Bound by lies Trapped by Desire novel Chapter 157

Chapter 157-

Chapter 157

Elena’s POV:

We were moving fast, the engine’s sound now almost irritating. My fists were clenched, against the soaked fabric of my dress. I was trying desperately not to look at the water. I hadn’t felt the full force of my terror earlier, my mind consumed with the shock of what had just transpired.

But now I started to feel sick, a roiling wave of nausea due to the rocking of the boat and the fear that was still coiling in my gut. Bile rose in my throat, hot and acrid, and I swallowed it back down with a shudder.

I needed to distract myself. I forced my eyes to focus on Malakai, who was a small, receding figure on the other yacht. The distance between us grew with every passing second as our speedboat moved in the opposite direction, his smirking face fading into the gloom.

“He’s… experienced,” Nikolai said, as he noticed my lingering gaze.

I looked at him, my mind still reeling. “In killing?” I asked, my voice a shocked whisper. I couldn’t reconcile the two images in my mind–the carefree, charming playboy, and the cold, unfeeling person who had just tossed a body into the ocean as if he were taking out the trash.

“That’s why I wanted to keep you away from him.” Nikolai sighed, the sound a low exhale of frustration and regret.

I went quiet then, my eyes, against my will, drifting back to the sea. The water was a swirling expanse of black and silver. Was it over? Was this it? A cold dread settled over me. No, I realized with a sickening clarity. This was only the beginning. Dmitri was dead, but would his father let this go so easily? Dmitri was supposed to be in prison.

“How did he escape?” I asked Nikolai. He pursed his lips, his gaze fixed on the water ahead. “The police escorting him had been bought my–his father, they’d assisted him.” He replied, his words clipped and final.

But I shook my head, a new, more profound sense of confusion settling in. “That’s not possible. Sergei said that all the police working on the case were his own men.” I replied. Nikolai went rigid then, his body tensing.

Oh. Right. He didn’t like Sergei. But to my surprise, he didn’t show any outward contempt or anger at the mention of his name. Instead, his expression remained flat, his voice calm and controlled as he replied, “With the right amount of money, anyone can be bought, Malishka. Humans are wired in a way that the more comfortable they are, the more they are willing to be exploited.”

His words, spoken with a quiet, icy finality, made me go tense. A hot flush of shame spread across my face. Not because they were wrong–they weren’t. And I didn’t think he’d actually meant them as a jab at me. But… they did hit like one. Hadn’t I become too comfortable? Hadn’t I allowed myself to be exploited? Just because Sergei had removed the debt and given us back our car, not to mention how he helped with the case, I had allowed him into my life. I had accepted his help, his money, his presence..

Nikolai, as if sensing the unspoken turmoil in my mind. “I didn’t mean you, Malishka. Don’t take it the wrong way. You didn’t do anything to cause pain or harm to the people around you. And even if you did… then it was probably well deserved.” His words, a strange, beautiful contradiction of callousness and tenderness, made me purse my lips. I took in a deep, shuddering breath.

Damn it. I had tried distracting myself but my head felt heavy and my body too weak. I bent down, resting my head on the cool, leather edge of the seat, trying to calm my racing heart and the furious thoughts in my head.

“Elena?” Nikolai’s voice sounded obviously worried. I shook my head, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. “Sorry… I just feel dizzy.”

I took in a shuddering breath, my mind drifting. The dream–was it a dream? I had always thought such things only happened in books. But if it was a memory, then it would make sense. It would make sense why I didn’t remember most of my childhood, why the first clear memory I had was of meeting a stranger who had from then on become my mother. It would make sense why the water… why the water terrified me so much.

What orphanage did I come from again? I had never asked my mother. Who was that woman? It had been almost twenty years, hadn’t it? Would she still be alive? Why did the thought of her still being alive make my heart clench with a terror I hadn’t felt since I was a child?

My eyes widened then as a new, more immediate wave of nausea hit me, a powerful, violent surge from deep in my gut. I groaned, my body lurching forward, and I lay down completely on the bench.

“Hang on, we’re almost there.” His voice sounded panicked. My ears buzzed, the sound of the engine and the waves becoming a singular, deafening

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Chapter 157

white noise. But I couldn’t open my mouth to reassure him. Instead, I only groaned in pain as felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my stomach, a turrible- twisting sensation that made me gasp and clutch my abdomen. The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before,

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