NINA The door opened before I was even ready for it. And even though I didn’t look up from the bed, I knew who it was. Lachlan. It didn’t matter to him what I had said, here he was again like a clockwork to do his duty. I sat up and looked at him. And I couldn't help but see the boy he used to be. The one crushing over Jeremiah. The one who might still be in love with him after all these years. If I was in his place, I’d have been so broken to see the man I loved married to someone else. I’d be heartbroken to have to fuck someone I didn’t want just because the man I love demanded it. Since I watched them together in the bed, I had this feeling of betrayal in my cbest but now hours later, I was wondering how betrayed he must’ve felt. I almost felt sorry for him. He came to sit on the bed and asked, “How are you feeling now?” I wanted to know about his feelings. I didn’t answer him. Instead, I asked my own question, “Is there something you want?” Do you want him
NINAThe ink had smudged where the tears had fallen. I wiped them, careful to not tear the page. I wasn’t sure why I was crying, why there was this sudden ache blossoming in my chest. Why it felt like somehow I was betrayed?But it was so wrong to feel that way.They had known each other since forever. Lachlan’s father worked for Jeremiah’s father and Lachlan became Jeremiah’s friend way before I even existed for them. And Lachlan started feeling more than friendship for Jeremiah when he was just fourteen.There were so many pages. So many words. And memories that this journal held. I didn’t even have to read it to know what it will reveal.But I will.I stared at the words, fingers trembling. “I think I love him.” Lachlan had written, in one of the paragraphs where he ranted about his worries and feelings he couldn’t run away from anymore. It was a confession and a curse in one, onky written in these pages because no one else was there for him to share with.A fourteen year old kid
JEREMIAH “You wanted my attention? Now, you got it, little shadow.” I pulled my hand back and landed another hard spank on his tight arse, the sound echoing through the room. “That’s all you got?” he asked, his voice thick and deep. I smirked. My little shadow loved to push my buttons. And this time I was ready to indulge him. After another hard spank, I asked, “Should I use my belt? Is that what you want?” He didn’t answer. I grabbed him by the waist and ordered, “Lift.” He obeyed like the good boy he was, without a complaint. And I slipped my hands between him and the desk to unbuckle his belt with a swift tug and then undid his pants. “What are you doing?” He asked, his voice hoarse and filled with hope. Fuck. He was really my Achilles heel. I said, “I think you need more pain to learn how to behave moving forward.” He didn’t respond. I didn’t expect him to. Lachlan had always been obedient where it mattered, especially when we were in this position. This wa
LACHLAN I followed Jeremiah as he made his way downstairs. But my footsteps slowed as I heard the familiar voices, and it wasn’t just Mrs Papov's deliberately sweet tone that had me stiffening. It was the other voice that had irritation coursing through me.What the hell was she doing here?Her back was to us while she listened to Mrs Papov, and then the witch looked up at us. She smiled, "Oh, see. My nephew is here…” She stepped toward Jeremiah where he had also stopped at seeing the duo. She grabbed his hand and tugged him to the waiting woman as she said, “Jeremiah, look, who’s here. She came to visit you.”Valerie slowly turned around, her blonde hair perfectly styled and blue eyes stared at Jeremiah. She gave him a hesitant smile as she greeted, “Privet, kak dela” [Hello, how are you?] She took his hand and kissed the back of it. “Pakhan.”Even though I knew she was paying her respect to him, I wanted to twist her arm around for touching him. Jeremiah gave her a nod. “I didn't
2007 (Lachlan: 13, Jeremiah: 17)LACHLANThe snow was falling like it wanted to bury the world beneath it.Thick. Cold. Endless. And merciless.And he was out there.I didn’t know how long it had been, but long enough that my chest ached with the worry and I could no longer keep still. Long enough for my breath to fog up the window through which I looked into the woods. The cabin was in the middle of the woods that surrounded the Sokolov mansion, the estate was huge enough that this little cabin felt like a small world of its own. It belonged to Hugo, as the second in command to the senior guard of the Pakhan, Hugo was allowed to stay here. And as I started to come here on the estate more often with Jeremiah and Jonathan, Hugo allowed me to stay at his cabin. Sometimes I felt like he pitied me but during our sessions where he taught me and the Sokolov brothers how to fight, I saw him as a tutor and an older brother. So even if he pitied me, I took his silent offer of a safe place he
NINA As soon as the diary fell open, photographs slipped free from between its pages, falling on my lap, as if waiting for someone to find them and look at them.I picked one up and saw that it was of three boys. My mouth dried as I realised who the boys were. Lachlan and Jeremiah, their eyes and the familiar dark and sunlit hair gave them away. But there was another boy, who looked identical to Jeremiah. He has a twin?Where was he?I was his wife and I didn’t even know that my husband has a twin brother.I hadn't seen him since I came here. He wasn't even present at the hellish wedding.My fingers shook as I lifted more pictures to see what else I didn’t know.A picture where only Jeremiah was there. At least, I thought it was Jeremiah and not his twin if Lachlan had it. He was leaning back against a car, a phone to his ear, when someone clicked it. I wondered if it was Lachlan. Jeremiah looked young and, ooh, so beautiful. To have all this beauty marred by scars. I hated that I
NINA “Can I come in?” Olezka asked.I shrugged, flexing my fingers as they still throbbed, and moved to sit on the bed.As much as I was surprised by his presence, I was almost glad to have someone interrupting my thoughts. But the fact that it was him of all people made my skin stretch taut.“I’ll take that as a permission, then.” He walked inside and took the place near the window where I was standing not a minute ago. “What are you doing here?” I asked.He kept looking out the window as he replied, “I heard Dr Gav visited you. Are you okay?”“I am tired of you all pretending to care for me.” I said, exhaling a bitter sigh and lied back on the bed. “What do you want?”He turned to face me. And I swallowed the flush that crept up my chest and throat, once again remembering what he had done last nigbt as his blue eyes took me in.It was just last night and it felt like weeks and months had passed.He rubbed a hand down his face and said, "I am not pretending. The thing is… I don’t k
NINAI couldn’t stay still.Every time I tried to, my heartbeat would race, and make me feel suffocated with everything I was surrounded with. Everything that I was feeling, I didn’t want to. Couldn’t afford to.Jeremiah fucking Sokolov was unraveling the threads of my sanity, playing with them like they were a game, like I wasn’t already dangerously close to breaking. Bit by bit, day by day, he was pulling apart something inside me I wasn’t familiar with and didn’t even know existed. And what terrified me more was what I was starting to see beneath those threads.The picture forming in the back of my mind wasn’t dark like it used to be. It was hazy now, like dawn threatening to spill through a crack in the sky. I didn’t know what I would do if it cleared — or worse, what it would reveal.The only thing I knew was that my mind wasn’t ready for it. I wasn’t ready for it.But that didn’t matter to him. Not to my husband. He didn’t care if I was ready or not. He not only toyed with me p
NINA Jeremiah stepped inside the room and his words trailed down my spine like sharp needles. “What’s going on here? I looked away from him, refusing to look at him, at his grey eyes, scarred yet handsome face and his lenient behaviour toward Lachlan. But it didn't matter that I wasn’t looking at him, because he was staring at me and his eyes made me feel flustered like I was standing under the sun. His presence was like one too, dominating and commanding the whole room by just standing there. Like the sun, he filled the room by just staying there, the heat from him saturated the air, pressed against my skin like something invisible but heavy, like gravity had changed just for him. “She’s refusing to eat,” Lachlan said, and I didn’t miss the way his green eyes glinted at me. I narrowed my eyes on him, wanting to punch him for being a tattletale. Wasn’t he apologising to me just now? Did he think this will make me forgive him? “Is she?” Jeremiah asked, pulling my tho