20. ISABELLA

Chapter 20

ISABELLA

"Was EVERYTHING a fucking lie?" I rage and instantly feel lightheaded again. Pushing my head back against the cushions, I feel the blood drain from my face.

"Jesus, Stacy!" I hear Pavel hiss. "Couldn't you have eased her into that?"

Even though I never hear the giant move, I know he's standing close. I can smell the hint of mint and vanilla from his aftershave. These days, I can smell the roses on the dining room table down the hall because I have the nose of a bloodhound.

"How do you ease someone into that?" Stacy argues with him.

"I think that's enough for today," Pavel orders. "Fuck. Konstantin will blow his top if anything happens to his sister."

"And my friend deserves to finally know the truth," Stacy tells him. " All of it! "

"You're putting me in a bad position here," Pavel tells her.

"I've been in a bad position since I made a deal with the fucking devil when I was thirteen." Stacy's voice rises. "I've lied to my friend and tricked her. I'm done. Today, I'll tell her everything I know."

"I can't let you do that." Pavel's voice has taken on a low warning growl.

"Try to stop me," Stacy dares him.

"Stop it!" I lift my head and open my eyes. "Pavel, please leave us."

"I can't do that," he tells me.

"Then move back to your corner." My teeth are gritted, and my eyes are narrow as I stare down at the giant.

He nods and looks at Stacy. "Keep it to your part."

"I will," Stacy promises with a nod.

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Konstantin would like to tell you certain things himself," Pavel tells me.

"Which is only fair because it's his story to tell," Stacy backs up Pavel.

I push the anger rising in me down once again and nod in agreement. "Fine."

"No more fainting." Pavel's eyes search mine. "It's not good for you or the baby."

"I can't promise that, but I promise to try to keep my emotions in check," I tell Pavel.

"Fine." He nods and points to the position where he stands guard. "I'll be over there."

"You're married?" I gape at Stacy as soon as Pavel has moved away.

"Widowed." Stacy's eyes darken. "And in full disclosure, I haven't lived at my parent's house since the night I met my late husband."

"That's another thing I should've known."

"You asked me. You've asked me many times about my love life," Stacy points out.

"And you kept telling me you haven't met anyone in particular," I remind her. "But you were rather explicit about your sex life."

"All of which was true," Stacy assures me. "Except it wasn't with many different men. It was with one man, and for the record, in all honesty, I've only had sex with three men. Two were non-consensual."

"What?" My eyes are once again wide and popping, and my mouth is hanging open. "Stacy, what the fuck!"

"My mother decided I needed to be punished when I tried to get my inheritance from my grandparents early so I could move out." Stacy's eyes blaze with anger.

"Why didn't she want you to move out?"

"She said something about your father would be pissed off with her, and until my twenty-first birthday. That's when I would also get my hands on my inheritance." She shakes her head. "So I decided I would show her, and I went to get the money. The lawyer was going to do it, but I needed my mother's signature, and when I went to get it, she went bat shit crazy."

"Oh no, what happened."

"I couldn't find her at home, and I knew where she'd be, so I snuck into the Velvet Lounge, then into the Dark Velvet Lounge, where I found my mother in a rather compromising position." Stacy's head pushes back. Her chin drops as she shakes her head. "I know your father doesn't like to share, so I took a picture of her, then approached and threatened to send it to your father if she didn't sign the documents."

"Fuck, Stacy. You took a page out of my father's book there."

"Only, it didn't end too well for me." Stacy shuddered, and I saw her eyes darken. "My first few sexual encounters were horrible. They were with Harry, and he… he did horrible things to me." She swallows. "But it was nothing like what happened to me that night. My mother grabbed me and took me to this one attorney they were trying to woo to join their firm. Donald Whitman." She shudders again. "I guess at least she chose a handsome man in his mid-thirties and not some old dude."

"No, Stacy!" I didn't think my eyes could get any wider.

"He did some dark shit to me." Her voice drops.

"So all that stuff you told me about the kinky stuff you did…"

"All true, but that was kinky and with the man I loved," Stacy tells me. "This was dark, BDSM shit with whips, chains, and horrible." Her eyes start to mist over again. "While that was awful," her voice drops, "the worst part was that after the shock wore off—you know, of how my mother just handed me over to the sick pervert and what he was making me do." She looked down at her hands. "I started to enjoy it."

Fuck me. I can't imagine what the sick fuck did to her, but I understand not being able to control enjoying that dark desire that swirls through you.

"You can't control how your body reacts," I tell her. "Men like that know what they're doing and how to ensure your body responds."

"After he'd finished with me, he was so gentle and just wanted to spoon with me for a while after he put salve on my aching parts and kissed them better until I was screaming in pleasure again." She shook her head. "It was very confusing. Then, when I was leaving, I was caught by Andrey."

"Oh no!"

Stacy nodded. "And what did my fucking bitch of a mother do? Pretended she was shocked to see me there and then lied to Andrey about how she'd already warned me twice about sneaking in there."

"Cruella has nothing on your bitch of a mother."

"The even worse part about this is that Donald enjoyed me so much he requested me again, and my mother told me if I went, she'd sign the papers." More tears fell into her lap. "So I did it, and it wasn't just for the papers. I wanted to go. There was this weird fascination drawing me back to Donald."

"It's what they do, Stacy," I try to reassure her and put my arm around her. "They know how to lure you back. Kinda like creepy ice-cream men in those horrible trucks they drive." I shudder.

"It was terrible. When I walked in there, I had the papers, and my mother slapped them onto the bar of the dark velvet and shouted at the top of her voice the little whore is here to fuck Donald ."

"Your mother needs to be locked up."

"When Donald walked over to me, he told me to get onto my hands and knees and lick his shoes." She clears her throat. "I said, are you fucking kidding me? " Her eyes close, and she shakes her head. "Next thing I know, he kicks me. I fall back, and he bends over me, pulls my hair, and demands I do what she says. I'm no longer fascinated. I'm scared, and I want to get the fuck out of there, so I scream for help. Only, everyone in the club just stands staring down at me. All turned on by my pain."

"You don't have to tell me this."

"I do!" Stacy nods. "It was then that I heard this voice boom across the room, and the crowd parted and disbursed in an instant. Don was hauled off me and thrown across the room. Strong hands helped me up, and our eyes met. I had never seen such a handsome man."

"Andrey's brother?" I guess, and Stacy nods.

"He wanted to know what was going on. My mother tried to tell him some bullshit, and he told her he asked me."

"I bet she couldn't have been too amused by that?" I snort.

"Not at all. I told him, and he made her sign the documents, drove me home, and told me to pack my things." Stacy turns and gives me a watery smile. "He moved me into his apartment in Boston Center. We agreed to keep it between the two of us, and three weeks later, we were in love."

"And you never told me any of this. You just kept quiet and made up stories about parties and your sex life."

"All true, but just with one man." Stacy rubs the back of her neck. "I agreed not to tell anyone I'd moved out—especially your father. Gunner was no longer needed as my brother was in college in Washington D.C. and I had Andrey's brother to protect me."

"And you managed to hide all this from me." I'm in shock.

It's surreal. I am most definitely Trueman. Living a happily oblivious make-believe life while the real world was going on behind the scenes. Anger, resentment, and disgust for my father, Stacy's fucked up parents, her sick brother, and that attorney that treated her poorly bubbled up inside me.

"Bella, I wanted to tell you every day," Stacy assures me. "But first, it was your father and then Andrey's older brother. When he admitted he loved me, the first thing he told me was that he'd been engaged to someone for a long time and the woman wasn't even aware of it."

"ME!" My voice raises again.

"Shh," Stacy says, putting her finger over her lips. "We don't want Shrek over there to close us down."

"I can hear you, you know!" Pavel growls. "Do I look green to you?"

Stacy peeks over the sofa. "A little." She nods. "And I'm impressed you know who Shrek is."

"Everyone knows who Shrek is." Pavel rolls his eyes.

Stacy turns her attention back to me. "That's when I found out you were engaged."

"And you couldn't tell me because of my father, your mother, and you didn't want to alert anyone to your whereabouts?" I guess.

"Yeah." Stacy nods. "We were keeping it on the QT. When Andrey came to visit, I made myself scarce." She giggles. "Andrey caught me in the club a few times, and on the fourth time, he banned me because I wasn't twenty-one."

"The Dark Velvet Lounge?"

"No, I never went in there again."

"I saw you go in there the night I met Andrey," I tell her.

"I went in there to find Konstantin." Stacy glances at me. "He was waiting in there for me to give him the signal it was time to put our plan for you and Andrey in action." Guilt flashes in her eyes before she quickly changes the subject. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but Andrey's brother didn't want to marry you, so we jetted off to Vegas and got married a week before my nineteenth birthday."

"I promise you, Stacy, I didn't want to marry either Belov," I assure her and frown. "You said you were widowed. I think I remember hearing Andrey speak about this older brother to someone in Russian the one day I was stuck in his apartment." My frown deepens, and I look at Stacy curiously. "What was Andrey's brother's name?"

"Lev," Stacy's voice has a catch in it. "It was Lev."

"Lion. Lev means lion." I have no idea why I had to say that.

"He was that." Stacy smiles sadly. "Lev was my lion. When we got back from Vegas, I found out I was pregnant, and we went to meet with his parents. His father was furious. I heard him and Lev shouting in the den while I was with his mother. Grace Belov couldn't have been happier. She was so nice."

"I met her." I nod. "I wasn't very warm to her. She's the one that picked out my wedding dress."

"Grace Belov has exquisite taste," Stacy points out. "Your wedding dress was beautiful."

I shrug. "I guess." I shake my head. "She also said she knew my mother and that they had been best friends since childhood."

Stacy nods. "She's a wonderful woman. I have no idea how she ended up married to that fuckhead Ivan Belov."

I shudder. "The man's good-looking, I guess. He did make two gorgeous sons."

"I think their looks are thanks to their mother's side of the family." Stacy laughs. "Andrey wasn't at the house when we went to talk to his family. Lev wanted to speak to Andrey. His father said that Andrey was at his penthouse."

"Have you been to his penthouse?"

"We didn't make it inside." Stacy swallows. "I was feeling sick, so I stayed in the car, and Lev parked in front of the building. He was just going to go up and speak to Andrey. Lev had entered the foyer of the building when Andrey came down. I didn't hear what was going on, when Andrey and Lev walked back outside."

Stacy's voice started to wobble, and she sucked in a shaky breath.

"You don't have to do this." My voice is soft. "I can see how it's hurting you."

"No, I want to." Stacy rubs her nose. "No more secrets, remember?"

"Okay." I nod.

"These men with balaclavas came from nowhere." Stacy leans back and looks up at the ceiling. "Two of them grabbed Andrey and pinned him down—another two attacked Lev. I grabbed the spray Genevra had given me. She told me if Harry ever came near me and Gunner wasn't around, this stuff would stop him."

"Was it in a flat gold spray bottle?"

"Yeah." Stacy nods, but I can see she is lost in the story. "I rushed out of the car and tried to spray the men holding Andrey so he could help Lev but a man came out of nowhere. He ran straight at Lev and kicked him so hard in the spine he buckled, and then pulled out a knife to stab him."

"Oh no, Stacy!" Tears drip down my cheeks.

"But I got such a fright when I saw what was happening to Lev. I accidentally sprayed Andrey, and he dropped straight away." She starts to sob. "If I hadn't sprayed Andrey…"

"Lev still would've been hurt," I say softly. "There was nothing you or Andrey could've done by the sounds of things."

"I managed to spray the two men who had Andrey but before I could run to Lev I was grabbed and they turned on me." She hiccuped. "The one man punched me, and I fell to the ground, then another man kicked me again and again in the stomach."

"No!" My hand instinctively goes to my stomach, cradling the life growing inside it.

I feel sick from what my friend has gone through. Sick that she had to go through it on her own, and never have I ever hated my father or Andrey's father more.

"The last thing I saw was the two brutes being plowed down by an angel—Konstantin. We had met a few weeks after I'd moved in with Lev. Konstantin comes over to America every year to visit your mother's grave and stops by to visit Lev." She sniffs. "After the beating I woke up in the hospital. I had lost the baby, and possibly my chance to ever have babies again. But that didn't matter because the man I wanted to have them with was gone."

I pull her to me, and we sob quietly together when I hear a sniff. I turn to see Pavel quickly wipe his eyes and look away, but not before I see a look in them that mirrors what I'm feeling inside. Whoever's responsible for this must pay.

This is a vile world Stacy and I have been born into. It is a world where parents have no qualms about using their children as currency or pawns in their sick game of power, and they don't think twice about having them killed, either.

I may not have been there for Stacy while she went through the worst time of her life, but I'm going to be here for her now. And I'll be damned if I let my kids grow up in this world. I see Davey with my dogs outside, and I know what I must do—take my friends and dogs and leave.

I still have secret stashes of cash and passports hidden all over the country. I'm so glad to see my brother again, and I hope he meant what he said that I was free to go at any time. This is not where the three of us, the new life I'm carrying, or even my dogs should be. We need a normal life. One away from the darkness and treachery of this world.

I'm about to tell Stacy we should go for a walk so I can tell her my plan when I hear cars pull up. Zeus and Hera start barking excitedly. Stacy and I look at each other.

"It must be Konstantin."

Stacy's up and moving to the front door in a flash. I follow her with Pavel right behind me. We get to her as she's stepping onto the front porch, and I see her freeze when a tall man, no older than my brother and about a foot shorter, who looks so familiar to me, follows Konstantin out of the car.

I hear Stacy gasp and notice how the man walks with difficulty. Konstantin tries to help him, but he slaps my brother's hands away. I step beside Stacy when the men get to the bottom of the stairs and look up at us. The first thing I notice is the man's unusual colored eyes. My stomach knots and my head shoots around to Stacy.

"Stacy." The man says her name breathlessly.

"No," Stacy whispers. "It can't be."

Before the man can say another word, Stacy starts to crumple. Pavel catches her before she hits the ground.

"For fuck sake!" Pavel growls at the newcomer and Konstantin. "Could you not have eased her into this shock?"

My mind is reeling with confusion, but my attention is caught by the gentle way Pavel takes Stacy inside. Konstantin ignores the man's complaints and helps him up the stairs.

"Just fucking let me help you. You need to get to Stacy," Konstantin growls at him. "Or so help me, I'll throw you over my shoulder."

"Fine." The man accepts my brother's help, and I greet Konstantin.

He hugs me and kisses my forehead. "Hello, little sister. You have no idea how good it is to come back and see you."

"I missed you too, brother." I look at the newcomer.

"You must be Isabella." The man smiles, and I know that smile. "I hear congratulations are in order." He glances at my stomach. "I'm your brother-in-law, Lev."

The floor starts to spin, and that cold gray mist starts reaching out its fingers towards me again. The last words I hear are Pavel's shout.

"For fuck sake, man."