Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Abby

Ican hear yelling and the sound of things being smashed against the wall downstairs, and my anxiety ratchets up through the roof, despite having no idea what’s happening. Are we being attacked? Did someone receive bad news? I have no idea, but my heart is punching against my chest all the same.

When I hear footsteps thundering up the stairs, I immediately jump to my feet, my body flipping into fight or flight.

“Abby!” I hear Maksim’s voice boom through the hallway, seemingly shaking the entire house as the door handle jiggles.

Instinctively, I move to put myself between the bedroom door and the babies’ cribs, hoping to hold off whatever is about to happen. Because he sounds angry. Angry at me.

One look at his face as the door bursts open tells me he isn’t here to protect us.

“What’s going on?” I demand, terrified and angry at the same time.

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” he says, taking a step toward me and making me instinctively back up. “You have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, and not much time to do it.”

“Maks, what—” My words turn into a startled yelp as he grabs my arm and roughly pulls me out of the room. “Stop!” I yell, jerking away from him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Treating you a lot better than you deserve.” He practically spits the words at me. “You’ve lied to me. Manipulated me. You’ve made a fool out of me.”

“What?” I whisper, terrified as he practically throws me into the adjacent room and slams the door behind us. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I’m sure you don’t,” he scoffs, his expression dark and twisted, and a bubble of anger bursts up through me along with my fear.

“You have to at least tell me what’s going on, if you’re going to scream at me like this.” The words came out of me much more confidently than I feel, as I watch him advance on me.

“I don’t have to do anything for you, Abby. I don’t have to protect a whore like you.”

My eyes immediately fill with stinging tears. “Whore?”

“In fact,” he continues as if he didn’t even hear me, “I’m going to enjoy doing the opposite.”

His words send a chill down my spine, and I try to keep the panic at bay. “Maks, please. Just tell me what’s going on. Tell me what happened. Whatever it is, we can figure it out.”

“You can’t fix this,” he growls, coming to a stop just a step away. “It’s too late.”

“Please,” I plead, tears streaming down my face now. “I love you, Maks. I love you and our babies. Don’t do this. I don’t know what you’ve heard or what you think has happened, but I can practically guarantee it’s not true.”

“Stop lying,” he roars, his face inches from mine.

“I’m not,” I sob, desperately trying to get through to him. “I would never hurt you, Maks. Never. Just tell me why you’re angry.”

“The kids aren’t mine,” he snarls, his eyes blazing with fury. “None of it was real. You’ve played me from the beginning. The babies. The sex. All of it.”

“No,” I gasp, horrified by the accusation. “No, Maks. That’s not true. I would never do that. Please, you have to believe me.”

“Why?” he snaps. “Give me one good reason, Abby.”

I shake my head, struggling to think through the fear and the heartbreak. “I… I don’t know. You’re the only man I’ve been with since that night. Since nearly a year before then, even. How can I prove something like that? We—we can take a DNA test, I—”

“I’ve already got one of those,” he whispers, and it’s almost worse than his shouts. “And it tells me you’re lying. Try again.”

“What? How…”

“It doesn’t matter how I have the tests, Abby. Only that I trust the one who gave it to me.”

“But…” My mind whirls, and I try to process what this means. “I never gave anyone permission to take DNA from my babies for testing, and I’ve barely left their side. So unless someone snuck in here while we were making love one night—”

“I’m supposed to wait for a liar to give me permission to out her, now, am I? We took what we needed, when we wanted to. That’s all you need to know!”

“And you knew about this?” He growls wordlessly at that and looks away, and I feel the heat of anger swirling inside me right along with all the pain. “Didn’t even tell me, ask me? Is that how much you trust me?”

His hand snaps up to grip my throat, although he applies no pressure. “Trust you?” he says quietly. “Apparently, I don’t even know you.”

“Maks,” I find myself whispering desperately. “Please.”

“Save it,” he sneers. “I don’t believe a fucking word out of your mouth.”

“I would never hurt you,” I repeat, my words barely audible. “Please, Maks. Please, you have to believe me. The test is a mistake, they made a mistake somehow. I love you, and these babies are yours. Can’t you feel it? Here?”

I lift my hand to his chest, over his beating heart, but he squeezes his fingers against my throat and I gasp. He hasn’t cut off my air, he isn’t hurting me. Yet. But the threat is there, and for the first time since I’ve known him, I’m truly afraid of what he might do.

“Don’t fucking say that.”

“I love you,” I insist, taking my hand from his chest to rest on his fingers over my throat instead. “I love you, and I would never hurt you. Those four little bundles in the other room are our children, Maks. Ours.”

“No,” he snaps. “They’re your babies, Abby. They’re not mine.”

“But they are,” I say, my voice cracking with emotion. “They’re yours. You’ve helped me take care of them every day. You’ve fed them, changed their diapers, and rocked them to sleep. They stop crying for you, Maks. They know you.”

“Stop.” He glares at me, his expression full of pain and loathing.

“I’m telling the truth,” I continue, desperate to make him believe me. “I love you, Maks. And I know you love me, too.”

An ugly expression twists across his features, and he suddenly pushes me away from him, letting me go as if my skin burns him.

“That’s not possible.”

“It is,” I insist, taking a tentative step back toward him. “It’s the truth. I love you, Maks. I love you, and those are our children. You have to believe me.”

I can see the struggle in his face, the conflict warring within him. “I can’t,” he growls.

I reach for him, my hand trembling as I touch his arm, but he pulls away from me. “Maks, please. Please, just listen to me. We can figure this out. Whatever has happened, whatever you’ve been told, we can work through it.”

“There’s no point.” He turns away from me, his jaw clenched.

“Yes, there is,” I insist, moving closer to him again. “We can figure this out. Do another DNA test. We can—”

“No,” he barks. “We can’t. We can’t because there’s nothing left. You’ve taken everything from me, Abby. Everything. There’s no way back from this. No way back to us.”

I want to argue with him, but the look in his eyes tells me there’s no point. He’s made up his mind.

“What are you going to do?” I ask, feeling desperate and broken and almost reckless because I’ve lost everything in a matter of seconds. I know what this man is capable of doing to the people he thinks have betrayed him, and that knowledge makes my blood run cold. “Are you going to kill me? Bury me in the courtyard? What about the kids? Your kids, Maks. You can think I’m lying all you want, but those babies in that room are yours.”

“Stop,” he says, his eyes flashing with anger.

“I won’t,” I say, feeling defiance rise up inside me. “You’ll have to kill me if you want me to stop. And then what will you do? Kill the babies, too? You’d do that, would you? Murder four innocent newborns?”

He doesn’t say anything, but the muscle in his jaw tics, and his fists are balled at his sides. I’ve pushed him as far as he’s going to go, and I have no idea what comes next.

“Answer me,” I demand, stepping toward him and looking up into his eyes. “What are you going to do, Maks? Are you going to kill me and our children?”

He looks down at me, his expression hard and unreadable. “Follow me,” is all he says before turning and walking out of the room.

I have two choices. I can run off and barricade myself in the other bedroom with my babies and, what? Call the police? Call Maggie? He’ll still get to me before anyone else can, and it would probably only fan the flames of his paranoia and rage.

Or I can keep trying to talk sense into him, keep trying to make him see the truth. With that in mind, I follow him downstairs and into his study. There’s glass from a lamp shattered in the corner and papers strewn everywhere. It looks like the place has been robbed, but I know better.

This is the result of Maksim’s pent-up fury. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though. He’s capable of so much more. So much worse.

“You have to believe me, Maks,” I plead, but he picks up a stack of papers from his desk and shoves them into my hands.

“Save your breath unless you can explain all of this.”

I look down at the papers, but everything is a blur through the tears that are spilling over. “What is all of this? It looks like bank statements. Financial records? I don’t understand.”

“You’re looking at the truth, Abby. Hurts, doesn’t it? You might be able to lie to my face, but the numbers don’t lie. The money in these accounts was stolen from donors. From people who trusted you and your sister. From me. Your name is right there in black and white, Abby. Right alongside Booker’s.”

I shake my head, unable to wrap my mind around what he’s saying. “I don’t know what any of this means. I’ve never seen any of this before in my life. Why would you believe any of this?”

“Stop fucking lying,” he roars, his voice echoing off the walls of the study. “You have no idea what kind of damage you’ve caused, and you’re still trying to play innocent? Still trying to pretend like you haven’t spent months scamming me, using me, and stealing from me?”

“No,” I sob, the truth slowly dawning on me. “No, Maks. Please, you have to believe me. I didn’t do this.

He shakes his head. “All I want to know is why you did it. Why, Abby? Are you spying for the Irish? For the government? Because if you think you’re going to take me down like this…” He barks out a short, bitter laugh. “A lot of other people have tried it. People who thought they were smart. People who thought they were clever.” His eyes narrow and his jaw clenches. “Go and look for them now.”

I feel sick. “No,” I gasp, shaking my head.

“And the worst part?” Another bitter laugh. “I still tried to rationalize what you did. I tried to defend you, even in my own mind. Even when I had the evidence staring me right in the face. Until I saw this.” He holds up another piece of paper, this one hopelessly crumpled. “This is what made me realize you can’t ever be trusted again. This is what sealed your fate, Abby.”

I don’t even try to say anything in my defense as he flings the paper at me. I’m crying and shaking and almost certain he’s going to kill me once he’s done yelling. “I don’t even know what any of this is,” I say, more to myself than to him. “Is this the supposed DNA test?”

He scrubs a hand down his face and takes a deep breath, then jabs a finger at the paper in my hand. “You’ll notice the test is conclusive. Not a shred of doubt. None. I’m not the father of those children. And that’s why we can’t ever have anything to do with each other again. You’re a liar and a thief. Nothing else.”

He takes a step toward me, his eyes cold and hard, and I back away from him until my back is against the wall.

“Maks, please,” I beg, my voice shaking. “Please, you have to believe me. I would never do any of this. I love you. I love the babies, I would never endanger them by lying to you like this. Please, please don’t do this.”

His expression is unreadable, but I can see the rage simmering beneath the surface.

“If you really love your kids,” he says, his voice eerily calm, “then you will get them out of here in the next five minutes. You’ll catch a cab to your sister’s house. She should be there by now, I’ve already ordered my men to take her back. And you’ll never speak to anyone about me or my family—my real family—ever again.”

I blink, not knowing what to do for a second. Then I realize he’s letting me go. He’s actually going to let me get the children and go. I have five minutes, and I can’t waste a single second.

“Oh, and, Abby,” he calls out as I bolt for the door. “If I ever find out you’ve scammed anyone else after today, or if you try to get the police involved in any way…well, you know what will happen.”

I swallow hard, and don’t reply. There’s nothing I could say right now that he’d believe, anyway.