Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
“So, you’re saying if he had been a nice and kind man, you would have married him?”
“Yes,” Anastasia said. “Don’t look at me like that. I know people think looks are everything, but trust me on this, looks fade, okay? I used to hear my grandparents talk about it all the time. The ones that died before you killed my family.”
He was not going to feel guilty for following an order. Only now, six months later, he was a little doubtful as to the reason the Babkin family had to be removed.
“What did your grandparents say?” he asked. He loved to hear her speak.
“It was my grandma, actually. She would look at movie stars or whatever actor and actress was on television, and she would say, ‘looks are not everything.’” She laughed. “She would then say, ‘This is not because I’m an ugly person. I’m seventy years old, and my Ivan was a king, a hunk, and now his looks are gone, they are faded, but that love stays.’” She had a smile on her face. “Ivan and Lottie Babkin. They had met when she was sixteen, and he was twenty years old. She refused him, and he continued to chase her. They married when my grandma was eighteen, and it was a love match. That love never diminished. She would always tell me, ‘fall for a man who makes you happy, makes you laugh, makes you angry. Fall for the man who makes you feel so many different things, and even if he is ugly as sin, marry him, because he’s the one for you.’”
Dmitriy watched as she wiped a tear away.
He had not killed those grandparents, but he had known they had been killed in a car accident. At the funeral, he had attended, because from the moment he had seen Anastasia, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
He always found a means to be close to her, even if she didn’t know it. She had sobbed at her grandparents’ funeral, and if it hadn’t been for her father and brothers consoling her, he would have stolen her away, right there and then.
****
It had been a long time since Anastasia had thought about Grandma Lottie. They had died when she was eighteen and a half years old. The news had been devastating. It had broken her heart to know her grandparents had died.
She had known true heartache, and through it all, she kept reminding herself of all the advice and wisdom her Grandma Lottie would bestow onto her.
Throwing off the blankets, she grabbed a robe and wrapped it around herself. It was nearing winter, and the cabin was getting cold once again. Through the summer, it had been hot as hell, and she had no choice but to leave the windows open. The only problem was the animals that somehow got inside. Waking up to find a bunny in the living room had been adorable. At one point, there had also been a deer poking its head in the window. That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was, it was cold right now, and she needed a hot chocolate, or some warm milk.
She kept thinking about her grandmother’s advice, and she couldn’t help but keep putting Dmitriy in that place. He was no knight in shining armor, even though he had helped her live. Dmitriy didn’t need to keep her alive, yet he had done so. The anger and hurt were gone, and now she was grateful to him.
Stepping into the kitchen, she took a second to decide if she wanted warm milk or hot chocolate. Hot chocolate won. There was no microwave, so it had to be heated on the stove. Pouring the milk into the saucepan, she allowed it to simmer. She couldn’t help but glance across the room at the small setup with her sewing machine. It was two small tables, a swivel chair, so she could be working at her sewing machine, and then turn to her overlocker. She often used the floor to cut out whatever pattern she wanted.
Dmitriy gave her whatever she wanted. He was a good guy who had no choice but to do bad things. But he wasn’t a bad guy. He didn’t kill her. When she stabbed him with a fork, he didn’t attack her. He dealt with the stab, and she felt so freaking guilty, she had never hurt anyone before in her life.
Anastasia had taken self-defense classes, which was Grandma Lottie’s advice. “Always learn and be as independent as possible, but know when to be taken care of.” That was her advice, and how she had been able to survive the last four years on her own.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Dmitriy asked.
“No.” She looked down at her pan and saw the milk had come to a boil. “Do you want to share a hot chocolate?”