Page 34 of Forced & Knocked-Up Bratva Bride
“Pelmeni is good for the cold and broken hearts,” she added with a soft chuckle, intending comfort.
But as the words left her mouth, they hung in the air with a sudden weight. Her smile faltered. She realized it, too late. The irony. A silence stretched thin between us like a fragile thread about to snap. The maid’s gaze dropped to the floor, guilt pressing into her chest.
I blinked a few times, my jaw tightening at this unexpected reminder of my broken heart.
“I’m sorry, Miss Alessia, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay,” I cut her off immediately, mustering a faint smile, brave and cracked around the edges. “I guess I’ll be needing a lot of pelmeni, then,” I teased in an attempt at a joke.
She raised her head, and her lips curled into a small grin. “I’ll make sure you have more than enough, Miss Alessia.”
“Thank you,” I said.
The silence returned, and I could sense her pulse spiking, like she was nervous. When I looked at her, I saw in her eyes that she had something to say but wasn’t sure how to say it.
I cocked my head to the side, my expression softening as I cast her a welcome look. “Anything on your mind?” I asked, my eyes narrowing with curiosity.
She hesitated for a moment before replying, her voice faint and polite. “It’s just…I hear you haven’t been eating well lately, and…and I understand why, I do.” She paused, then continued. “It’s not my place to speak, but…I’ve been watching you, Miss Alessia. Your heart is heavy, and that is not good for the baby.”
“Well, it’s not like I have a choice,” I replied, a fleeting scowl flashing across my face.
“There’s always a choice,” she said softly, shrugging her shoulders almost imperceptibly.
“Not inmycase, there isn’t,” I responded, my heart breaking all over again.
She drew closer, her eyes sparkling with genuine kindness. “You are quick to conclude.” The maid halted before me, her gaze locked on mine. “And that is because you are in a dark place. You feel like you’re buried, like your whole life is over, and there’s nothing good left for you.”
I felt my tear glands charging up as she described the exact way I felt every day in this house. But even though my heart was shattered into pieces, I refused to shed a single tear.
She looked me dead in the eyes and said, her voice gentle yet dripping with a contagious courage, “You’re not buried, Miss Alessia.” She placed her hand on mine, her eyes never leaving my face. “You’ve been planted.”
I raised my chin so the tears would roll back and not stream down my cheeks. “You make it sound like it’s a good thing when we both know that I’m not ‘planted’ here.” My voice cracked under the weight of the pain in my heart. “Nik has a fiancée that he'll marry soon.”
She arched her brows, her head pulled back in shock. “Who, Harriet?”
I squinted, a bit confused. “You mean Helen?”
“Oh, the name just won’t stick to my head.” She chuckled, and while her voice trailed off, she knitted her brows together. “Please, don’t tell me you see her as a threat.”
“Threat? What? No,” came my swift response, my tone defensive.
“Good,” she said. “Because their engagement isn’t real.”
My heart stopped for a minute, my curiosity piqued. “How so?”
“It’s business. Nothing more. He does care for her at all,” she explained, staring at me with her lips twisted into a grin. “Between you and me…I think it’s you he actually has feelings for.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.
Her assumption was so hilarious that I didn’t know when I burst out laughing. “Feelings? Are you even listening to yourself? The only thing Nik feels for me is hatred.”
“Is that what you truly believe?”
My smile slowly faded away as her words struck me like an arrow. I wasn’t sure what I believed at this point because, regardless of how he claimed to hate me, his touch and stare said otherwise. I was just too afraid to accept what was right in front of me, and with good reason, of course.
She beamed a faint smile at me and returned to the stove, stirring the pelmeni on the fire. My heart raced in my chest as I pondered her words while she continued humming the same song she had been humming when I came in.
Chapter 24 – Nik
Ever since that night, Alessia had buried herself in my flesh like a thorn I couldn’t pluck out. She was in my thoughts day and night, occupying my mind and making me question myself repeatedly. I wasn’t sure what was happening—why I felt the way that I did toward her. And as much as I tried to pretend like I was in control, I knew deep down that I wasn’t.
