Chapter 5
1258 Words
ISABELLA'S POV
"You're not Elena," he agreed, his voice flat and dead. "Elena was a woman. You're a child. A nineteen-year-old girl who got her feelings confused. Who thought one night of s*x meant something it didn't."
Each word was designed to wound and destroy.
And they were working.
"You don't mean that." But my voice wavered, with uncertainty. "Viktor, please. Don't do this."
"I'm doing what I should have done last night." He walked to the door, giving me his back like I wasn't worth looking at anymore. "I'm ending this before it goes any further. You're going back to university. You're going to finish your degree, meet people your own age, and live your life."
"What about you?" I asked desperately. "What about us?"
He paused at the door, his hand on the handle but still wouldn't turn around.
"There is no us, Isabella. There never was."
The words hit me like a out of control train, flying bullet.
"Go get dressed," he continued, using his cold and authoritative Pakhan voice that doesn't tolerate questions. "Your car leaves in two hours. Pack your things and leave my sight."
"Viktor..."
"That's an order."
Then he opened the door and walked out, closing it behind him with a quiet click that sounded like a thunder in my heart.
I stood there, naked and shaking, staring at that closed door. Waiting for him to come back and tell me this was some kind of test, or some kind of cruel joke.
But he didn't come back.
The reality crashed over me in waves, each one threatening to pull me under.
It was a mistake.
You're a child.
It meant nothing.
There is no us.
My legs gave out and I sank to the floor, my whole body shaking with sobs that tore from somewhere deep in my chest. It is an ugly, raw sounds that I tried to muffle against my knees but couldn't contain.
Three years. Three years of loving him. Three years of waiting for him to see me as more than Roman's daughter.
One night of finally having him.
Only for him to destroy me the morning.
I don't know how long I stayed on that floor. Time lost all meaning. The sun rose higher and people woke up around me. I can hear the staff moved through the hallways, their footsteps carefully avoiding the study where everyone surely knew what had happened.
Eventually, my tears ran dry and my sobs faded to shuddering breaths. And in that silence, something shifted inside me.
Yes, I was heartbroken. Yes, I felt like I was dying. Yes, every word Viktor had said was carved into my skin like scars I'd carry forever.
But underneath all that pain, something else was growing.
Rage.
Pure, white-hot, cleansing rage.
How DARE he.
He'd let me seduce him. Let me hide under his desk and pour out my heart to him. He'd kissed me like I was oxygen. Touched me like I was precious. Made love to me...no, f****d me...with an intensity that made me believe it meant something.
And then he'd crushed me like I was nothing.
Like I was just some convenient p***y to scratch an itch.
The anger felt better than the despair. I grabbed onto it with both hands and let it pull me to my feet.
My red dress lay crumpled on the floor like roadkill. I grabbed it and yanked it on, not caring where my zippers caught and the tear of my fabric. Good. Let it tear. Let everything tear.
I caught sight of myself in the mirror and barely recognized the woman staring back. Mascara streaked down my cheeks in black rivers. My hair was a tangled disaster. My lips were swollen. And there on my neck is a dark purple bruise where Viktor had bitten me.
Physical release. Nothing more.
I wanted to scream. To break things. To find Viktor and claw his lying eyes out.
But I was Roman Volkov's daughter. And Roman Volkov's daughter didn't beg or grovel. I won't give the man who destroyed me the satisfaction of seeing me broken.
I walked out of his study with my head held high despite the tears still sliding down my cheeks. I matched down the hallway where staff quickly averted their eyes. To my bedroom where I grabbed the largest suitcase I owned and started throwing clothes into it with angry, violent movements.
Two hours, he'd said. Your car leaves in two hours.
Fine. I'd leave.
But not how he expected.
I left the phone he'd given me, the credit cards in his name and anything that would let him track me, control me, or find me.
But I won't leave empty-handed.
I knew where Viktor kept his emergency cash. I'd memorized the combination to his safe because I'd memorized everything about him like the lovesick fool I am.
Was. Past tense.
The safe opened on the first try. I grabbed every euro, every dollar, every ruble. Fifty thousand euros, maybe more. Payment for my virginity. For my shattered heart and three years of my life wasted on a man who saw me as nothing.
I was heading for the front door, suitcase in hand and purse heavy with stolen money, when I heard his voice behind me.
"Bella. Wait."
I froze. Everything in me screamed to keep walking, but my traitorous body wouldn't move.
"I..." He paused, and something in his voice sounded almost like regret. Almost. "Have a safe trip back to university."
A safe trip.
That's what he had to say. After taking my virginity, breaking my heart and destroying my entire world, he wanted me to have a safe f*****g trip.
Something inside me snapped.
I turned slowly, deliberately, and let him see everything. The devastation. The rage. The girl he'd killed with his cruelty.
"You know what the sad thing is, Viktor?" My voice was eerily calm. Nothing like the girl who'd whispered 'I love you' in his arms just hours ago. "I thought you were different. I thought you were brave. Strong. Honorable."
I watched him flinch and clench his jaw.
Good. Let him hurt.
"But you're just a coward." I took a step closer, close enough to see his eyes darken. "You're hiding behind my father's memory because you're too afraid to admit you feel something for me. Too terrified to love anyone because you might lose them. So you push everyone away first."
"Bella..."
"I hope your fear keeps you warm at night, Viktor Konstantin." I brushed past him, so close I could smell his cologne, and feel the heat of his body. "Because it's all you're going to have."
I made it to the front door before he called out to me one last time.
"Where will you go?"
I didn't turn around or give him anything.
"Anywhere you're not."
Then I walked out into the morning sun, leaving behind the compound, the man I loved, and every piece of my shattered heart.
The gates opened. I walked through it without looking back.
I flagged down a taxi, my whole body numb. "Airport," I told the driver.
I am going to take the first flight out of here and I don't care where.
As the taxi pulled away, I looked back one final time.
Viktor stood at the gates, watching me leave. He is truly letting me go.
I hate you, I thought as fresh tears streamed down my face. I hate you, Viktor Konstantin. I hope I never see you again.
- Writer
