Page 24 of Pregnant Bratva Wife (Vadim Bratva #13)

Autumn stood right before me, and I had never in my life seen her this angry. I tried to find her somewhere, see even a hint of the sweet Autumn I had come to know, but all I saw in her eyes was fury.

Like Autumn had withdrawn. The raw hurt in her eyes made my throat go dry.

The truth was clawing its way out, and I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to watch her look at me like I was a monster.

“You paid them,” she hurled the accusation at me.

I wasn’t ready. I feared what she’d think of me. “Paid who?” I asked like a weasel.

“Don’t do that,” she snapped. “I saw him. The loan shark, Igor Petrov, who went after Megan. The same man you just had a meeting with. Don’t lie to me, Federico. Tell me what that man was talking about.”

My jaw locked.

She wasn’t guessing.

She knew . But maybe, I thought, I could still find a way out of this mess.

“I don’t know what you think you heard—”

“ I know exactly what I heard, ” she bit out. “And now, it’s all starting to make sense. Megan’s money didn’t just go missing. You had someone steal it from her dorm. You orchestrated that entire fucking mess so I’d come crawling to you for help. Didn’t you?”

“Autumn—”

“Did you set me up?” Her voice cracked.

I hesitated. For how long, exactly, did I think I could get away with the lies?

Her eyes widened. “Oh my God. It was you.”

“It’s not what you think,” I said, stepping toward her with a desperation to be heard.

She backed away as if I were contagious. “You orchestrated my entire financial ruin to trap me into marrying you!”

My brain scrambled for more words, but came up empty.

What was the point?

She already knew.

I looked at her, at the woman I’d spent the last few weeks falling into like quicksand, and I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her any longer. I knew it was wrong. She was right, and to convince her otherwise would mean calling her crazy.

Which she wasn’t.

“Not your ruin,” I admitted quietly. “I never wanted that.”

“So you arranged it?” she gasped. “You had men steal from Megan, so I had no out? You knew. You…you spied on me. You knew of all my troubles and manipulated them to your advantage…” Her voice weakened, died out, like her brain couldn’t fathom the conclusions it had reached.

I felt a stab in my chest when I saw the tears gathering in her eyes.

“Yes.”

The word fell like a guillotine.

“Jesus Christ.” She pressed a hand to her mouth, her body physically recoiling. “Why?”

I rubbed my face, feeling exhaustion creep into my bones. “I don’t know Autumn. I just…couldn’t get you out of my mind.”

“So you stalked me?”

“I made inquiries,” I corrected, though the distinction felt hollow even to me. “I found out about your situation.”

“And you thought, what? That you’d play hero by creating a problem you could solve?” Her voice rose. “You had someone steal money from my sister’s dorm room? You sent men to threaten us?”

“I needed a reason for you to come to me,” I admitted. “I made sure they never actually hurt you—”

“Oh, how fucking noble!” she spat. “You didn’t let them hurt us, just terrorize us!”

I flinched. “I wanted to help you. I just needed a way in.”

“A way in?” She let out a bitter laugh. “You mean you wanted me, and when I turned down your insane offer to marry me, you manufactured a crisis so I’d be desperate enough to say yes?”

Put like that, it sounded insane.

Cruel.

She screamed. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was? How scared Megan was? We thought we were going to end up dead in an alley somewhere!”

Shame burned hot in my chest. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about it that way. I’d justified it as necessary. As helping her, ultimately. But hearing the pain in her voice now, I couldn’t hide from what I’d done.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it.

“Sorry?” She shook her head in disbelief.

I stepped toward her, reaching out. “Autumn, please—”

She backed away again. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare touch me.”

I dropped my hand. “I know it was wrong. But everything since then has been real. What’s happened between us—”

“Was built on a lie!” she shouted. “How can I trust anything now?”

I had no answer for that.

She shook her head, tears finally spilling down her cheeks. “I thought... I was starting to think maybe this could work. That maybe what we had was real. But it was all just another one of your schemes.”

“It wasn’t,” I said softly. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“But you did, and I can’t forgive that,” she said in a choked voice.

She turned to leave, and I moved to follow her. “Autumn, wait—”

My phone rang. I ignored it.

“Please,” I said, trying to keep up, hating the desperation in my voice. “Just let me explain—”

My phone buzzed again, more insistently. Then my emergency line started ringing too.

I hesitated, torn between answering and following her.

She didn’t wait for me to make a decision. She walked out, slamming the door behind her.

I nearly went after her, but both phones kept ringing. With a curse, I answered the emergency line.

“What?” I barked.

“Boss, we’ve got a situation,” a lieutenant’s voice came through. “One of our shipments was hit. Caspian’s calling everyone in.”

Fuck.

***

By the time we got the attackers off our backs, night had fallen. It took more than three hours to get our injured men to hospitals, to calculate the damages we faced, and to send spies on the ground for intel about what the hell happened.

I was tired. Exhausted.

But I drove home faster than was safe.

I needed to see Autumn. I’d explain everything, even though I didn’t have the right word for ‘obsessed.’ But that’s what it had been and remained.

There was something about Autumn that told me, at first sight itself, that she was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

I’d beg for her forgiveness if I had to. I’d never begged for anything in my life, but for her, I would.

When I got home, the house was too quiet. The staff wasn’t around. Had she sent them off? Did she want privacy? All the lights were off, save for her bedroom.

I expected a fight.

I expected fire, fury, and slammed doors.

And I was fine with it. As long as we spoke, I was fine with it.

“Autumn?” I called out, taking the stairs two at a time.

I knocked on her bedroom door but didn’t hear her acknowledge it. Still, she was inside. I could hear her.

Fuck it, I thought, and barged right in.

She was packing, throwing clothes into her suitcase.

She didn’t look at me when I stepped into the room. Didn’t speak. Just folded another sweater and placed it in her suitcase.

I stood in the doorway, throat tight. “Autumn—”

“Don’t,” she said. Her voice wasn’t angry.

It was empty .

That scared me more than anything.

“I know you hate me right now. I know what I did was—fucked up,” I forced out, stepping closer. “But I need you to understand—I only did it because I couldn’t stay away from you. And you wouldn’t have come to me unless I made you need me.”

Then she looked up—and I wished she hadn’t.

Because of the pain in her eyes? It shattered me.

“I looked at you like you were the only safe place I had left,” she whispered. “And you made me feel like I was crazy for trusting you.”

“Don’t say that.”

She smiled—bitter, broken. “It hurts to look at you.”

That’s what did it.

I didn’t argue after that. Didn’t beg.

Didn’t touch her.

I did this to her. I broke her trust, and if I asked her to stay, it would be for purely selfish reasons. I saw, right then and there, that she couldn’t stand the sight of me.

And though it broke my heart, crumbled my heart into pieces, I stood by and watched her pack.

“Where will you go?”

She didn’t look up. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters,” I whispered, not asking her to stay but for something else. “Autumn, please, can we talk about this?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Her voice was flat, lifeless. “You’ve said enough already.”

I felt a thousand knives stab into my chest. I’d taken someone bright and strong and put that shadow in her eyes.

I stepped back. “Okay.”

She looked up, surprised. “Okay?”

“Go,” I said, the word feeling like glass in my throat. “If that’s what you need.”

For a moment, something flickered in her eyes—a softening, perhaps. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

“But please let me help you find somewhere safe to stay.” My voice was hoarse.

“I don’t want your help.”

“I know,” I said. “But I’m offering it anyway. For my peace of mind, if nothing else.”

She hesitated. “Let me call Beatrice,” I offered. “You can stay there until you figure things out.”

“I don’t need charity.”

“It’s not charity,” I said. “It’s the bare minimum of what I owe you.”

She didn’t say another word. Zipped up her bags.

I just stepped aside.

Let her pass.

Let her leave.

And once the door closed behind her, I sank onto the bed and called Beatrice. Maybe she’d be able to convince Autumn to head over. I explained everything, and my beautiful, kind sister called me an idiot before cutting the call, before I could even say goodbye.

Of course, Beatrice helped.

I hung up, and for the first time in my life, I had no plan. No strategy. No next move.

I’d finally found something I couldn’t take by force or manipulation, or clever maneuvering. Something that had to be freely given.

Her trust. Her forgiveness. Her heart.

All I could do now was wait and hope that someday, I’d have the chance to earn them back.