Page 65 of Sweet Deception

I smirked through my panting breaths. “Coward. You need a gun to fight a woman?”

His fingers clenched the handle. Then, with an angry growl, he threw the gun aside.

“Fine. Fight me.”

I didn’t move. I was exhausted.

I exhaled, voice low. “I don’t have to. I apologize for taking my anger out on you. Just walk away.”

He laughed. “After that humiliation? You think I’ll just walk away?”

“Please.”

I didn’t know if I was begging for him to leave or just pleading with the universe to let me breathe.

Gleb’s words still rang in my head.

I’d be sent back to Italy in pieces. And he wouldn’t stop it.

He cared enough to risk his life for a damn block of cheese but not enough to keep me alive.

He let me sleep in his arms when I was sick but wouldn’t touch me like a real husband.

He would kill any man who dared lay a hand on me but still planned to let me die when this marriage ended.

It hurt.

I pressed a hand to my chest, inhaling sharply. It didn't help. It still felt like something was crushing me from the inside.

I hate him.

I hate all of them.

But most of all. I hated the way some foolish, desperate part of me still wanted him to care.

Chapter 14

ANNA

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“I saw the way he was holding you,” Yegor’s words cut through my misery like a blade.

When I looked at him, he was smirking but his eyes burned with something darker. “My father’s dead because of you, and you think you can just sit there and act like you’re untouchable?” He laughed coldly, then pressed his tongue to his bloody lip.

I sank onto the seat, feeling drained. “If he killed your father, it has nothing to do with me. I hate him.”

Yegor flashed a wicked grin. “You still have to pay for hitting me.”

“I already apologized,” I said, exhausted. “What more do you want?”

Before he could answer, another voice cut in.

“What’s going on?”

I turned to see Arseny, Yegor’s brother, stepping forward. His gaze flicked to Yegor’s broken nose, and amusement danced in his eyes.

“She hit me,” Yegor grumbled.