Page 2 of Nine Months to Love

“By you?”

“By his father.” Her expression hardens. “Matvey was very good at teaching lessons. Usually with his fists.”

I blink. “Stefan never mentioned?—”

“Of course not. Why would he? It would make him seem weak, and that’s another thing Stefan does: He makes sure that no one ever sees him as weak.” She sets the tablet aside. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. You must be uncomfortable. Those cuffs...”

She stands and walks over to me. From her pocket, she produces a small key.

“I’m going to remove these. You’re not a prisoner here, Olivia. You’re a guest. Free to leave whenever you want.”

“Really?”

“Really.” The cuffs click open and fall away. “Though I hope you’ll stay long enough to hear my side of things.”

I rub my wrists, feeling the blood flow return. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

“You shouldn’t. You should listen, evaluate, and make your own decisions.” She returns to her chair. “That’s all I ask.”

“Stefan said you betrayed his father. Had an affair with his uncle.”

“Both true. But, like most truths, incomplete.”

There’s not a drop of shame in her voice, no trace of defensiveness. I want to call her crazy, but it’s simply not true. She looks more calm, cool, and collected than anyone I’ve ever met.I’mthe crazy one by comparison.

Natalia pours herself tea from a pot I hadn’t noticed before into china cups, delicate as eggshells. She offers me one and I accept, if only because I need something to do with my hands.

“Matvey Safonov was a brutal man,” she begins. “Brilliant in business, ruthless with enemies, but at home...” She pauses, stirs her tea. “At home, he was a monster.”

“He hit you?”

“‘Hit’ is such a small word for what he did.” She touches her collarbone absently. “The first time was three weeks after our wedding. I laughed at something his brother Vasily said at dinner. Matvey waited until everyone left, then taught me thoroughly not to embarrass him.”

The tea tastes like flowers and honey, but I barely register it. The nasty flavor of her story is all I can sense.

“I was so young and foolish. He had me pregnant within the year. I thought having Stefan would change things, make Matvey softer.” She shakes her head. “It made him worse. Now, he had two people to control.”

“Stefan never said?—”

“Stefan was so young, sweetheart. I tried to shield him, but children see everything, don’t they?” Her voice catches and a film of tears covers her eyes before she blinks it away. “He’d watch from the stairs sometimes. Those big eyes taking it all in… It broke my heart so many times that I stopped even trying to put the pieces back together.”

I picture it—a small, frail Stefan, wide-eyed, alone, afraid in the shadows at the foot of the stairs as his father raised his fists over his mother’s cowering form… and I shiver in a way that goes deeper than skin, deeper than bone.

“Vasily was different,” Natalia continues. “Gentle like Matvey never was, kind like Matvey would never be. He’d check on me after Matvey’s episodes. Bring ice for the bruises. Eventually...”

“You fell in love.”

“I fell intosurvival,” she corrects firmly. “Love was a luxury I couldn’t afford. I didn’t eventrydreaming of something that pure. But Vasily offered a life where every night didn’t end with a fist in my ribs.”

“So you had an affair.”

She nods, lips pursed, gaze distant. “Matvey was easier to bear when I had somewhere else to put my heart. I could take anything when I knew that there was someone else in my corner. That I wasn’t all alone.”

“How did Stefan find out?”

“He didn’t have to. Matvey knew. He’d known for months before he did anything about it.” Her hand trembles as she sets down her cup. “He was waiting for the right moment to maximize damage.”

“What kind of damage?”