Empire of Sin(Empire #2)(105)

No matter how monstrous the world views him, he’ll always be the god who saved me from a life of abuse.

“You deserve much more than I can offer you, Nastyusha,” he tells me. “But if he hurts you in any way, I’ll make a lesson out of him.”

“Papa…” I choke on my tears, then take his free hand and kiss its back. “Thank you. Thank you.”

He strokes my hair for a few more seconds, then releases me and leaves with his guard. Rai winks at me before she jogs after him. “Wait for me.”

Papa grabs her by the arm. “No running or you’ll hurt the baby.”

She grins at that and I smile a little, but it soon falls when I feel hot breaths at my neck.

I abruptly turn around and my air gets caught in my throat when I’m face to face with those golden hazel eyes.

He reaches around me and closes the door. I swear I can hear its resounding sound in my chest.

“Miss me, beautiful?”

“What happened?” It’s hard to breathe let alone speak when his body is a few inches from mine and his warmth is flooding me. “How come Papa agreed?”

“I’ve been meeting with him ever since the first time he caught me coming out of your room. It took a lot of convincing, but he was being difficult about something we both wanted. He knows you’re better off away from his world and that I’m the one who can offer you that life. So he suggested we get married.”

“Y-you don’t have to do that just for Papa. I can speak to him—”

“What are you talking about? You think I wouldn’t want to marry you?”

My lips part and I fumble for words. “You want to?”

“What type of question is that? Of course, I want to. We might have started with my fucking your brains out, but over time, you became the woman I can’t imagine my life without. You became my woman, Anastasia, and I intend to keep you.”

I sniffle, the onslaught of emotions ricocheting in my chest. “Even though I hid my identity from you?”

“Even then. That’s when I knew you were mine, and there’s no fucking changing that.”

“But my family—”

“I couldn’t give a fuck about your family. You’re the only one I care about. Besides, I have a big family as well and they’re more than ready to accept you as a member. We can be a little crazy, just so you’re warned.”

“Oh, Knox…I love you.”

He pauses, a gleam shining deep in his eyes. “You do?”

“Yeah, I think I’ve been falling in love with you since the first time I saw you.”

“I’ve been obsessed with you for just as long. I didn’t realize the nature of these feelings growing inside me at first, but I do now. They’re stronger than love, beautiful, they’re even more powerful than anything I’ve ever experienced and I’d be a fool to ignore them. You taught me to not ignore the ugly parts of myself. Hell, you even liked them and made me the better version of myself.”

“You made me the best version of myself, too. You helped me find my own strength and I can’t imagine my life without you.”

“You’ve always been strong. Just because it was simmering under the surface doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.”

“And just because you had a traumatic past, doesn’t mean you can’t rise above it.” I stroke his face. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

“You sure as fuck will.”

“You’ll really have me?”

“The real question should be, will you have me, beautiful?”

“For the rest of my life, Knox.”

“Good, because I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.” He opens his arms and I dive right in.

I dive into the place that makes me feel wanted, safe, and alive.

The place I’ll never leave.





EPILOGUE - KNOX





TWO YEARS LATER





“I’m telling you, Ana, we used to beat his arse,” Ron says with his usual overdramatization and T shakes her head.

My wife, who’s snuggled in my lap, laughs. She just loves it whenever Ron or Dan tell stories about the past, which is why she gets along with them very well and demands we visit the UK any chance we get.

And yes, she’s my wife now. Anastasia Van Doren. I married her a few months after Sergei gave me the green light. I would’ve done it sooner, before he changed his mind, but there were a lot of things happening in the Bratva, so we had to wait.

Even though my beautiful wife keeps in touch with her great-cousin and the grumpy arsehole, Vladimir, we’re actually isolated from their internal and external wars.

Sergei made sure to keep her away from everything, as per her wishes, but she still visits him all the time, checking up on his health.

Anastasia doesn’t know this, but she’s a mafia princess through and through. Whenever the chance arises, she still helps the leaders when they need any hacking done and cares about whether or not they’re in danger.

Just because she was out of the house doesn’t mean she forgot where she came from, and I love that about her.

I love how she’s loyal to a fault and stands up for her friends, namely Gwen, Sandra, and my sister.