I nodded. Would she hate me for what my father had done? Would this be the end? I wasn’t sure but nevertheless I owed her the truth.
She frowned as she thought about the things I had said. “I hadn’t known your father was involved. But the rest I had suspected. I still don’t understand what’s taken the Bellucci’s so long to act? If they had been after the Varela family, why didn’t they make their move on them after my disappearance?”
“I don’t know, Anastasia, but if you want to find out, I will help you. There’s more, too. Finch told me about the death threat you received.” I hated telling her this, driving what might be an immovable wedge between my love and my brother. But I had to tell her everything. There would be no lies between us, even though I wanted to protect her as much as possible.
“Finch told you?” She asked, visibly confused. “But how could he know about that? Unless...”
“He was the one to send it—”
“—to scare me away from you, so that you didn’t get caught up in my family mess.” She finished what I was going to say and nodded deeply as if this revelation made perfect sense. Maybe it did, but I was still stuck on it being completely fucked. “He’s been looking out for you this entire time. I understand now.”
I followed her gaze out to the ocean, where the tide was ebbing away from us gradually. I wished I was inside her head, that I could know what she was thinking as she watched the waves. She was right about Finch, he’d been an asshole to protect me. He was also just kind of an asshole in general, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring that up right now…
I wanted this day to be about her, about her needs, her past and her future, and whatever part I got to play in that. I knew, no matter where her familial drama took her, I knew that she would come back to me. At least, I’d come to truly believe that.
“Come for a walk with me.” I finished off my bottle of water. The mood was too heavy. Grabbing her hand I stood and gathered the towels. We made our way back to the boardwalk in comfortable, thoughtful silence.
She led me towards the wooden pier that led to the lighthouse. In the shade under the boards, she sighed. It was like being in the sun had been holding back her tears.
“I don’t want to go back to them, Nikolai,” she said, eyes becoming misty as she looked up at me.
At that moment, I’d have done anything to make it better. To soothe her pain. I pulled her into my arms and kissed the top of her head. She tilted her face towards me and I kissed the tears from her wet cheeks, then kissed her lips.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” I reminded her.
“I have no choice but to go back. I have to finish this,” she said, blinking away the tears. “I have to make it right.”
“I overheard them talking about me a few nights ago…” Ana said, looking out to sea again.
“Rachel and Kaleb?” I asked, my interest had been piqued. She nodded as confirmation.
“They were talking about whether they trust me enough to start arranging the marriage. Kaleb is worried that I’ve been working with you all this time, to screw them over.” She barked a quiet, bitter laugh and turned back to me. “I hadn’t thought he’d be the one to suspect me, but he mentioned it. Rachel was insistent on the marriage. I was surprised, I guess, I figured it would have been Kaleb who wanted it more.”
I ground my teeth together at the mention of the ‘marriage’ that was definitely not happening. Instead of showing my anger, I tried to put myself in her shoes. “And Ambrose? I’m assuming he wasn’t privy to this conversation.”
She shook her head before explaining, “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in there, but I’m not certain. He was mad about something last night though. He was drunk when he came in, he was yelling at Rachel when I confronted him. He didn’t take too kindly to that, but he stormed off into his room without any more drama.”
“You should have told me last night, I’d have come back for you, ” I murmured into her hair. “I don’t want you there at all, but especially if it’s not safe.”
“I am safe, it’s just…” She hugged me tighter and breathed audibly. “I just miss home. But I’m safe - I can take care of myself,” she said in an effort to be reassuring.
I smiled and looked along the beach over the top of her head. I knew she could, but I also knew that I didn’t want her to have to. I wanted to look after her. I wanted to protect her. She’d been without protection, without a real family, for so long that I wanted to give her that at the very least, if not so much more.
I sighed out loud for what seemed to be the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes. I didn’t want to leave him. That was my only thought as we drove back to my parent’s house. Well, that and the fact that he was indeed dropping me off. I had half expected Nikolai to kidnap me again and whisk me back to Boston. I wouldn’t have disapproved of that idea, but he played the gentlemen card perfectly.
I tried to be discreet as I watched him drive. I couldn’t believe the man in front of me was the same person I ran from only months ago. Everything had changed, my whole life had been shaken and stirred and completely scrambled. I couldn’t love my new life more if I tried, well except maybe if I
