Before I can ask more, we arrive at what looks like an open-air bar, though it’s currently empty. “Marcus found somewhere quiet and neutral… but fairly public for us,” she explains, leading us towards some kind of back room. There’s no one here right now but us.
She rushes to a small refrigerator and pulls out a jug of some kind of orangey-red colored juice and a couple of bottles of water, which she deposits on the table, gesturing for me to sit.
“So… how are you?” she asks, shuffling from foot to foot like she’s suddenly uncomfortable. I guess we are strangers more than anything else, despite the same blood running through our veins. “Is everything okay?”
She looks so concerned, and on the heels of that hug she gave me when I arrived, I become unexpectedly emotional, and the entire story comes tumbling out.
Gabi listens intently, her brow furrowing with concern as I recount the chaos of the past few days. When I finish, she reaches across the table and squeezes my hand.
"Oh, Lyah. I'm so sorry you're going through all this. I knew you’d married, but I never imagined your husb… ah, Nikolai, would be monitoring our private emails. If I’d known, I would have been more circumspect in what I said.”
Her expression is one of deep empathy, genuine concern, and no small amount of guilt. Lines of worry are etched across her forehead as she processes everything I've just poured out to her. It's as if she's absorbing the weight of my burdens, trying to lighten my load by sharing in the heaviness that has suddenly consumed my life. Her eyes, mirrors of my own, glisten with unshed tears, and I can see the struggle she faces—wanting to offer solace but knowing the limits of what she alone can provide. Yet there’s still a resolve in her gaze that reassures me I’m not alone in this.
Gabi shifts slightly in her seat, reaching for the jug and pouring us both a glass of juice as I wipe away a stray tear.
"I just... I don't understand any of it. Why would my mother do this? And how could Niko just throw me away without even believing I didn’t know?"
Gabi sighs, her eyes clouding with a mix of sympathy and something else I can't quite read. “Well, some of that I can shed light on,” she tells me and my gaze whirls to her in surprise. How can she know things about my life I don’t even understand myself?
“Our father…” There’s a bite in her tone as she mentions him. “Got into debt with the mafia when we were children…”
Just that short sentence makes me still. What the hell? Does she know I’m married into the Bratva?
“To pay off his debts, he offered you to a man named Vito Rossi, better known as the Viper.”
I suck in a shocked breath. What fresh hell is this? The Viper? This can’t be true. There is absolutely no way Gabi can know what that name means to me. Is there?
"But… but…” I can’t even get the words out.
Thankfully, Gabi doesn’t seem to need them and continues. “Lenka found out and went all ‘avenging angel’ on dad’s ass. As best as I can deduce myself - because some of this I’ve had to piece together - she tied you to Zack to avoid you being married to Vito Rossi.”
My stomach roils and I rush to a nearby waste bin as it rebels completely.
As I retch into the bin, Gabi rubs soothing circles on my back. When I'm finally able to straighten up, she hands me a bottle of water and a napkin.
"I'm so sorry," she says softly. "I didn't mean to spring all that on you at once."
I shake my head, still reeling. "No, I... I needed to know." My voice is hoarse, and I take a long sip of water before continuing. "But I don't understand. How could our father do that? And why didn't my mother ever tell me?"
Gabi's eyes darken. "Our father was a selfish bastard who cared more about his own skin than his children. As for Lenka..." She hesitates. "I think she was trying to protect you in her own way. But I agree, you deserved to know the truth. Perhaps she never mentioned it because of Niko?"
Niko… another relationship my mother manipulated. But why? I never wanted to talk to her about any of this since I didn’t trust her to tell the truth, but now it seems I might have to… at some point.
If it even matters any more, after this.
I sink back into my chair, feeling utterly drained. "So, Zack Kincaid; was he some random kid they found to marry me off to?"
Gabi shakes her head. "Not random, I don’t think, since there’s some kind of contract, but I’ll let Zack tell you about that since I don’t know the details. But I can tell you he was a child himself and also didn’t know the truth until a few years ago.”
Sucking in a steadying breath, I look at Gabi; she’s younger than me, though not by much. But if I was only twelve, then she’d have been ten; far too young to understand any of this. “How do you know all this?” I blurt out. It’s not that I don’t believe her. I just want to understand.
The shadow crossing her face almost makes me wish I hadn’t asked… along with her next words.
“When the Viper wasn’t able to get you, he altered his focus.” Her voice is devoid of emotion, and her previously animated expression is now frozen. “To me.”
I want to heave again, but there’s nothing left in my stomach. Gabi continues, her tone flat.
“Unlike Lenka, my mother didn’t give a shit. I was fortunate that Vito Rossi, for all his vicious, perverted ways, wasn’t interested in a ten-year-old, but once I got to sixteen, he pursued me. I spent the years until I found Elysium on the run from him.”
