All Chapters of The Mute Bride For The Don: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Ivan. The audacity of that girl. I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since the moment the words left her mouth, weeks ago now, and it still replayed in my mind exactly as she’d asked it. What happened to your wife? My jaw hardened. Vanya had no right. She had no fucking right to ever bring her up the way she had. She was nothing more than a toy. One I used to while away time, one I used to distract myself from my demons and frustrations. Fucking her in my goddamn bed didn’t give her the license to dig into the one place it hurts the most. The one place I’d sealed off years ago, buried so deep even I rarely let myself near it anymore. Love had died the same day Inessa my wife did. It’d been snuffed out all at once. The same way a light goes out when the switch is flipped. Just like that. After that, all that remained was a darkness so deep it had no end in sight. Love was a weakness, and everything that came with it; emotion, weakness, the soft, useless parts of a m

Vanya.I hate this place.The thought hit me over and over again as I stood near the edge of the huge hall, still reeling from the humiliation of that morning.I felt every bit the fool Ivan had made me out to be in front of his entire family, and deep down I knew I might have shot myself further in the foot by being in this godforsaken place after Anastasia’s earlier strict warning.My throat bobbed. My fingers tightened around the tray. I wouldn’t have been here at all if not for Ma’am Karena’s earlier call.I’d been the one closest to the house phone, helping Sofia brush out her hair after that morning’s disaster and consoling the little girl the best way I could when the call came through. Karena’s voice had sounded urgent and stressed as she explained that she had forgotten something important for Anastasia and the gala. Something vital enough that she needed someone from the house to bring it immediately.“Send someone else,” I’d started to write, before I remembered she couldn’

My brows lifted as Anastasia spoke with a gracious smile plastered across her face. “Please, Ivan,” she rested a manicured hand lightly on his shoulder. “It was simply an honest mistake. Surely you can pardon her this once, hm?” She waved at me to get up, and my eyes widened with fear as I looked from her to Ivan.“No need to make a scene in front of our guests. She wouldn’t make such a mistake ever again.” She continued.The look that Ivan shot her was enough to freeze the room over.Anastasia stiffened, pulling back her hand away from Ivan like his body had suddenly been set on fire. Even I could feel the burning intensity of his glare as they shifted to her.“Are you trying to go against my word?” His voice dropped dangerously low. “What did I tell you about staying out of matters that do not concern you, Anastasia?”Anastasia’s smile faltered, and a wronged look shadowed her expression. She tried to redeem herself. “I am not going against your word. I only meant that it’s just a m

A flush of adrenaline tingled through my body at the tiny familiar voice.Sofia.I gestured for Marco to open the door, and a moment later, my daughter stood in the doorway in her long white nightdress, clutching the hem nervously between her fingers.“Why are you awake?” I asked, studying her face. “It’s the middle of the night.”“I couldn’t sleep,” she said quietly, still hovering near the entrance instead of coming further into the room. “I had a nightmare.”A nightmare.Irritation flickered through me before I could stop it. Nightmares were a luxury for children who didn’t understand what real fear should look like. I meant the real kind of fear, the kind that came with a blade at your throat or a gun at your temple, not shadows conjured by an overactive imagination in a house where I had enough men stationed to guard her.“What could you possibly be afraid of?” I asked with a scoff.Sofia shifted on her feet, not answering right away, and the anger inside me spiraled. I’d worked

My mouth quivered, and I shook uncontrollably, but no words dared to come out.I didn’t care about the cigarettes or how many he’d had. I just wanted mercy. I wanted to flee far away from him.“You knew,” he continued, his voice rising as he stalked toward me, making me take wary steps backward until I was completely cornered by him.“You knew you weren’t supposed to let anyone touch you. You knew exactly what it would do to me. And you let it happen anyway. Why?!” he yelled.I shivered at the sound of his scream, and the tears poured down my face as my voice trembled even more.“I didn’t think—”“Of course, you didn’t think,” he cut in, a dark, humorless laugh escaping him. “No. You never think, do you, Birdie?”He took a slow drag from the cigarette, and I flinched as the smoke curled toward me, filling my nostrils and making my eyes sting even more. I coughed hard, my body bending over as desperation took over me.I dropped to my knees before him, my hands gripping his trousers. “P