Chapter 11 - THEIR FIRST REAL FIGHT
Z
Aliyah packed a suitcase.
Victor watched from the bedroom doorway.
“You are not leaving.”
She folded another sweater.
“Watch me.”
“This penthouse is the safest place in Boston.”
“That isn’t why I’m leaving.”
His expression tightened.
“Then why?”
Aliyah zipped the suitcase.
“Because every time something scares you, you turn me into a prisoner.”
“I have never imprisoned you.”
“You doubled security.”
“Someone has watched you for years.”
“You canceled my hospital shifts.”
“I requested temporary leave.”
“Without asking.”
Victor’s silence answered for him.
Aliyah laughed once.
“Exactly.”
“You cannot work emergency shifts while Caleb Vance—”
“My entire life cannot stop every time one of your enemies appears.”
“He was your enemy first.”
“That does not make your behavior less insane.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Aliyah, he has photographs of you going back thirteen years.”
“I know.”
“He stole your identity.”
“I know.”
“He may have engineered the night we met.”
“I know!”
Her voice cracked.
Victor stopped.
Aliyah breathed hard.
“That’s exactly why I need something in my life that still belongs to me.”
“Your career belongs to you.”
“Not when you call my supervisor.”
Victor looked away.
“Who told you?”
“My supervisor.”
“I see.”
“You threatened the chief of surgery?”
“I did not threaten him.”
“You told him you would buy the hospital and fire him.”
“That was a hypothetical.”
“Victor!”
He finally raised his voice.
“I am trying to keep you alive!”
“And I am trying to live!”
Silence slammed through the room.
Victor stared at her.
Aliyah’s eyes filled.
“That’s what Elena tried to tell you.”
He went still.
She immediately knew the wound she had touched.
But she continued because it was true.
“You love people by building walls around them.”
Victor’s voice became cold.
“Do not use Elena against me.”
“I’m not.”
“You are comparing me to the circumstances that killed her.”
“I’m telling you she literally wrote that love isn’t a room with one chair. And somehow you still think love means locking the door.”
Victor turned away.
Aliyah picked up her suitcase.
He did not stop her.
That hurt more than if he had.
She stayed with Jasmine that night.
By morning, photographs of Aliyah leaving Victor’s building appeared online.
By noon, gossip sites announced that their engagement was “in crisis.”
By three, Aliyah wanted to throw her phone into the Charles River.
Jasmine sat across from her at a coffee shop.
“You two have one fight and Boston behaves like the royal family exploded.”
Aliyah rubbed her forehead.
“I said horrible things.”
“Were they true?”
“Some.”
“Then they weren’t horrible. They were inconvenient.”
Aliyah looked at her.
“You are terrible relationship support.”
“I run a true-crime channel.”
“Fair.”
Jasmine leaned forward.
“Do you love him?”
“Yes.”
“Does he love you?”
“Yes.”
“Then congratulations. You have discovered that love doesn’t magically cure childhood trauma, grief, trust issues, or male stupidity.”
Aliyah laughed.
Her phone vibrated.
Victor.
She ignored it.
It rang again.
Then Jasmine’s phone rang.
She checked the screen.
“Unknown.”
Her smile disappeared.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice.
“Put Aliyah on.”
Caleb.
Aliyah took the phone.
“What do you want?”
“You finally left him.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Everything involving Victor Malenkov is my business.”
Aliyah stood.
Jasmine immediately started recording from another device.
Caleb continued.
“You should understand something. I didn’t arrange your meeting because I wanted romance.”
“Then why?”
“Because Victor had become impossible to control.”
Aliyah frowned.
“He had no family. No obvious weakness. No emotional leverage.”
Her stomach dropped.
“So you created one.”
“I created an opportunity.”
“You pushed the chair.”
“Mark did.”
“You wanted Victor to save me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To prove he still could care.”
Aliyah gripped the phone.
“And once you proved that?”
“I knew where to apply pressure.”
Rage replaced fear.
“You spent thirteen years watching me because of a key.”
“And because your mother underestimated how patient I can be.”
Aliyah’s face went cold.
“Victor is going to destroy you.”
“No.”
Caleb sounded amused.
“Victor is going to destroy himself.”
The café door opened.
Victor entered.
Aliyah froze.
Caleb apparently heard the silence.
“There he is.”
Victor walked toward her.
Aliyah placed the phone on speaker.
Caleb continued.
“Ask him what he did last night.”
Aliyah looked at Victor.
His expression changed.
“What did you do?”
Victor did not answer.
Caleb laughed.
“I’ll leave you two to talk.”
The call ended.
Aliyah stared.
“Victor.”
He sat across from her.
Jasmine gathered her coffee.
“I suddenly remember an appointment.”
She disappeared.
Aliyah waited.
Victor finally spoke.
“I found one of Caleb’s men.”
“And?”
“I questioned him.”
“How?”
Victor looked at his hands.
That was enough.
Aliyah closed her eyes.
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you hurt him?”
“Yes.”
“How badly?”
Silence.
Aliyah stood.
Victor caught himself before reaching for her.
“I needed Caleb’s location.”
“Did you get it?”
“No.”
“So you tortured somebody for nothing.”
“He was involved in watching you.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“I never claimed to be a good man.”
“I hate when you say that.”
Victor looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you use it as permission.”
He went still.
Aliyah leaned closer.
“You say you’re bad, dangerous, criminal, whatever, so nobody gets to expect better from you.”
Victor’s expression slowly changed.
“But I do.”
“Aliyah—”
“I expect better.”
His voice lowered.
“What happens when I fail?”
“You try again.”
“That simple?”
“No.”
Her anger softened.
“It’s probably the hardest thing you’ll ever do.”
Victor looked toward the window.
“Last night, I became the man I was twelve years ago.”
“Because you were afraid.”
“Yes.”
Aliyah sat again.
“I was afraid too.”
He looked at her.
“When I saw those photographs, I realized Caleb had been near me my entire adult life.”
Her voice shook.
“I wanted to run.”
“Then why did you leave me instead?”
“Because I needed to know I could.”
Victor absorbed that.
Not rejection.
Choice.
Slowly, he nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
Aliyah blinked.
Victor Malenkov apologized rarely.
Never casually.
“I should not have called your hospital.”
“No.”
“I should not have decided your safety without you.”
“No.”
“I also should not have threatened to purchase the hospital.”
Aliyah nearly smiled.
“That one was especially insane.”
Victor leaned forward.
“But I cannot promise I will stop being afraid.”
“I don’t want you to.”
“What do you want?”
“Tell me when you’re afraid instead of turning it into orders.”
Victor considered this.
“I am afraid now.”
Aliyah’s expression softened.
“Of Caleb?”
“No.”
Victor met her eyes.
“Of losing you because I do not know how to love someone without trying to control whether they can leave.”
Her anger disappeared.
Aliyah reached across the table.
Victor let her take his hand.
“I’m still angry.”
“I know.”
“I’m not moving back tonight.”
“I know.”
“You are not buying Jasmine’s building to increase security.”
Victor looked suspiciously silent.
“Victor.”
“I will cancel the call.”
Aliyah stared at him.
“You already called someone?”
“Yes.”
She laughed despite everything.
Then his phone vibrated.
Nikolai.
Victor answered.
His face changed.
“When?”
Aliyah’s smile faded.
“What is it?”
Victor ended the call.
“They found Caleb’s Boston residence.”
“Good.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“The house is empty.”
Then he placed a photograph on the table that Nikolai had just sent.
Inside Caleb’s abandoned home was an entire wall covered with photographs.
Victor.
Aliyah.
Elena.
Denise.
Anton.
And one new photograph.
Taken yesterday.
A church decorated with white flowers.
Their wedding venue.
May you like
Across the image, Caleb had written:
SEE YOU AT THE CEREMONY.
