He’d gotten through the meeting with the Ministers, clenched and silent, just counting down the seconds until it would be over. And then right when they were about to finish, he’d heard commotion in the doorway, and seen a flash of red fabric disappearing around the corner.
He’d known at once that it was Nadia. She’d followed him and overheard some of the deliberations. How much, he couldn’t know. But it didn’t matter. She was so clever and observant—whatever she’d heard, she would fill in the blanks.
He jumped up at once and chased after her. He stopped at the private box, just in case she’d hidden in there, but of course she’d run straight down the stairs. So he followed that way, just in time to see Maxim Oleksei strike her.
The rage that came over him was beyond reason. He couldn’t even remember what happened next, in the blind fog of his desire to break every bone in Maxim’s body. All he knew was that Nadia was screaming and begging him to stop. And he would do anything she asked, even if it meant letting Maxim live.
Then he’d chased after Nadia again, and he’d begged like he’d never begged before in his life.
But it was no good. She wouldn’t accept his apology. And now he was lost.
He thought of a thousand grand gestures he could make, a thousand wild, romantic gifts...
But they all seemed gaudy and materialistic. He couldn’t buy his way back into Nadia’s good graces. It would be insulting to try.
He knew there was a good chance Nadia would pack up and return to Paris in her anger. She wouldn’t want to hang around the depressing mausoleum of her grandfather’s house anymore.
So first thing in the morning, Nikolai readied himself to drive over to the Lebedev house, to beg for Nadia’s forgiveness one more time.
He was about to leave when he realized he was still wearing his rumpled and torn tuxedo, stained with the blood of her ex-fiancé. Grimacing at his awful reflection in the mirror, Nikolai hurried to shower and change.
As he was soaping off, he did think of one thing he ought to give her.
Not as an apology gift, but only as something Nadia truly deserved to have.
Once he was clean and dressed in a fresh pullover and slacks, he slipped into his father’s gallery and unlocked the glass case that housed the Crimson Heart.
Tucking it under his arm, he went to the garage and climbed into Nadia’s favorite car one more time.
Feverishly, he roared down the highway, the priceless egg sitting upright in the passenger seat.
When he got to Nadia’s house, he ran up the broken, weed-choked steps and knocked on the front door.
It was the aunt who opened it.
She had nothing of the beauty of Nadia or Samara. She looked slightly mad, with pale, bulging eyes, and a loose, flopping cardigan hanging off her scrawny arms. She reminded him of an insect, especially once she began to flap her arms at him to shoo him away.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Get out of here. You’re not stepping foot in this house.”
But then she stopped, staring transfixed at the egg tucked under his arm.
“I need to see Nadia,” Nikolai said.
“Why did you bring that here?” Rashel demanded. Her face looked paler than ever, and she’d drawn the cardigan tight around her body and taken a step back as if she were a demon and the egg was holy water that might burn her.
“I need to see Nadia,” Nikolai repeated. “And I’m not leaving until I speak to her.”
Rashel took another step back and disappeared into the house, leaving the door slightly ajar.
Nikolai wasn’t sure if he was supposed to follow her, or if she’d only gone to get Nadia. He waited on the porch, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another, thinking he ought to go inside. But right as he was reaching out his hand to push the door open, Nadia appeared.
She looked sad and wan. He doubted she had slept any more than he had.
And yet, the dark circles under her eyes did nothing to diminish her beauty. If anything, she looked lovelier than ever, stripped of makeup, and gazing up at him with her wide green eyes.
It pained him to see the sadness in her face. He had caused that. He had done that to her. When all he wanted was to make her the happiest woman in the world.
“Nikolai,” she said, “please go away. You’re upsetting my aunt.”
