Chapter 28 The Fall

Chapter 28 The Fall
Kissing the same lips that begged for Adrian’s freedom.

The words echo in my skull.
I freeze. Any reply I might’ve had dies instantly on my tongue. He’s right. He had asked for a kiss. One kiss, every day of this insane honeymoon.

“Cat got your tongue?” he teases, lifting a brow. His eyes are studying me, measuring every reaction. Then, as if amused by what he sees, he steps closer. “Did I mention you’re exceptionally pretty tonight?”

I exhale shakily. “Can we… can we just scrap the kissing part of this deal?”

His smile widens.

“Anything you want,” he murmurs.

For a moment, hope rises in my chest, until he adds casually,

“But Calloway will be in jail for a very, very long time.”

My half-formed smile withers. I hate this. I hate that he knows exactly where to strike. I hate that he uses Adrian against me. 

“Tell me, Liora,” he says, and hearing my name in his mouth knocks the air out of me. His eyes sharpen, pinning me in place. “Can you swear that your heart doesn’t beat when I’m near?”

He steps forward.

Another step.

And then another.

I retreat until my back presses flat against the wall. My heartbeat kicks up, thudding in my neck and chest.

He lowers his voice. “Can you swear you feel nothing for me?”

My breath trembles. I want to say yes. I want to scream it.
I want to insist I hate him, that I could never feel anything for someone who’s destroying my life, threatening me, controlling me.

But my body betrays me. 

“Don’t lie to yourself, love,” he adds.

His breath brushes my cheek, making my pulse jump. I turn my face aside.

“I don’t love you,” I say quietly, the words slipping out.

“That’s one way to word it,” he murmurs. “Love.”

My heart slams in my chest.
Why did I say love? He never used that word.

“I feel nothing for you,” I repeat, fixing the mistake. 

His lips curl slowly. 
“I really want to see,” he whispers, eyes locked onto mine, “how long you can keep lying to yourself.”

Then he pulls back, leaving the space between us cold and empty.

“We should leave now.”

He says it so casually, but my body is still reacting to everything he said before.

I don’t move immediately. I just stand there, breathing fast, trying to pull myself back together. My heartbeat is still uneven, like it hasn’t decided whether to calm down or panic again. It feels embarrassing that a few simple words from him could shake me this much.

When I finally walk out after him, the cool night air hits me. The sky is deep and clouded, that even the stars seemed to have vanished from the sky.

We head toward his car in silence. He walks ahead, calm as ever. While I can barely control my own breathing.

When we reach the car, he glances at me.
“Do you know how to drive?”

The question catches me off guard but I nod slowly. 
“Not perfectly,” I admit. “But… I can manage.”

A small smile pulls at his mouth.
“That’s good enough.”

I blink at him, confused. Good enough for what?

“You’ll take us there,” he says simply.

For a moment, I honestly think I misheard him.
“Me?” My voice comes out thin. “Drive you?”

He nods without hesitation.
“Yes. I’ll be your passenger prince.”

The phrase throws me off but it doesn’t erase my confusion.
“I don’t even know where we’re going,” I say truthfully. “How am I supposed to take us anywhere if I don’t know the destination?”

He doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he steps forward, opens the driver’s side door for me, then walks around the car, opens the passenger door for himself, and slides inside.

Once he’s seated, he looks at me with that same steady expression.
“I’ll show you,” he says.

A long breath escapes me and I finally enter the car, settling into the seat. Nikolai is completely relaxed beside me, one arm resting casually along the door, fingers tapping lightly as if he has all the time in the world. Meanwhile, my heart is racing frantically in my chest, loud enough that I’m sure he can hear it in the quiet car.

“Take your time,” he says, his voice soft.

It shouldn’t calm me, but it does. Just enough for my hands to stop shaking.

I inhale again, deeper this time, and start the engine. I adjust the mirror, grip the wheel, and slowly pull away from the villa.

“Go straight,” Nikolai says, his voice calm as if he’s guiding a child across a stream. “Stay in this lane.”

I nod.

“Good,” he murmurs again.

I don’t know why his approval warms something in my chest, something I wish I could ignore.

A few seconds pass before he speaks again.
“Turn left at the next curve. Not this one. The next.”

I ease my foot on the brake, carefully and he watches me. 

“You’re too tense,” he remarks, resting his elbow on the window. “Relax your shoulders.”

“How can I relax when you’re staring at me?” I mutter before I can stop myself.

Nikolai chuckles, totally unbothered. 
“If it helps… I’m enjoying the view.”

Heat rushes to my face and I grip the steering wheel harder.

“Take a right,” he continues.

I turn the wheel just as he says. The car glides smoothly, and a small part of me feels… proud? No. No, that’s ridiculous.

“See?” he says lightly. “You can do this.”

We drive for a few more minutes in comfortable instructions from him. Ten minutes later, the streetlights grow brighter and Nikolai gestures ahead.

“There,” he says. “Pull up to the entrance.”

My breath catches when I see a towering glass-walled building glowing with warm gold lights. 

“You did well,” he says softly, turning to me.

I pull the car to a stop exactly where he directs. We step out together and I take a moment to glance at him again. Even here, outside a place as extravagant as this, he still looks like he owns the entire world.

He walks around the car, extends his hand, and I place mine in his. His palm is...cold. Unusually cold, but I ignore it. Together, we step inside the building.

My lungs seize.

The restaurant is... empty.

Not empty as in quiet. Empty as in cleared out completely. The entire floor is polished to a mirror shine. Not a single table lines the walls. Just one table set perfectly in the center, with two luxurious velvet chairs facing each other under a chandelier so huge it looks like falling stars frozen mid-air.

It feels—

No. It is—

A restaurant turned into a private palace.

“I reserved the night for us,” Nikolai says, as if he read mt thoughts. “I didn’t want wandering eyes or unnecessary conversations reaching my ears.”

I’m stunned into silence.

He guides me forward, and when we reach the table, he pulls out my chair gently.

“You don’t need to do that,” I murmur, embarrassed. He tilts his head, genuinely confused, like I’ve spoken in a strange language. “I can manage myself.”

I settle into the seat and look away quickly taking in everything around us.

There are roses, thousands of them. As if he’d purchased every rose in the city. Even the air smells expensive.

Nikolai didn’t just book the place. He rebuilt it for tonight.

My throat tightens. I’ve been on dates before with Adrian, once or twice. A cute café. Something simple and sweet.

But this?

This is another universe entirely.

“Do you like it?” he asks, voice low.

I bite my lip.
“I do,” I admit, turning slowly, still taking it all in. “How much money do you have, exactly?”

He leans back, relaxed, studying me like I’m far more interesting than the whole room he transformed.

“You’re finally curious about me?” he asks, lips curling at the edges. “I was beginning to wonder when you’d start asking about the man you’re stuck with.”

I press my lips together, unsure how to respond. Because he’s right.

Part of me is curious.

“Once the waiter brings the meal,” he says casually, “and dinner starts, you’re free to ask me questions about me. Anything at all. I’ll answer truthfully.”

“Okay,” I murmur, glancing over my shoulder.

Three waiters are gathered in the far corner, arranging something on a cart. When I turn back to Nikolai, he’s no longer seated.

He’s standing, completely still.

His shoulders are drawn tight, every muscle tense. His eyes aren’t on me, they’re fixed straight ahead, as if he’s seeing something I can’t. For a moment, it doesn’t look like he’s breathing.

It’s like… he’s frozen.

“Nikolai?” I say carefully.

No reaction.

My stomach flips. I step around the table, reaching him slowly. “Nikolai?”

Nothing. Not a blink. Not even a muscle twitch.

I lift a hand toward his arm. “Nikola—”

His eyes snap to mine.

The suddenness of it nearly knocks the breath out of me. He reaches for my hand fast like he’s trying to hold on to me. To maybe steady himself or tell me something. But his fingers slip and almost immediately, his knees buckle.

His entire body crashes to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Ah!!!”
The scream tears from my throat. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t get back up.

And a cold, paralyzing fear curls up my spine.

Did Nikolai just stop breathing?