Victor - Her Ruthless Husband (Ruthless Triad 3)

“I'm not trying to drag you anywhere,” Victor insists, every sign emphatic. “I'm trying to protect you.”

“I don't want your protection!” I shout back at him, spreading my arms wide. “It's time for me to live my own life. That's all I've ever wanted. To live my own life. But you got inside my head and made me think I couldn’t do it. You’re no better than my parents when it comes to that.”

Yet another realization hits me, the biggest one of all. And I lower my voice to tell him, “I’m not a child. You’ve got to let me go. It’s time for me to live my own life. It’s time for me to choose myself.”

Victor bunches his fists at his sides. But I'm no longer paying close attention to him.

I see something in the background of our argument. A life preserver cast down into the stormy ocean of my life by some higher power.

A sky-blue cab, dropping off a little old lady.

“Victor, I’m leaving,” I say as I watch the lady climb out of the cab. “And before you come after me, ask yourself this: would you want you for our daughter? If not, then just let me go.”

That’s all the warning I give him before I take off. I'm still not that fast. There is a definite possibility that this will be the third time I run, and I’m easily caught.

But no, this time…

This time I'm fast enough.

I yank open the door the little old woman closed and slide into the sky-blue cab.

Victor’s bearing down like the Terminator. But I slam the door close behind me just as he makes it to the car.

“Drive!” I yell to the driver. And I guess some things really are like the movies. Even though he doesn't know me from Adam, he takes off immediately. Leaving Victor in our wake.

Then he asks me, “Where to?”

Where to…?

That is the question.

LENA

“I have decided it is time for me to move in with you,” Rajiv says.

Lena’s family had been about to dig into a lunch of Kathi rolls, but all activity stops when her father says that.

Her husband Keane pauses with his Indian veggie wrap halfway to his mouth. And their oldest kid, Max, just plain old, drops his Kathi roll back on his plate. Even their little girl, Benni, stares at her grandfather in open-mouthed shock.

Lena clears her throat and carefully asks, “What makes you want to do that, Dad?”

“Yeah, what happened to your plan to move back to India?” Keane asks. His Boston accent is thick, and his tone isn’t nearly as neutral as Lena’s.

“You have another baby on the way,” her father points out. “You will need all the help you can get after my first grandson is born.”

“Second grandson,” Max corrects, his voice weary.

“And I can afford a nanny,” Keane assures him.

“A nanny isn't family,” Lena’s father insists.

“Yeah, but a nanny will do as we say,” Keane insists back, his voice hard as nails. “And we won't have to worry about a nanny misgendering our oldest kid or sneaking Benni candy right after she’s got two cavities fixed.”

“I can do better with Max, and it was only that one time with Benni,” Rajiv grumbles. “You forgave Lena for hiding Max from you all those years. One would think you could forgive me for that little mix-up.”

“I don't like you as much as I like Lena,” Keane answers, his expression stony and blunt. “And I’m pretty sure you’re the reason she got cavities in the first place.”

Oh dear, the gloves have come completely off. Lena scrambles for a way to de-escalate the situation before this becomes another fight between the two men she loves most.

Obviously, it would be nothing short of an unmitigated disaster if her father moved in with them. He and Keane are like oil and water. It would never work.

But her father is already acting like it’s a done decision. “Fortunately, you have no visitors right now. I'll move into the fourth bedroom right away so that a real estate agent can put my house on the market as soon as possible. And you can use the money you save on a nanny to convert that silly ice rink below the house into a proper in-law apartment.”

“You think I’m tearing out my rink to build you a whole apartment?” Keane asks, his voice going up several octaves with outrage.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I keep on forgetting how stingy you are when it comes to me. You know, where I come from in India, it would be shameful for a rich man such as yourself to treat his father-in-law so shamefully.”

“Stop being mean to Bibi!” Benni squalls at her father. Her face flushed with toddler indignation on behalf of her grandfather.

“Thank you, Benni,” Rajiv says with a persecuted tone. “This is why you are my favorite even after this new baby comes.”