Page 46 of Sweet Obsession (Savage Vow #1)

LUNA

The air in Bogotá hit me like a thick, humid blanket, but I barely noticed.

My focus was elsewhere, on the promise I’d made to myself—and to Gabriella.

I’d done everything to get here, to be with her again, to protect her from the life she’d been forced into.

The months of planning, the risk of leaving Yakutsk, the distance between me and Misha, it had all led to this moment.

But there was something else weighing on me now, something I couldn’t shake.

I had left him. I had dropped the signed divorce papers in the drawer of his closet, watching them rest there in a finality that felt almost unreal.

Misha. My husband. My obsession. I had walked away from him, left him behind, knowing how much it would hurt, knowing the fire that would light in him, the anger that would fuel him.

The thought of how he’d feel without me, how he’d react to the betrayal.

.. it twisted something in my chest, a knot that refused to loosen.

But I couldn’t turn back.

Twice before, I had escaped him. Each time, he found me, relentless, unyielding, until I was back in his grasp.

But this time, this wasn’t an escape. I hadn’t run; I hadn’t fled in fear.

I had made a choice. And this time, it wasn’t going to be the same.

If Misha found me, when he found me, it wouldn’t be like before.

He couldn’t just take me back. No. He had to follow the right process to win me over again.

He would have to earn me, fight for me. He would have to prove he still deserved me.

I walked through the terminal, my mind spinning between Gabriella’s safety and Misha’s shattered trust. The cartel, the mess I’d left behind, all of it felt like a distant echo compared to the ache inside me. The ache of knowing I wasn’t going back to him, not now, not after everything.

It didn’t matter now. Not yet. But somewhere, deep inside, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life.

And then I saw her.

Gabriella was standing by the curb, waiting for me. She looked almost the same, her chestnut hair still fell in loose waves around her shoulders, and her eyes, once so full of joy, were still warm but shadowed. It was the first time I’d seen her in months, and it felt like a lifetime.

As soon as her eyes met mine, her face lit up. She dropped her bag and ran toward me. I couldn’t help it—I ran to her too, and we collided in a hug that felt like the world had stopped spinning.

“I missed you so much,” she whispered into my shoulder. I felt a sharp pang in my chest, realizing how much I had missed her too.

“I’m here now,” I said, pulling back just enough to look at her face. “Nothing’s going to take me away again.”

Her smile was wide, and for a moment, it felt like we were the only two people in the world. Her presence made everything feel right, even though the weight of our past still hung over us.

But then I noticed it. The faintest flicker of something in her eyes—something that didn’t belong. Something that hadn’t been there when we were younger, when life was simpler, when we had no idea what the world was capable of.

I wanted to ask, but I didn’t. Not yet. We climbed into the car, and Gabriella immediately began chattering about everything and nothing. It was as if she was trying to fill the silence, to pretend that nothing had changed.

I listened, but my thoughts were elsewhere, on the look in her eyes. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had shifted in her, and it wasn’t the kind of shift I wanted to see.

The drive to her house was short, but the tension between us felt heavy. We walked inside, and as she set the bags down and started to make tea, I watched her, searching for answers. I could feel the change in the air.

She sat down at the kitchen table, her fingers nervously tapping against the ceramic cup. “Luna, I... I need to tell you something,” she said quietly, her voice almost cracking.

I set my cup down, all my attention on her. “What is it? You know you can tell me anything.”

She took a deep breath, her eyes searching my face like she was deciding how to approach this. Finally, she spoke. “Yuri... he wasn’t who you thought he was.”

My heart stopped. I hadn’t heard his name in so long. Yuri. My first love, the man who had betrayed me, who had been a lie from the very beginning. But I had never suspected what Gabriella was about to say.

“What do you mean?” I whispered, a lump forming in my throat.

Gabriella’s eyes fell to her hands, twisting around each other. “He... he hurt me, Luna. For years.”

I blinked, struggling to process her words. “What? Hurt you how?”

She swallowed, her voice trembling. “He raped me. He started when I was fourteen. He told me... he said if I ever told anyone, he’d kill me.

” She paused, and I could see the pain in her eyes, the heaviness she had carried with her for all this time.

“That’s why I could never tell you. Why I couldn’t speak when you asked why I cried.

You always thought it was about him, but it wasn’t. It was about what he was doing to me.”

The world around me seemed to tilt, the room spinning.

The cup in my hand threatened to fall, but I couldn’t focus on anything but her words.

I wanted to scream, wanted to tear the walls down, to break everything.

I wanted to hate her for not telling me sooner, but I couldn’t.

I understood why she hadn’t. She was a victim, too.

“I had no idea,” I said, my voice breaking. “I never knew...”

Gabriella wiped at her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. “I know you didn’t. But I couldn’t... I couldn’t let anyone know. Not even you.”

The weight of everything she was saying pressed on my chest. The man I had loved, who I thought had loved me, had been the monster who had destroyed my sister. He had hurt her in the most unimaginable ways, and I had been blind to it.

“He never loved you, Luna,” Gabriella said, her voice low and steady. “He used you to get closer to our father. He never cared about you. You were just a pawn in his game to spy on him.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. I had always thought Yuri had loved me.

The jealousy he showed when I was around other men, the way he would hold me close, kiss me like I was his world, it had all felt real.

I had ignored the red flags, convinced myself that it was just who he was, that he loved me in his own fucked-up way.

But no. It had all been a lie. A game.

I clenched my fists on the table, my nails digging into my palms. “I should’ve known,” I muttered, a dark fury rising within me. “I should’ve seen it. If I had, I would’ve killed him myself. I would’ve put a bullet in his skull, Gabriella.”

She shook her head, her eyes pleading. “Luna, it’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”

But I couldn’t shake it. The rage, the betrayal, the shame—it all mixed together like poison. I wanted to break something, anything, to channel the anger that burned in my chest.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice hoarse. “I should’ve been there for you. I should’ve protected you.”

Gabriella took a deep breath and wiped away her tears. “I’m better now. I’ve been going to therapy. It helps.”

I nodded, trying to hold it together. But there was more, I could see it in her eyes. “What else? What else did he do?”

Gabriella hesitated, then spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Before he died... he told me something. He said he killed Stepan, Misha’s brother, fifteen years ago.

And that he was going to kill Misha, too—before Misha ever had the chance to leave Colombia.

He said he was going to make sure I was his.

That I was never meant to be with Misha.

He even said it when Misha came to marry me, before he changed his mind and decided on you. ”

Everything froze. Stepan. Misha’s brother. The man who had haunted Misha’s every thought. The one who Misha had searched for, the one whose death had torn him apart. Yuri had killed him. I could feel the pieces of the puzzle falling into place, the truth crashing down on me like a tidal wave.

I gasped, my breath catching. “He killed Stepan?” The words barely left my mouth before the realization hit me with full force. Yuri had been the one to pull the trigger.

I had always known it was my father who had sold Stepan out—that the Vargas Cartel, with whom he had gone to Colombia for business, had betrayed him.

But hearing it now, knowing Yuri had been the one to end his life, shattered me in a way I hadn’t prepared for.

The weight of it was suffocating. How could I have ever known?

How could I have missed it all this time?

“Yuri... he told me he killed Mother, too,” Gabriella whispered, her voice trembling. “He instilled so much fear in me. I was terrified that if I ever spoke out, if anyone ever knew what he was doing to me, I’d be the next one to die.”

I felt a chill sweep through me as Gabriella’s words echoed in my mind. Yuri killed Mother. The gravity of it sank into my chest, a weight I wasn’t sure I could carry.

He was the one who had murdered Stepan, the one whose death had broken Misha beyond recognition.

A memory I hadn’t fully understood slammed into my consciousness, a rush of fragmented images from my nightmares. My mother, Stepan, that night...

I had always seen the fragments—vivid flashes, like a broken reel of film. That night, I had heard my mother’s voice, frantic as she tried to shield Stepan. I hadn’t known why, but she’d been protecting him, hiding him, maybe from someone.

The gunshot came next, followed by a sickening thud. Stepan’s blood had soaked into the carpet, pooling around him, but my mind had always blocked the face of the shooter. My head had snapped around as I screamed in terror, and that’s when I was hit—my own skull cracking under the force.

When I’d come to hours later, I woke in a haze, my mother’s blood staining the floor around me. Stepan was gone, his body left like an offering to whoever had taken him.

I had thought I had caused her death, that my scream or the struggle had brought the bullet down upon her, that somehow, I was the one who had doomed her. But the truth had been far worse. Yuri had been the one to pull the trigger.

Tears blurred my vision as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Yuri had been the one to kill Stepan—and likely my mother, too. He had terrorized Gabriella, destroyed my family, and manipulated us all.

Rage, like a firestorm, began to build within me. He had gotten away with it all—but not anymore. Yuri’s grave deserved to be burned, his memory turned to ash.

And the Vargas Cartel? They were his family, his blood. If they were to stand by him, then they, too, would burn. They would all pay for what he had done to us.

I turned toward Gabriella, my face burning with anger and sorrow. She didn’t deserve this life, none of us did. But I would make sure Yuri’s sins were repaid—and if I had to tear through every last piece of his world to do it, I would.