Chapter 18
Nikolay:
I ran my fingers through my hair as my phone rang for the umpteenth time since we got here.
Mom has been bursting my phone with so many calls that it was starting to become annoying, and yet, I was choosing not to answer any of them. What she has done was something that I couldn’t excuse, and no matter how hard I did try to find a reasonable explanation to it, her laying a hand on my wife would never have one.
It was a while before Katerina decided to walk out of the bedroom. Her eyes avoided mine as she sat on the couch. The bruise on her cheek was bluer than it had been when I brought her here, and I couldn’t miss the small cut that was on her nose from mom’s nail probably scratching her as she hit her.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, catching her attention. Katerina didn’t bother responding for a few seconds, and instead, she chose to wrap her arms around herself, as if hiding herself from my eyes. I knew that it was due to her now being insecure about everything that concerned her, and I couldn’t blame her. The pressure that she was now put under was a lot more than anyone should be handling. The way she was treated, and the way mom spoke to her, everything that she has dealt with in a span of less than a month was way too much for a person.
“I am fine, thank you.” She said, noticing that I didn’t say a word as I waited. for her response. It wasn’t that I wanted to put her under pressure, but the number of things that she had in mind was something that I couldn’t just ignore. I didn’t want to end up harming or hurting her, therefore, I was going to choose to threat my words and actions carefully.
“Did you eat something?”
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Chapter 18
“I am not hungry.” I had to fight back sighing at her response and chose to smile as I nodded. Katerina looked away from me, and turned her attention to the window which looked up on the city’s view. I smiled at her and got up from the couch, extending my hands toward her. She looked at both my hands for a second, and I nodded in encouragement. She shook her head, clenching her fists as if frightened. I got on my knees in front of her and put my hand on her knee, squeezing it gently.
“I just want to show you the window, you might want to see the view close up?”
“I am fine, thank you.”
“Katerina…”
“I am here to see where you want me to live next. I don’t really mind nor do I care, but I would at least like to know where I would be staying.” She said, and I nodded, pulling my phone out of my pocket. There were two options, my apartment, which was a penthouse, or my villa, somewhere secluded a bit, and would give us a lot more privacy. Both, were thankfully owned by me, and no one in the family knew of them. Having bought them a few years back with my money, they didn’t know of the houses, nor did they know of their whereabouts just yet.
“You can choose whichever one you find more suitable to your liking. Both are mine, and would give you the privacy that you need.” I said gently.
“I don’t mind…”
“Katerina, you are now upset, but I want to know which you would prefer.” I said, my tone softening. She looked at the two pictures before pointing at the one with the villa. I knew that it was probably due to the villa having a garden in it, and it giving us the privacy that it needed. She looked at me and I nodded, smiling at her, letting her know that I would be giving her what she wanted.
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“Alright, we will go with the villa. We can later renovate it as our days go on, how about it? Would you be okay with that?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Yes, I don’t mind.”
“How about you cat something? Do you want me to get you something?” I asked again, wanting to urge her to get something to at least get something
to cat.
“Nikolay, I am not hungry, you really don’t need to keep offering me something to cat. If I want to, I wouldn’t hesitate to get something for myself, there is no need to treat me like I can’t do that for myself.” She said, and I sighed but nodded. she got up from the couch and I watched as she walked toward the window, looking at it. She crossed her arms over her chest and I could see a small smile on her face despite the sad gaze.
“This is a beautiful view.” She said before turning around to face me. “Is there anything that you wanted to tell me?”
“I wanted to apologize for what you have been through with me. I know that you might find it hard, and I know that this is the last thing that you might expect to hear from me, or maybe you just no longer want to hear anything from me, but I apologize for the things that have broken you.” I said, looking at her. Katerina stayed quiet for a while before she turned around to face me, uncrossing her arms from over her chest.
“You wouldn’t be the first or the last one to do it. So, there is no need to apologize.” She said, making me frown. My heart ached at her words as I realized that she was under more pressure than she let out. The woman, despite being in more pain than could be possible, chose to smile and act as if she was happy when we were seen in public as we went to the airport, and that was something that confused me at first. But hearing her now, I realized that this might have been the way that she was getting past her life as days went by.
“If there is nothing that you want to tell me, Nikolay, I want to go to sleep.”
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