4
1659 Words
“That is absolutely ridiculous!” Anastasia glared hotly, jumping to her feet. “I’m a proper lady! What makes you think I’d sleep with someone like you?”
“Someone like me?” Alexei swiveled lazily in his chair. “Am I not… good-looking enough for your taste?”
“You’re a brute!”
“And you're a naive child. What makes you think I’ll help your family without asking for something in exchange? From the looks of things, your manipulative father knew what he was doing. Sending you to me, dressed like that…”
His gaze moved down her dress, causing her cheeks to heat with embarrassment.
God, he was absolutely despicable. She needed to leave immediately, before she broke her stance and slapped him.
“I thought I’d find you here, amore.” A voice said.
Anastasia seized the chance to look away, but her mouth dropped at the sight of a completely naked blonde standing in the doorway.
“Is she joining us?” the blonde asked.
“I don’t know…” Alexei turned back to Anastasia, brow arched. “Are you joining us?”
Unbelievable!
“You’re despicable,” Anastasia growled, pushing past the blonde and storming out of the study.
“I’ll be waiting, should you change your mind!” Alexei called after her.
“Then you’ll wait a lifetime!” she hissed, fleeing the house under the crushing weight of a shame she had never known before.
By the time she reached her car, she almost wanted to laugh at the ordeal she’d endured. She also wanted to cry really badly. She glanced at the ballet dance card on her dashboard—her own image captured in an intricate pose—and fresh tears poured from her eyes
How had her life changed in such a short amount of time? From being a promising ballet dancer to being reduced to a common w***e?
Without thinking, she dialed Dmitri’s number, swallowing her pride one last time.
“What do you want, Anastasia?”
“Why did you lie? Why, Dmitri?”
“You saw what you weren’t supposed to see…”
“Dmitri, my family is bankrupt. I would never have told them about your—”
“That’s not my problem, princess!” he interrupted sharply.
Her chest tightened and she rested her head against the dashboard. “Did you ever love me? Even just a little?”
There’s a pause. “It’s morning here in New York. I have practice.”
“Dmitri, wait—”
The line went dead.
She screamed.
Slamming her fist against the dashboard multiple times. God, She couldn't face her family like this; she needed to do something.
Anastasia felt eyes on her then. She looked up.
Alexei Morozov was standing by his office window. watching. He smirked, waving his fat cigar at her.
With a sneer, she threw the car into gear and drove off, making sure to knock over the sign pole by the gate and raise dust on her way out.
~~
“What do you mean the property has been sold?” Anastasia fumed at the weasel-faced clerk in the land registry office.
She’d driven a good two hours to Tver with the intention of selling the five hundred acres of land she’d inherited from her late grandparents, only to be told it was gone. It made no sense. She had the documents.
“According to our records, you are no longer the registered owner. It was your signature on the paperwork, Miss Sokolov.”
“Who’s the new owner, then?”
“That is confidential, Miss. If you’ll excuse me, I’m late for my lunch break.”
She wanted to argue, to scream that her signature had been forged, but her phone began to vibrate in her purse for the hundredth time that afternoon. Muttering a silent prayer, she answered.
“Mama, I’m sorry, I—”
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to contact you for hours!”
“I—”
“Never mind that,” her mother cut in sharply. “What did Alexei see in you, anyway? His lawyer just left the hospital after seeing your father. He’s offering to cover our loans in exchange for you.”
Was it her imagination, or did her mother sound excited?
“He didn’t accept, right? Papa didn’t—”
“What do you mean he didn’t? Do you know how much we owe?”
Anastasia felt a thick wave of nausea, threatening to consume her.
“Papa agreed to make me a w***e for that criminal?” she whispered, unable to believe her own voice.
“You weren’t expecting marriage, were you? Just think of it as what you were doing in America for free, except now you’re helping your family. After all, you’re not a virgin anymore—”
“How could you, Mama?” Anastasia sobbed, uncaring of the people sitting around the small office. “How could you be so cruel? You just sat there and watched Papa ruin me!”
“You reduced yourself the moment you cheated on Dmitri… that good boy—”
“Dmitri cheated on me!”
“He’s a man, Anastasia! Men are not meant to be satisfied with one woman.”
“He cheated on me with a man mama!”
Her mother laughed. “Oh now you’re just being ridiculous. You think we’ll look at you any different if you lie on that boy?”
That’s it, Anastasia was done. Done with her mother’s hypocrisy. All of it.
“I won’t do it.”
“What do you mean you won’t do it?” Her mother growled in stunned disbelief. “Where are you, Anastasia?”
“I’m going back to America, Mama. I’ll live with my sister, Marina. You can w***e in my place for that brute!”
“How dare you—“
She didn’t wait for the bitter reply. she hung up and stumbled blindly toward her car.
She couldn’t believe the depth of her family’s betrayal and cruelty. Not only had they forged her signature to sell land worth thirty million dollars, but they were now selling her to that hairy beast. Blaming her for the company’s downfall when everything was their fault. Their own lavish lifestyle.
The sun was beating down hard as she drove toward Sheremetyevo. She didn’t know how to reach her sister yet, but she knew she couldn't go home. A glance at the dashboard made her groan; she had to pull over at a deserted filling station to fuel up.
Thankfully, there was an ATM. She quickly inserted her card, planning to withdraw every kopek she had to get back to America.
The machine’s beep snapped her gaze to the screen.
To her horror, her balance stared back at her in zeros.
Her heart slammed in her. She glanced around the empty station as night began to fall.
A terrifying realization dawning on her.
She was alone. In the middle of nowhere. Penniless.
A crashing sound made her turn and gasp. There was a man—a haggard, hollow-eyed stranger—smashing the window of her car.
She screamed and lunged at him, trying to stop him from destroying her only way out of Russia. But another came from behind.
“Ooh, what’s a rich girl like you doing out here all alone?”
She whirled and came face to face with an even dirtier smiling face, reeking of piss and alcohol.
She gasped, and the one behind her used the opportunity to grab her, pinning her against the car door.
“Let go of me, you bastards! I’ll have you all arrested!”
“Check it out, rocky. It’s the Sokolov girl. I saw her face on the news last year—the ballet princess. Looks like fresh meat’s on the block, huh?”
She cringed as they laughed and without thinking, she slammed her fist into the one nearest to her.
He staggered, nose bleeding.
“Why, you little b***h!” he cursed. “I’ll make you pay for that! Hold her hands above her head, Antonio!”
She kicked and broke free, trying to get behind the car, but she stumbled. Her head hit the pavement, causing white spots to dance across her vision. That was all it took for them to grab her legs. One descended on her back, already trying to yank her gown up.
“I said let go of me!”
“Stay still, little rich girl. We just want to get our d***s wet.”
Anastasia couldn’t believe this was happening.
She screamed, but a filthy hand covered her mouth. She was about to try one last kick to the groin when the man above her suddenly froze.
He looked up, screaming, trying to back away, but then, a bullet pierced through his skull.
He crashed down right next to Anastasia.
Silence.
Anastasia went still.
There, just five feet away from her in the dark, stood Alexei, in all his beastly ruthlessness. Dressed in a thick white fur coat.
A smoking pistol in hand. Eyes colder than the night air. Behind him, two men stood guard, armed with knives and guns.
Anastasia screamed then, trying to crawl away from the corpse as the reality of everything settled but Alexei bent down and hoisted her up against his shoulder like she weighed nothing.
He gave a wordless order to man on his left, who simply nodded and raised his weapon, firing at the second thug who was currently trying to sprint away from the filling station.
The gun sounded, and the man dropped to the ground like a piece of meat.
Anastasia stared at the bloody m******e on the pavement. The metallic scent of blood mixed with the smell of the thugs, and bile rose in her throat. She couldn't hold it back. She vomited right onto Alexei’s expensive coat.
- Writer
