Chapter 73 Chapter 73
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
Irina's POV
I tried to free myself from Katya's grip but it was futile.
She was way stronger than me. Impressively stronger than she appears. Women like her spends their time training and exercising. While women like me spends their time scrubbing floors.
Her nails dug into my arm painfully.
She dragged me across the ground. Grass and bricks tore at my skin. My night dress tore in the process.
I winced in pain but Katya did not pay attention. I screamed for her to stop, but she did not care. She didn't not care that I was pregnant. And my baby could die.
She dragged me to the front yard. And I could see guards already standing there.
But they were not Dimitri's guards. I did not recognize any of them.
They formed a circle around me immediately. All pointing guns at my head.
I did not cry. I did not flinch. I refused to give them that satisfaction.
I just knelt there, staring into space. I shivered slightly as the night air blew across my bare skin.
Big I would never confess to a crime I did not commit?
Alexei was the person I hated most in the world. That was true.
But I would never kill a person. Not even to get revenge.
Killing was wrong. Murder was evil. And I was not a murderer.
I’d never even wished him death. He was the father of my unborn child. I won't intentionally make my child fatherless.
Alexei was a scum but I had since left him to the universe to judge. And one day, he would get the judgement he truly deserves.
As I thought deeper, oblivious to what was going on around me, I felt a hand hit me across my cheek suddenly.
The impact was hard. It brought me back from my thoughts immediately.
My face stung badly. My vision blurred for a moment.
"I have been calling your name!" Katya screamed in my face.
I looked up at her with teary eyes. She had slapped me again.
"You slut!" She spat at me. "You good-for-nothing whore!"
Her words hurt. But not as much as her hand.
"Go call her husband," Katya ordered one of her guards. "Let him witness his criminal wife go to jail."
The guard nodded and started walking towards the house.
He wasn't even scared.
Before he could reach the door, it opened.
Dimitri stepped out. And I froze.
I could see blood on his shirt. On his hands. Fresh blood everywhere.
What had he been doing? I wondered. What had happened inside?
The look on his face changed immediately when his eyes landed on me.
I could sense the danger radiating from him. It was like a physical force.
Even Katya's guards shifted uncomfortably. They felt it too. The weather became cloudy suddenly. Dark clouds gathered overhead.
"What do you think you are doing!" Dimitri roared.
His voice was like thunder. Loud and terrifying.
Katya started talking. She called me the culprit. She accused me of poisoning Alexei.
She said she had evidence. She said the council was involved now.
Dimitri and Katya argued. Their voices rose and fell.
But I barely heard them. My mind was elsewhere.
I was thinking about everything that had happened over the past few hours.
I was getting married to Dmitri. But Alexei had wanted to take his place by poisoning him and kidnapping me.
And now I was being accused of poisoning someone. Something I didn't do. I couldn't even try it. My own conscience would have killed me even before the poison kills the person.
All of this was too much. Everything was too much.
But then Dimitri came to me. He knelt down and helped me up.
His arms were gentle. Careful not to hurt me more.
I could not help but tremble. I had been so terrified.
I had been terrified of the accusations, Katya’s guards, the guns pointing at me, suffering for crimes I didn’t commit. I was terrified of everything.
Katya threatened to come back. “Don't say I didn't warm you!” Sye screamed.
The cars drove off into the dark.
When we got inside, Dimitri took me to our room.
He cleaned my wounds carefully and gently with steady hands.
He wrapped bandages around my injuries and applied medicine to my cuts.
But he did not say a word to me. His face was emotionless.
I could not tell what he was thinking and what he believed.
Did he think I was guilty? Did he think I poisoned Alexei?
The thought terrified me more than Katya's guns ever could.
"Sleep well," he said quietly when he finished. "I will handle things."
He turned to leave. Walking towards the door.
"Do you think I could do something like that?" I asked. My voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.
The words came out before I could stop them.
I needed to know. I needed to hear him say it.
But he did not answer. He just looked back at me.
And he smiled. But it was not a real smile. It was a sad smile somehow.
Then he reached for the door handle. He was about to open it when suddenly we felt the ground shake violently.
The entire room trembled. The bed shook beneath me.
Pictures fell from the walls. Crashing to the floor.
"Was that an earthquake?" I asked fearfully, sitting up in bed.
I had never felt an earthquake before, but this felt wrong.
Then the sound followed. A loud bang that hurt my ears.
It was so loud and so close. Like an explosion.
Then another bang. And another. And another.
Three bangs in a row. The building shook to it's root. Thank God the building was fortified, It would have crumbled to the ground.
Dimitri walked to the window. He looked out quickly.
His expression changed. His face became hard and cold.
"We are under attack," he said coldly. It sounded like something I had never heard before.