she says.