Chapter 77
Nikolay:
“You aren’t bringing up the divorce at all. Have you decided against it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at Katerina who was getting ready for bed.
She looked at me through the mirror and I watched as she looked down at the dresser as she took her earrings off. The fact that the two of us were still sharing the bed told me that things were going to go as they were, at least, until we filed the divorce.
She walked toward me and sat on the edge of the bed in front of me. She removed her hair from her back, silently letting me know that she wanted me to help her with the necklace.
“I doubt that arguing with you is the best option when you keep spending days and nights out of the house. The kids need to see you around, and no matter the situation, I don’t want them remembering the two of us in constant conflict.” She said, and I nodded in understanding. “As I told you, I want us to end the marriage as peacefully as possible. For their sake, at least.”
“I see,” I said, watching as she got up from the bed to the dresser. She put the necklace back inside the jewelry box and I slowly started brushing her hair, removing the pins that held it in place. She fixed the mess that she had on the dresser, setting things back either inside the drawers or inside the safe and I watched as she put her perfume on her neck and wrists, a gentle scent before bed.
It was something that she always did before bed, and though I didn’t mention it, it was one of the things that I liked about her.
She walked back to the bed once she finished her routine before pulling her phone off the charger. She scrolled through it for a while, checking through her messages before putting it back down on the dresser.
“Is there anything that you want to talk about? Or can I go to bed? As it seems that now is the only time that the two of us managed to sit alone without the children today.” She said, and I shook my head.
“Why do you act the way that you do? The two of us are going to get a divorce, and rather than causing a problem…”
“I no longer mind getting a divorce, Nikolay. My one demand is my children. It is the one thing the two of us can’t seem to agree on and though I have no reason to fight right now. I am far too tired to do so in the first place, and arguing with no stable grounds, with no lawyers, judges, and juries is not going to do the two of us any good.” She said, stopping me. “I didn’t argue with you when I found out about you and Kate, your first mistress. Ashley was always there, but when you grew of her, you went to others. Do you remember that?”
“You didn’t even show me that you knew.” I said, and she nodded.
tired
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Chapter 77
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“I was and still am holding the same concepts of wanting my children to grow sane. I didn’t want to be a part of your mess and I chose my and their sanity. I didn’t choose love, and I didn’t choose a relationship over what they can have as a father figure.” She said, looking me in the eye. “Now, if there isn’t anything that you aim to add or hear, I want to go to bed.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?” I asked, and she took a deep breath.
“When you know that you aren’t in a person’s heart. That you haven’t been in that person’s heart for a long time already, it stops hurting or bothering after a while. You can consider it as consolation to yourself. Knowing that I am no longer upset or bothered by your affairs, I mean.” She said, and I shook my head.
“I mean that I am going to marry her.” I said, and she frowned. She didn’t say a word for a few moments, and though she didn’t voice it out, I could see her anger and pain in her eyes.
“It shouldn’t bother me to know that the man that I was with, that I was once in love with, was with another woman at this point. The two of us broke up ages ago. We have been married on paper for the sake of our children. If that paper is to be ripped in two, then I can assume that it is for the best.” She said, and I scoffed. It wasn’t as easy as that.
“Well, I am guessing that she should start getting to meet the children. You know…”
“She is not going to come near my children.” She said, and I smirked, knowing that I hit the nerve that she didn’t want me to reach. Her eyes met mine and I shook my head in question.
“She is to be my wife, I doubt that he kids wouldn’t be sitting in the same room with their father if his wife, their ‘stepmother‘ was in the same room, would they?” Katerina’s eyes hardened, and for the first time in a very long time, I saw fury in her gaze.
She took a deep breath, but it was her next words that had me questioning what I was going to respond to what she said. She always had her way with words but I never expected this to be coming from her.
“And now you are married to their mother. As a man, I think that no matter how young he is, Andrew is your son and I doubt that you are going to want to cross the limit of insulting him by bringing your mistress to sit with him, in his early memories, while you are still married to his mother.” She said, wiping the smirk off my face with her statement. “No matter how young he is, I think that you know that he could remember it, and if not him, she would. And I doubt that it is a story that he and his sister, and if she has other kids, would hear of. I am sure a man like you wouldn’t want to directly insult his children, would he?”
“Now if you will excuse me, I am going to bed. And I will answer no further questions for the evening…”
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