Chapter 5 - Commodity II

꧁ Marisella ꧂

The meager accounts my mother had been able to retrieve? We’d spent it all on Alexei’s treatments. Then he’d left. Only to resurface balls deep inside me.

The doors open.

My body stiffens.

I’d nursed a dangerous crush for eight years, longing for his return.

My neck flushes at the thought of what we’d almost done. Again, I wish we’d gone all the way. It feels like a waste since I know he’ll never touch me again, not even with a ten-foot pole.

Better get this over with.

I turn to speak—

“I walk you down. Driver.”

The mountain of a man doesn’t look like he’s just a driver. Bald and severe, he looks down at me dismissively. Without waiting for a response, he turns and walks away.

I’m to follow him. Right.

Hurrying after his wide strides, I stew in anger.

So Alexei couldn’t deign to walk me down himself? Cold.

As the elevator ride blurs by, my heart alternates between racing and slowing, depending on whether I was replaying our hot tryst or his reaction afterward.

His ‘driver’ leads me to a shiny black sports car. Everything except the red headlights is black. I’d walk right into it on a dark enough night.

The man opens the door for me, and I slide in. Alexei sits on the other end of the backseat.

I keep my gaze straight forward. From my brief glance of him when I entered, his brows were drawn together, jaw clenched. Darkness cloaked him like dense fog.

He fills the interior with so much tension I can’t press myself against the door enough.

The car purrs beneath me, pulling out of the lot.

But then I pause. Why even bother? He’s the one who’d abandoned his family long enough to forget my voice and body.

Granted, the last time he’d seen me, I’d been a lanky fifteen-year-old.

Relaxing into the seat, I dare a glance.

My heart trips when he returns my gaze.

Heat sizzles between us.

Desperate to fill the silence, I cross my arms.

“Where have you been?”

“Away.”

Enlightening.

“We worried. The least you could do was text…”

“Ten thousand dollars, Marisella,” he grits through a locked jaw. “You haven’t explained why the fuck you were in my bed, courtesy of an escort service.”

I match his tone. “You’d know if you’d dropped in once in a while.”

He looks away, but not before I catch the guilt in his eyes. Then they harden once more.

“I can’t even decide if I’m going to report this to her. You’ll break her heart.”

“You left nothing for me to break, Alexei.”

He freezes, doesn’t even breathe. He knows I’m right.

Despite the betrayal, despite the reminder, my mother loved Alexei, caring for him as her own.

She was never one to punish a son for his father’s crime.

I still remember the morning he’d left. She’d asked him if he was sure, her eyes watering.

She hadn’t understood his abrupt decision to move back to Russia. But he’d left, and that same day, when she’d called to confirm he’d arrived safely, his phone number was disabled.

I look out the window, at the city flashing by. A weight is suddenly lifted from my shoulders.

If he can afford to send thousands every month for years, and he’d spent almost fifty for a night with a… courtesan, then he can help with Mother’s treatment.

No more waitressing or scraping by.

The rest of the drive goes by in silence, but my body remains keyed up in response to his dark allure.

He’d made a phone call, all clipped Russian phrases and a curse. I haven’t glanced toward him since. I fear I’ll jump him and steal the kiss I’m owed.

Apart from fondling my ass, he hadn’t touched me anywhere else. Maybe because of the nature of the arrangement.

I bite the inside of my cheek. I will never live this down. How will I survive having him back in our lives?

The car slows to a stop in front of our humble two-storied house, the only good thing our father had done for my mother.

My eyes widen at the fact that Alexei had remembered the route.

I look at him then, to find him looking at me.

“I can’t begin to describe my disappointment in you, Marisella,” I focus on the way my name rolls off his tongue instead of the condescension. “Whatever drove you to sell yourself, handle it with the money I’ll send. Goodnight.”

I pale.

Don’t go, I’ve just found you.

“W-what? Aren’t you coming in?”

“Not tonight.”

“But Mom…”

He snaps. “For fuck’s sake, Mari, get out.”

My chest caves. Tears well.

Heat blooms under my skin like lava, surging at him.

“Va te faire foutre, connard.” Go fuck yourself, asshole.

I slam the door so hard the car rocks.

The infuriating vehicle and its equally frustrating owner surge forward, disappearing into the night.

The tears fall, freezing against the chilly night air.

Then my phone chimes. Numb, I take it out.

Deposit received: $50,000

My fingers clench around the phone.