Page 110 of Sins and Virtue

Like?

Like he cares for some goddamn reason.

What? What are you even talking about?

Look, there’s just a feeling I can’t shake about this guy. He feels so familiar, but we’ve never met him.

Sure as hell we haven’t. Anything I see, you see too?

Fuck, I don’t know. Figure this out yourself. Do something for once.

My head spun in circles. “Who are you? Why do you care so much about me?”

“This is not the time nor the place,” He gazed over his shoulder and at every exit, nearly paranoid. “You shouldn’t know where you come from nor who your parents—”

The mention of my past brought me to lean forward, bringing my arms on the table. “What do you know about them? What do you know about my past?”

He ran a trembling hand over his chin. It was only then I noticed a bracelet replica of mine, but it held the colors blue, green, red, silver, orange, and purple. “I’ve said too much already.”

No, I needed to know. I had to know. “Salvatore—”

“We’ll talk about it once you leave.” He hesitates to continue. “That’s if you leave.”

He said as he turned his back and left, walking into the street filled with a large crowd, becoming seamlessly like any otherperson until he disappeared completely, leaving behind a storm of unanswered questions.

My brain pulsated, wondering about the grueling process.

Wondering if I’d ever truly be free?

Chapter 17

Blair

“I’ll be gone for a while,” Konstantin said, adjusting the Timberland boots onto his feet, tying the laces after, and then standing up, placing a pistol that was on the side of the bed behind the back of his jeans and black t-shirt. His hair was wet; a small curl trickled over his forehead.

Standing at the corner, next to the tall drawer in my gothic black dress paired with satin white heels as I bit my nails. Naturally I needed to know where he was tending to go so early in the morning. It’s not like he had a job or anywhere important to be.

“Where are you going?” My voice was low, not wanting to irritate him.

“Somewhere. I’ll be back soon, kotyonok.” And without another word he left, leaving me like the falling autumn leaves behind as the cruel winter comes.

As the click-clack of my heels echoed against the stone walls of the convent, I walked absent-mindedly, only thinking abouthim. The gust of wind tugged through the stone arch and shifted my veil as it flowed behind me.

He didn’t leave. He didn’t leave, right? He wouldn’t. At least not without saying goodbye. Without saying something to me. Right? He promised.

I chewed at my bottom lip at the thought of it.

I mean, it’s not like he owed me anything, but the last several weeks meant something, especially after the small moments we shared, revealing our past and dark secrets, the most intimate and complex layers of ourselves, and still after all that, he wouldn’t leave before saying goodbye, especially after confessing his undying love to me. I love you wasn’t just some cheap sentiment you tossed out, at least it shouldn’t be. Saying I love you was committing yourself to another soul, choosing to battle alongside each other through the good and bad and the unprecedented. Accepting one another as you are, knowing each other’s secrets, and not judging them. It meant that you fight for what you have and never let go. It meant to think, dream, want, need, and hope for them.

And as a girl who wasn’t raised with love and trying so hard to find it, even with the father of my child— but I knew it was only fondness because neither of us knew what it was like. I only came to know it when I had Ollie because for the first time in the world I had something that was not only mine but so precious that I’d never let him go and I’ll kill and die for. And now with Konstantin, this flight of emotion surged again.

“Yoohoo, Blair!” Marie waved her hand in my face as she spoke her soft Italian singsong.

I fluttered my lashes, noticing I had blanked while she ranted about the next church activity.

“Sorry,” I lied, not really caring but out of consideration for her. “What were you saying?”

She crossed her arms across her chest, her brows sitting low as she sighed.