Page 91 of Forgotten Vows

I wanted this over with. I’d shown my hand too soon. He seemed to view me as the pathetic, quiet, and timid girl I once was. In the years since I ran, I’d grown into a fierce woman.

But I was removed from the room. I’d overplayed my hand. He would take this time to reassess, and I was already sick of being here at all.

When the men shoved me into another room, I resumed pacing and hating the man who had ruined my life.

Yet, as I scanned my surroundings and spotted an old laptop in the corner, stashed in a box like it was going to be thrown out with this emptied-out office space, I grabbed it and searched for a power cord.

“Please, please work.”

I didn’t need Ivan to save me. I could handle this fight on my own. I wasn’t running. I was here to fight and kill. But I needed to get out of here once the deed was done.

When the laptop was powered on, I hurried to find an internet connection. It was a dinosaur of a machine, but I got through and logged into my email. I’d never forgotten my college log-ins. I didn’t dare use my normal email that my father already knew about somehow. He had to be watching it if he knew howto send that first video to me. Instead, I logged into my old college email server and found Ivan’s old address.

He still had it. I saw it on his phone. All his correspondence was funneled to one main account.

I’m at the cabin near the expressway.

Thinking back to the landmarks and route here, a little further from the city, I tapped in a way to find me and sent it.

Relief filled me that I’d secured an escape plan. Ivan would come. He had to. And when he arrived, I wanted the pleasure of being able to tell him that I’d killed my father. That no one could stop us from being a family. Luka wouldn’t stand in our way. I wondered if he ever would’ve. The Dubinins valued family and stoodwitheach other, not against them.

As soon as I closed the laptop, the door opened again.

Fuck.

Fearful that the men saw me with the computer and would know that I was trying to contact someone, I regretted not paying attention faster. I hadn’t even been listening for anyone to come, so stuck on the urgency of emailing Ivan.

But it didn’t matter.

It was time. This was the moment I’d been waiting for.

Eight long years of hiding from this man, and I was here to face him once and for all.

The men brought me to my father again. And this time, they backed out of the room and left me alone with him.

Big mistake.

Huge.

My father was taller and still larger than me despite his injuries, but he didn’t possess nearly the same hatred that I did for him.

“You stupid whore,” he said, turning to lash out at me, striking me with a long staff.

As agony lanced through me at the impact of the metal rod hitting my forearm, the way I’d tried to deflect his attack, I realized it was a fire poker, a missing tool from the rack near the fireplace that collected dust and spiders.

“You really thought you could hide all this time and avoid my punishment.”

Again and again, he struck at me. I wasn’t defenseless, but no matter how many times I lunged at him to tackle him and strangle him with my bare hands, he stabbed the fire poker at me and maintained the upper hand.

He had a weapon, but there were none in this vacant, bare room for me to use.

“That just shows how stupid you are. Stupid like a fucking cow to sell off as a broodmare.”

I let his evil words roll off my back. Nothing he could say would be true. Any insult he threw at me wouldn’t change fate. He would die today, and there wasn’t a single plea or slur that he could give me that would save him.

Go on.

Get it out.