Wild Billionaire Romance - Chapter 50: Chapter 50

DESTINY
The Four Star Diner hadn’t changed in twelve years. It still smelled of stale oil and greasy burners and floor cleaner. I shook my head and watched the rain as it fell outside.
Spring was so damn wet on the East Coast. How had I forgotten? But the desert did that to you. Made you forget.
Sitting in a booth, I tapped my nails on the chipped tabletop while I waited for Bear. His name was Orson, but we’d always called him Bear. Ever since he was a kid.
My memories of him were a little mixed. He was older. He had his own life and drama when I was a child going through mine. But he was trying to be a good brother, and I needed family, so I was trying, too.
Things with Marat had started out promising. I thought the craziness of our marriage might actually work out.
But my husband had been steadily pushing me away since the first day we moved into his penthouse. I probably needed to do or say something, but I was terrified of him asking me to leave.
See, I’d done something really stupid. I caught feelings for the Devil, and I was going to burn because of them. But Marat wasn’t why I was sitting in that old ass diner.
Bear was just getting off his shift, and we had a meeting. Sometimes he got out late, so I ordered my coffee already and waited.
I was so proud of my brother. He’d worked hard to stay out of trouble after a brief fuck up when he was a teen. He’d served eighteen months for car theft, but after that, he went back to school and got his diploma. Now, he was gainfully employed and doing well.
“Hey, little sis. Good to see you,” he said, shaking off his jacket and dropping it on the hook outside the booth.
“Hey Bear,” I said and stood up, accepting his hug.
“I can’t get over it. I mean every time I look at you. You look just like Mom,” he said.
“Yeah? I don’t see it. Speaking of Mom, I want to see her, Bear,” I told him, tears making my voice thick.
“Yeah, yeah, no, we can do that.”
He dropped his motor oil stained hat on the booth where he sat and heaved a sigh. He always liked cars. That was probably why he stole one. But I thought it was cool my older brother worked on them now.
I frowned, thinking about my own dismal job experiences. I needed to do something with my time. I did not want to waitress, but I couldn’t just sit around the penthouse and wait for my husband to come home.
Considering how late he’d been doing that just lately, it seemed like a bad idea. If it wasn’t for the fact, he still seemed interested in sex with me, I’d think he was already drawing up divorce papers.
The whole thing made me furious. It wasn’t like I’d trapped him or tricked him into marriage.
Dammit. Why did I have to like him?
I lived for those rare, unguarded moments where he let me in and showed me something real. It was quite a shock to discover the Devil had interests other than temptation.
Marat liked movies. He was completely obsessed with John Hughes films, and wouldn’t you know it? They were my favorite. What was better than watching an awkward Molly Ringwald fall for the wrong guy?
Sigh.
“So, what’s going on with you?” Bear asked, and it was just the distraction I needed.
“Nothing. I’m good. What happened with Mom’s tests?”
“It’s not good. I tried, but the doc says Mom is in the late stages of dementia. I can’t take care of her cause I work so many hours. She has to stay in a care home permanently,” he choked on the words.
I reached across the table and clasped his hand. This was so hard. Bear’s tears matched my own. We sat there, trying to comfort one another for a few minutes before we discussed long-term care plans for our mother.
“I appreciate it, Sis.”
“She’s my mom, too,” I whispered, even though we both knew that wasn’t entirely true.
Mom and Dad had both shoved me out of their lives because of one desperate decision I’d made before I even got my license. But that was the past. I’d learned to live with it. Besides, I needed to worry about my future.
I noticed movement at the front of the diner and turned to see what the fuss was all about. My mouth dropped open. Bear was saying something, but I didn’t hear him at first.
“Destiny? What’s the matter? Who is that?” he asked as the last person in the world I expected to see at that moment came striding right toward us.
“I’m her husband. Who the fuck are you?” Marat asked, but his eyes were on me.
Josef filled the space next to him. Disdain made Marat’s angelic features that much harder to look at as he glowered at me. His anger was positively palpable.
“I’m Bear,” my brother said, narrowing eyes as blue as mine at my husband.
“Like the animal?” Marat asked.
“No, like the teddy bear he wouldn’t go anywhere without when he was a kid,” I answered, not liking his tone at all.
I stood, toe to toe with my angry husband and gestured to Bear who was looking at us both like we’d lost our minds.
He wasn’t wrong.
Josef was the only one not betraying any emotion, but I was pissed at him, too.
I knew all about the background check, and the gross invasion to my privacy when Marat had ordered him, most likely, to change my name and pay off my landlord.
Everything had moved so quickly, I never questioned it or even allowed myself a minute to think how freaked out I should have been.
Ever since we got on that goddamn plane, the whirlwind romance I’d been building up in my head had burst into flames. For weeks, I’d waited for Marat to turn back into the man who’d relentlessly pursued me. The one who wanted me and made me feel special.
But that man was gone. My husband was as much a stranger to me now as he was the first time I saw him in Lux.
Stupid, stupid girl.
“Marat, this is Orson, or, as we’ve always called him, Bear. He’s my big brother.”
Silence stretched for a few long minutes, and I had the pleasure of seeing Marat’s anger dissolve into embarrassment.
Served him right, the know it all jerk.
My husband nudged me back into my seat, sliding into the booth beside me. he should have looked ridiculous in his ten thousand dollar suit. But he moved with the same self-assured elegance as always.
Bastard.
Josef just grunted and sat next to Bear. And my poor confused brother just looked between the three of us like he was waiting for a punchline.
“So, you’re married? To him? How long?” Bear asked.
“Yes, she is married to me. Three weeks now,” Marat answered for me. “Forgive me, I did not recognize you from your nickname.”
“I see. Uh, so, sis, how do you like married life?”
“It’s been interesting,” I muttered because really what could I say?
I couldn’t tell my brother I had no idea what married life was like because all my husband did was work, come home, have sex, sleep, rinse and repeat.
It wasn’t a bad life. But it wasn’t what I’d thought it would be. Suddenly, I felt dirty. Used. And so fucking stupid.
Anger and humiliation filled me as Josef and Marat made small talk with my brother. I hummed a response when the topic of my mother came up, and it was revealed why I’d been visiting with my brother in the first place.
“Come, let me arrange for a car to take you home,” Josef said to Bear after a while.
He dropped a couple of hundred dollar bills on the table and Bear shook his head like the man was nuts. He wasn’t wrong.
We hadn’t ordered anything but coffee. But we had taken up time and space and that was worth somethin, I supposed.
Our unlikely foursome walked outside together. I hugged Bear goodbye and told him I’d see him soon to which my husband growled.
Whatever.
“It was good seeing you. Make sure you call me if you need anything,” he said, kissing my cheek before he got in the car Josef ordered for him.
“Dumplin’,” Marat said, but I was too rattled to talk just yet.
I shook my head and got in the waiting SUV without waiting for him. My old blue jeans looked ratty inside the expensive vehicle, and I frowned. I wore my old clothes when I took the bus to see Bear.
It just didn’t feel right to be dressed in designer clothes when I walked to the Port Authority station a few streets away from Marat’s penthouse. The bus to Jersey took an hour each way, more or less, depending on traffic.
“Destiny, we need to talk.”
“Talk? Is that what you want to do? Why don’t you just ask Josef? He knows everything.”
“Mrs. Volkov, your security is important, I will not say sorry for doing my job, but I will for insulting you or insinuating you were doing something wrong. Please accept my apologies,” he said, surprising me with his bluntness.
“Dumplin’, why didn’t you just tell me what was going on?” Marat asked, and he sounded confused, not angry.
Oh, he’d been angry when he walked into the diner. When he thought I was cheating on him or paying my dealer. Or whatever the hell he imagined a woman did when she met a man outside of her home.
This bitch.
I wanted to scream. My feelings were so fucking hurt, but I was the only one to blame.
“We have ground rules, remember?” he said, and fuck him for being right. “Talk to me, Dumplin’.”
“This is all my fault,” I whispered, closing my eyes.
“Please don’t cry,” he whispered, cupping my cheeks with his hands, and tugging my face towards his lips. “Don’t cry, I can’t fucking bear it. Shhh.”
He kissed my cheeks, my mouth, my chin. He nuzzled my face with his, kissing away my tears as I cried in his arms.
I was so tired. And lonely. I was really lonely. Seeing my brother and not having anyone to talk to about it brought all those old feelings back.
Years of hurt and disappointment, loneliness, and despair. That wound I’d thought time had healed was still raw beneath the scar.
Seeing Marat and Bear in the same place just brought everything to a head. I’d been running from my life for too long.
Marat was my husband. He’d wanted this marriage, even though he hadn’t been acting like it lately. But he made those ground rules with me, and we both agreed honesty was the most important one.
He said he wouldn’t want out. He knew about my past, or whatever it was Josef had dug up on me, and he was there, asking me to explain. It was time I fessed up. Time for me to evaluate this marriage, our lives, my husband’s resolve, and maybe mine, too.
It was time I told Marat about my first husband.