Page 51 of Debt to the Mafia King

She waved a hand between us. “Don’t you worry about that. If you want to learn, I will teach you. No wonder he chose you as his wife, Leah. I can completely see why.”

I stared at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

“You’re so much like her, like Corrinne,” she added silently. “The fire and drive, but still sweet and loving. You give your all to the people you care about, just like she did, just like Viktor does.”

“You think I’m like Corrinne?” My voice was clipped.

“A little yes. But if you come back tomorrow, we will get started. And hopefully you won’t burn the house down.”

“Oh, I’ll be here tomorrow, don’t you worry.” I slid from the stool and headed toward the door. “Thank you for talking to me today.”

Silently, I went back to my room to try to digest what I had just found out. Viktor’s abandonment issues were one thing, but it was Cathy’s last words that echoed around in my head.

She thought Viktor had been drawn to me because I reminded him of his mother, and maybe I did, but there was one major difference between us.

I would never abandon the people I loved.

Not ever.

Trudging up the stairs, I headed back to my room and froze. The door was ajar when I remembered closing it, and it couldn’t have been to clean it because one of the staff had done that this morning.

Holding my breath, I let my eyes wander around the room, which was my prison, and nothing looked different. Nothing except the flash of red on my dressing table. Warily I walked towards it, and my fingers shook as I touched the petals of the red rose.

Velvety, warm, and placed right in front of the picture of a beautiful older woman, I could now guess was Viktor’s mother.

Picking up the silver frame, I studied her image. She was beautiful, but she didn’t really look like me. She was more refined and more elegant than I could ever hope to be.

Plus, she had left her child. I would never do that.

I placed the heavy frame down on the wood. I couldn’t stand to look at her face and turned my attention back to the single red rose.

Had it been placed there as some sort of shrine to her or for me to find?

And if Viktor had left it for me, what did it mean?

Chapter Eighteen

Viktor

“What?” Pushing open the kitchen door, I was enveloped with thick grey smoke. “What is going on in here?” Clamping a hand over my mouth, I coughed loudly, and three pairs of guilty eyes lifted to meet mine.

Instantly, my gaze found Leah’s.

There was a smudge of what looked like flour on her cheek.

I stared at her, and she stared right back. Her lips opened like she was going to say something, but not a sound came out.

“Are you ladies trying to burn the house down or something?” Waving the smoke away, I moved through the room to open the windows wide before the smoke set off the smoke alarms.

“Viktor, it’s—” Cathy stuttered. “Leah is just helping us.”

I already knew that. For the last week, at least, every time I had gone looking for my wife, I had been informed she had disappeared into the kitchen.

At first, it had infuriated me because why would a wife of mine be doing the jobs of the staff, but then I heard her laughter.

A fresh, clean tinkering laugh, a real one, and not the kind that she forced out when we ate together, and I had realized she washappy, really happy, and I couldn’t bring myself to stop that.

“Help you do what? Smoke us out? Burn the house down?” I asked, and my voice came out rougher than I meant.