All Chapters of The Mafia Don's Captive Bride: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

NaomiA Week LaterI stood at the railing of the balcony, allowing the warmth of the sun to beat down on my face. I knew I should have on a hat or something to block my skin from being burned, but the warmth felt too good, and I didn’t want to move from the spot.I was content. In this moment, I didn’t have to worry about anything, breathing in and out slowly to loosen the tension that seemed to have taken up residence in my shoulders.What I wouldn’t give to have a massage or a week’s vacation.Or just my sanity intact.Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked at the walls in the distance. At this distance, the barbed wire covering the walls was barely visible, but not impossible to see. A reminder that I was locked in. Gavril had given me the right to leave the mansion whenever I wanted to, but I hadn’t.For a week since that night in the study, I’d stayed indoors, conflicted as to what I was going to do with the awful truth of who my husband was.The nightmares came frequently now. Eith

NaomiI idly turned the pages of the magazine in my lap, not really reading the words. All day I had been restless, and nothing seemed to satisfy me, no matter what I tried to do.I couldn’t even sleep for more than a few minutes, which was what I usually did when I couldn’t find anything else to do.Gavril had been MIA since breakfast, not even showing up for our normal workout time or for lunch.It hurt a little bit to know that he had already busted our routine up for God knows what. Sometimes I wondered if any of what we had experienced over the last few weeks was just a lie, a dream that I had finally woken up from.I didn’t want this rift between us. No matter what I had seen or what I thought he was doing, he was still my husband and the man I depended on for my very livelihood. To have him upset with me was almost like he had cut off my right hand. After nearly two months of being attached at the hip to him, I could feel the distance between us, and mentally, I wasn’t ready fo

NaomiI lay in the darkness, my back to Gavril, and tried not to breathe too deeply lest he notice that I was awake. I had been aware from the moment that he had walked into the bedroom, too afraid to even acknowledge his presence in fear of what he might say. I hadn’t seen him since his outburst earlier, choosing to stay in my room so that I wouldn’t cause any other turmoil between us.We were already on thin ice, if not already trapped in cold depths that we’d never surface from.Though I had no more tears to shed, I still hurt. It was a soul-rending hurt, like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest and thrown it away with me watching. That was what Gavril had done to me today.It also solidified my feelings for him: I had fallen head over heels in love with a man who had barely given me anything. Had I been that naive to fall for a grin, a sexy body, an expert touch? I had thought I was smarter than that, but clearly I had fallen for it fairly easily.Again.I was such an idio

NaomiI woke slowly and stretched my arms over my head. My muscles pulled with the movement. The place beside me in the bed was empty, and I tried my best not to feel anything at all about the person who should be there.Gavril.My husband.Father of my unborn child.Bile rose in the back of my throat and I forced it down as I sat up, rubbing my aching head. Last night had been good. Sex with Gavril was always good—if not great.And now, it was different.Everything about him felt different. Because deep down, no amount of the things that I felt about him could hide who and what my husband truly was.A monster who sold people.Not everything about Gavril was a monster. He wasn’t going to harm me physically.Emotionally though? I was devastated. In my bones, I knew it was coming—if not already happening after our confrontation—and I hated it. I hated the fact that I felt cornered last night, waiting for the moment he would bend me to his will and use me until I had nothing left to myse

NaomiI waited with Gavril in the hallway as we watched the children file out of the rooms, my heart twisted with pain both for him and me. His pain had been raw earlier, the very pain that I still didn’t understand what drove it. I might have only known him for a few months, but I was well aware of his emotions, of his moods.Gavril was in pain. He had suffered some great loss in his life, and perhaps that was what drove him now.Either that or he truly liked the violence around him. I knew that he did enjoy parts of it, but given what I had seen today, there was good in Gavril.There was good in him, begging for release. After all, what sort of pakhan would take a family under his wing and provide for them? I doubted he was going to ask anything of the girls or their mother.If he did, I would be disappointed yet again.Alyona came out first, running to us with a wide smile on her face. My eyes snuck up to Gavril’s face, watching the transformation in him that seemed to happen immed