Chapter Fifteen

DMITRY AND SASHA WEREseated at the very back of the courtroom, and even with over a dozen rows between them and the front, he knew—-

The moment he walked inside the courtroom, he had known right away.

Tahey.

Since she had never attended any of her father"s hearings, her presence came completely unexpected, and for one long moment, all Dmitry was able to do was stare at her.

Tahey.

It had only been a month since he last saw her. Since that day he had walked out on her and had security throw her out. But in that one month, she had lost an alarming amount of weight, and Dmitry had to clench his fists against the urge to get up from his seat so he could take her in his arms—-

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He had tried his damnedest to forget her. Thrown himself at work. Drowned himself in alcohol. And when none of it worked, he had gotten himself personally involved in some of Strakh Inc."s covert operations, risking his own bloody neck when he could"ve simply done the usual and hired mercenaries to do the job.

Sasha had called Dmitry a fool a thousand times over upon finding his older brother back in the emergency room for the third time in a week, and Sasha was also the one who had called the other members for a vote.

According to Sasha, Dmitry in his current frame of mind would jeopardize the entire operation if he was allowed to continue participating in such a manner, and the other men agreed.

The fact that he had been outvoted still rankled a bit, and while the memory had Dmitry pissed for so many days now, everything about it suddenly became insignificant. Just fucking downright shallow, when compared to what his Tahey must be going through right now—-

His lips twisted at the way his mind slipped now and then.

His Tahey.

It was insanity to still think of her in such terms. And where his honor was concerned, such thoughts were yet another form of betrayal to Paige"s memory.

Her father was the man who had killed Paige.

Paige, who - after years of abuse in a prison camp ran by terrorists - had finally made her escape, only to be abducted against her will by human traffickers and sold to Thomas as a test subject for his experiments.

Paige was dead, and there was no getting her back, while Thomas...

Thomas would walk away free.

TALL. HANDSOME. Dignified. That was how they always described him, then and now. And once upon a time, when people thought of Thomas Baskerville, they thought him kind. They thought him the man who could save the world.

But it wasn"t like that now.

It stopped being like that the moment his hands became red with the blood of all the innocent lives he had taken.

No one would ever think Thomas kind now...and that was as how it should be.

But he was still her dad.

And when Tahey heard him tell the judge he was guilty, and that he needed to pay for his crimes—-

Pandemonium quickly broke out. The press went wild. The judge angrily pounded his gavel. But Tahey...

She only had eyes for Thomas.

And when the older man turned to her, and their eyes met—-

Oh God.

It felt like it was the past again.

Thomas...was the Daddy she used to know.

And when the gentlest breeze blew a lock of her hair—-

She knew it was Mom letting her know...this was how it should be, and God...she didn"t even think of glaring, didn"t even try to keep the tears from falling.

She looked at Thomas. Tried to make her vocal chords work. But in the end, all she could do was let a smile wobble to her lips.

Thank you, Daddy.

I love you, Daddy.

And one day, we"ll be with Mommy again.

EVERYTHING WAS SILENTnow. They had taken Thomas away. The judge had retired to his room. Everyone else was gone, and she was all alone.

Or at least...that had how it seemed when she suddenly knew.

She couldn"t explain it.

She just knew.

Tahey twisted around in her seat, just in time to see a familiar outline—-

Someone strikingly tall and powerfully built.

Bluish black hair that matched the dark fabric of his suit.

And he was walking away.

He was leaving her again.

She didn"t even think. Couldn"t really. Was just running on a dreadful mixture of instincts and adrenaline, pain and desperation, and most of all—-

That word she must never ever say out loud—-

Or she would shatter all over again.

"Dmitry?"

She was already on her feet , a part of her terrified that he would ignore her.

But he didn"t.

She saw him still. Stiffen, like the sound of her voice blasphemed his ears, and her chest nearly caved under the force of her pain.

But then she saw him slowly turning to face her—-

And God.

Even though she was still reeling with pain, hope was also blossoming inside of her heart.

Hope that just like with Thomas, it was still not too late.

Golden eyes clashed with hers.

"What do you want?"

His voice wasn"t like before.

None of the contempt that used to—-

Oh.

It occurred to her all of a sudden, with everything that had happened, it was only now she realized rather foolishly why he had seemed to hate her so much when she started working for him.

"Sasha told me you hated me because I reminded you of someone you know," Tahey heard herself blurt out. "And at that time, I thought he was talking about some ex-girlfriend you couldn"t get over."

She wasn"t quite sure why she thought to tell him that. Maybe she wanted to see if she could make him smile or his lip curl? Maybe she just wanted to see if she could still make him feel.

Because that was better.

Anything was better than the way he was now.

Staring at her like she was a stranger.

Talking to her like she was a stranger.

Like she had always been a stranger, and all those times she thought they were becoming closer—-

Oh God.

"Did you only take me to bed," she asked unevenly, "because you were planning to use me to hurt my dad?"

She waited for him to answer. Heart on her sleeve. Waited for him to just say sorry. To just say—-

"Goodbye, Ms. Baskerville."

She saw him turn but could no longer see him walk away.

"P-Please."

Because her tears...

"Please just...at least say, just say it meant s-something."

The tears made everything blurry and crystal clear at the same time.

And when she heard the door close softly behind the billionaire—-

It was as good as hearing the door close on everything that could be...but was now over for good.