Now I couldn’t live without Gavril. We were going to have a child together. We had a future, or some version of one at least.
He was willing to change his Bratva’s dealings for me. If that wasn’t love at its best, then I didn’t know what was.
Sliding my hands under the water, I wetted them and brought them up to my face to cool off my heated cheeks. I didn’t want to think about anything but the fact that Gavril was going to come home to me tonight.
That was all that mattered.
A few more pats and a swipe of water to the back of my neck and I felt marginally better. I needed to pull myself together for when Gavril came home.
Home. This was my home. A little smile darkened my lips, and I thought about repairing the nursery next door, having this room really feel like something special for both me and Gavril. Would he want to move in here?
I mean, he practically lived in here to begin with, and since it was closest to the room he had designated as the nursery, it was the ideal location for our master bedroom.
I doubted that Gavril was one of those men who wanted his own bedroom.
Some of the tension bled from my shoulders as I thought about what we could do to the room. That was our future I was thinking about, a future I never thought we would have together.
My, how things had changed for the better.
Looking at myself in the mirror, I noted the exhaustion, but also the spark of excitement in my eyes. After being a person who constantly never felt like she had a true home, the thought was exciting.
Now we just had to get this last hurdle out of the way, and then we could really focus on our home and our future.
I stepped out of the bathroom, and my smile died as I heard what sounded like angry voices drifting into the bedroom from somewhere in the house. They were too muted to make out and when I reached the doorway, a gunshot rang through the air, startling me.
Oh God.
Shutting the bedroom door immediately, I threw the locks and backed away, my fear ramping up times ten. There could only be one reason that someone would be shooting in the mansion.
Jon was on the premises.
My throat closed, and I forced myself to take several breaths. The room was suddenly too quiet, my nerves shot as to what was going to happen next.
I couldn’t panic. Panicking wasn’t going to solve anything, and Gavril would expect more out of me or else he wouldn’t have left me the gun.
If Ilsa was here, she would tell me to pull up my pants and get to work, to find a way to get out here.
I just wished I was like her.
My hands trembled as I picked up the gun, reminding myself of what my therapist had told me once. Jon’s hold on my life was making me become someone I wasn’t. Until I let go of the fear of what he could do to me, I would never fully learn how to live my life the way I wanted to.
Only the way he wanted me to.
That had never been more true than it was right now. “No,” I whispered, clenching the steel tightly. I wasn’t going to let him run my life any longer.
I wasn’t going to lose what I had fought so hard to find in my life.
It was wrong what he had done to me, but I had let him continue to have this hold over my life as if I couldn’t stop him myself.
I could. I was stronger than he remembered me being. I wasn’t going to cower any longer.
I was going to show him what I could do, and it was going to be to rid my life of him forever.
Simultaneous gunshots echoed through the walls and I clutched the gun tighter, forcing myself to remain calm as I approached the door. I could almost hear Gavril’s voice in my head, begging me not to interfere, to hide from whatever was going on outside to keep me safe.
It would be what he wanted me to do. He wouldn’t want me to put myself in danger.
Well, Gavril wasn’t here, and this was my home. I had no choice but to defend it.