With This Ring

“Thank you,” Levan said, taking a sip from the glass of water she handed to him.

“You’re not afraid I might have poisoned it?” I asked.

Britney looked shocked at my question, and even Bianca looked slightly worried, but Levan only laughed.

“You never came anywhere near it. Bianca fetched it not you,” he said.

I realized the error in my thinking. Levan was friendly and sweet because he had Bianca, but inside he was still the same watchful man.

“Plus, you wouldn’t dare,” the new and improved Levan added. “We used to be friends.”

“Yeah, until your brother went ahead and murdered my best friend’s family.”

My tone was bitter and cast a weighty silence across the room. “Bianca, I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable. You’ve just walked into a minefield and you don’t understand what is going on, but Levan’s family and I don’t exactly have the best of relationships. Which makes me wonder why he’s here.” I turned on him aggressively. “Did your brother send you? What exactly did he ask you to check on?”

“If you were doing well,” he answered easily.

I smiled tightly. “I happen to know it wouldn’t spoil his day if I fell into a ravine tomorrow, but if we’re all going to pretend to play this game, then please let him know that I’m doing just great. And that he should please stay away from me so that I can continue to do even better.”

“Why do you hate Maxim so much?’ Levan asked.

“Are you seriously asking me that? Don’t you know?”

“I am asking exactly that,” he said.

“He killed Anna,” I screamed.

“He didn’t kill Anna, she took her own life,” he said calmly.

I could feel my anger begin to take over. “And whose fault was that? Your brother wiped out her family.”

“Have you ever stopped to find out why, or what actually happened?”

“The whole of fucking Russia knew what happened. He did it to prove himself to your father. Anna’s father was challenging your father with some lawsuit and Maxim took him out to prove that he was qualified to join his father’s army of demons.”

“Your father’s business is not any smaller or less violent than ours, Freya.”

“Perhaps, but no one is as evil as Maxim. How else could a fucking nineteen-year old kid kill a man and his wife in cold blood. All for some accolade?”

The room was deadly silent.

Levan frowned. “Is that what you were told?”

“It is what I know,” I argued.

He rose to his feet and held out his hand to his fiancée. “Let’s go, Bianca.”

“Of course, you’ll always be on his side.”

He didn’t say a word and began to walk. Bianca looked torn, apologetic towards me and yet understanding of Levan. Britney was just confused.

I felt hurt and wasn’t satisfied enough with my taunt. “Oh, and for old time’s sake, since you said that we were ‘friends’ could you let me know what your family’s plan is with this whole marriage situation? Is Maxim trying to go grand this time? Get married to me, then take out my whole family? Just let me know, friend.”

Levan smiled, and when I saw that it wasn’t in offense but mockery, it made me very uncomfortable. “You’ve always been really cocky, Freya,” he said “and I understand that it’s because you’ve wanted to always be on guard. But you need to sometimes put your pride down so you can figure out the truth. You knew Maxim before Anna met him. Tell me, when you heard what he had supposedly done to her family, were you shocked or unsurprised? Did he seem like the kind to so heartlessly do something like that?”

“Maxim is lethal.”

“And so are you, perhaps even more so than he will ever be. Otherwise, how else can you so easily accuse him of all that you just have without knowing the actual truth?”

“Truth. What do you know about the truth? Anna told me this herself, a few days before she committed suicide.”

I was shaking. How dare he? How dare any of them even come close to me.

“Someday, ask Maxim what really happened and why he did what he did. I know you enough to know that after hearing it you definitely will not feel as you do now. You will understand. I hope you can come to our wedding, friend. Take care.”

He took his fiancée’s hand and walked out of our house.

Chapter Fourteen

Freya

I couldn’t sleep.

It had been two days and I still couldn’t sleep. It was not so much the pain of the wound on my back but Levan’s words that haunted me.

“You need to sometimes put your pride down so you can figure out the truth… after hearing it you definitely will not feel as you do now.”

My back hurt, so I got out of bed carefully, and headed out to the kitchen. I pulled the fridge open and looked at the contents. A few minutes later I was still standing there deep in thought. I brought myself back to the present and wondered why I had opened it in the first place. I couldn’t recall why. I certainly wasn’t hungry. So I shut it and was thrown into the darkness of the kitchen.