All Chapters of Twisting Fate: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

I looked up at him and he was standing within moments, squatting down in front of me and taking my hands in his. My eyes looked from the phone to his hands. I didn’t really want to explain why this brought a panic attack up.“Ria, what’s wrong? It’s not the newest model, I know, but it’s what we could get on short notice and Lev being out of commission.”“I…I don’t know how to use it…”Everyone in the kitchen stopped, the constant sound of movement ceased. It was a silence that made me want to run for the door.Marek’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean? You’ve never had this type of phone? Or…”God, I wanted to die right there on the stool. “No, I…it’s a touch screen? I use my fingers to open it?”Suddenly, realization dawned on him. “You’ve never had a cell phone before.”I shook my head. &ldqu

Letting his shirt go, I guided the cart away from him into the women’s section of clothing. Luckily, I nabbed a couple jeans in my size and threw in a few of their generic cotton shirts. There were some movie or internet related ones but nothing jumped out at me enough to swap out for the plain colors. Underwear, socks, and a couple bras were next. I was flat as a board but it felt good to have something more than just your nipples bushing up against a shirt. Plus, the black lace bralette was actually cute. Crossing the path to the shoe section, they had some off brand Chucks in my size that I threw in. I also grabbed a pair of slippers and a belt. They had purses but I snagged a backpack that was shaped like a cup of ramen that I could put all the clothes in.It was easy to see Marek’s towering figure in the men’s section. He was looking at the wall of shirts that were displayed with funny sayings or pop culture references. Walking the cart up next to him,

Vlad looked like a shell-shocked deflated balloon. His eyes went between Marek and I when I crossed my arms over my chest.“This mudak is the one you want to protect me? Seriously?”Now both of them were looking at me as I glared at Vlad. Yes, I’d called him an asshole in Russian. I wasn’t about to not learn the language and everyone knows the first thing you learn in a different language is the swear words.“Vlad Lenkov, I would you to meet Rosaria Baranov, my wife. She will be staying here until further notice. The issue is I need to go to Moscow for a week and with the Italians running around with a hit out on her, I’d like to make sure she’s safe. Inside and out.”Vlad seemed to not be taking this as well as Marek hoped he would. He just stared, slack-jawed at me.“Vlad…?”“Who the hell agreed to this? Her father is Carlo, right? Enzo is a fucked u

Stripping down out of the skirt and shirt right there in the middle of the room, I walked to my room and started the luxurious shower. If I was ever to feel pampered, this was how it was done. It was lovely, the hot water didn’t run out and I’d gotten every type cleaner at Target. Conditioner was always too risky at home because you could hide more types of sabotage. Now, I could use shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and body wash all without fear. It was about thirty minutes before I got out but it was a blissful thirty minutes.I dressed in some jeans and the T-shirt that had the element ‘AH’ in the periodic table while under it it said ‘The element of surprise’. I thought it was funny. Pulling my hair up into a high ponytail, I walked into the empty penthouse. It really was like an entirely new world for me. I didn’t want to touch anything. I felt like I was overstepping my bounds into Marek’s space even though he told me it w

“Mrs. Baranov, what are you planning on doing?”I eyed Keenan who was eyeing me with the ladder in hand. “I’m painting this ugly ass wall. What else would I be doing? Silly.”He coughed down the squeak of surprise. “Couldn’t you have requested someone to come and paint it? Professionals and…”“While Marek is gone? Hell no. They would have had to go through background checks and then a whole slew of people would need to watch over them. They would come in and paint and I wouldn’t be able to do anything but watch from the peep hole. If he even allowed it while he wasn’t here to watch everything.” I put my hands on my hips after I set the ladder down. “No. If I find something I feel like needs to get done, I’ll do it myself for now.”Pulling all the paint supplies to the canvas, I opened up the first can to make sure that it was the right color. Sure eno