Dom Vadim's Vow

Cheater

She made her way out of the bathroom and found Monty leaning against the wall.

“Are you okay? Did you really vomit?”

“I did,” she nodded as he cupped her cheek softly rubbing his thumb over it.

“You’re not preggers,” he gave her a mocking glance.

“No!” she smacked his chest. “I think I ate bad meat.”

“My meat is very bad. You don’t usually chunder after eating my meat.”

She shoved him, “not funny.” Her head was pounding, and his foolishness was not appreciated. Despite knowing it wasn’t his fault she found herself annoyed with his playful antics when the rest of her world felt it was spinning out of control. “Monty, this is bad. I’m late and Mr. Richardson is furious. According to his wife, the director of the museum specifically wanted the curator’s team here. If his boss wanted me here and I wasn’t here it makes him look bad.”

“Oh,” he frowned. “I’m sorry. I got you in trouble, didn’t I? I kept you –”

“No. I wanted it,” she stepped closer to him, hugging him annoyed with herself for feeling the need to reassure him when it was her whose ass was on the line. “I wanted you.” She smiled up at him praying he didn’t see through the phoniness of it. “I love you and I love being with you. I was irresponsible is all and I should have insisted we leave and finish what we started later. Now I’m going to have to seriously kiss his ass to make this better.” And pray Vadim doesn’t make things worse.

She was back in her seat in moments and Vadim’s eyes were immediately on her as he delivered his speech on funding the arts.

Her boss leaned sideways, “you’re sure you’re not going to make the rest of the table sick?”

She shook her head quietly her eyes unable to leave the sight of the man at the podium with the bright lights on him. Seven years hadn’t changed him much. No laugh lines marred his face. No grey hair dared to taint his dark glossy hair. Not a single extra ounce of weight was added to his lithe frame. Even his speech, succinct, matter of fact and deliberate was exactly as she recalled it. He was not a man who made jokes to relax the crowd or warm them up. He simply said what he wanted to say, and it was all.

Now as he ended his speech with a promise of a ten-million-dollar donation to the museum from the Angevin Foundation in honor of his wife, she felt her heart racing. His wife. Essie wondered who she was, and she looked to the table he’d been sitting at earlier, expecting to see Eliska or maybe another beautiful model but if there was anyone accompanying him, she wasn’t able to discern them from this distance.

Eventually he made his way off the stage, shaking hands with the dignitaries. Not once did a smile grace his lips. He was focused and right now as the house lights came up and people got up to stretch their legs before dinner was served, he was heading in her direction.

She wanted to run. The urge to pump her legs as fast as they could go out the door and back home to hide under her bed as if the boogey man himself was chasing her was overwhelming. Yet she froze unable to put coherent thoughts together.

He walked straight up to her and stared down at her where she sat unable to move. “Essence.”

“Vadim.” She responded and heard Monty grunting beside her.

“You know this guy?” Monty’s tone was accusatory.

“Yes. Vadim Tudor is –”

“Her husband,” Vadim shot Monty a nasty look. “I presume you’re the one whose been keeping her bed warm for me while she works here in Australia instead of being home performing her marital duties.”

She jumped up at the collective gasp from her table and without thinking slapped him hard across the face, “you are not my husband. I did not marry you. I am not a cheating w***e for you to embarrass amongst my colleagues. I left before I was forced to do the unspeakable and be stuck with you for the rest of my life. Go to hell Vadim.”

Choking around the table echoed as the resounding smack of her hand on his cheek caught the attention of multiple people in the oversized ballroom.

“Think carefully about your next words, little wife,” Vadim glowered at her as he rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

“I left before the ceremony.” She retorted suddenly regretful for her bold reaction and feeling vulnerable and on display. “I am not your wife.”

“But not before you signed a prenup, marriage license and signed for the civil ceremony in front of the registrar in your grandfather’s office.”

She froze, “no. I signed the prenup. That was it.”

“Was it?” he was towered over her. One of his security agents pressed their hands atop Monty’s shoulders holding him in place. “You might have been so overcome with the excitement of our nuptials you didn’t read all the fine print, but we did indeed get married in a civil manner. The big church wedding was more for the pomp and circumstance of it all for your mother’s sake. Oddly enough,” he looked to Monty, “while you were protected in case I cheated, your grandfather never included a caveat in the event you cheated on me. I think he believed you wouldn’t be so daring. Look at you, proving him wrong.”

She swung at him again and he caught her hand this time.

“Once is enough and far more than I expected from an Angevin. You were raised better. Collect your belongings we are leaving.”

“Leaving?”

“Yes. Did you think you could hide here in Sydney for the rest of your life? We have duties to tend to back in London.”

“I am not going back to London.”

“Your mother misses you.”

“My mother forgot I existed the moment she pushed Eulalie out. The only statement which could potentially be more absurd than her missing me would be if you suggested Eliska or grandfather Iwan did.”

“Iwan adores you.”

“The only thing Iwan Angevin adores is the money in his bank account and you. The rest of the world doesn’t matter.”

“Wait,” Monty spoke from where he sat, “Iwan Angevin is your grandfather? As in second richest man on the planet, Iwan Angevin?”

The fact Monty was more concerned about her grandfather’s wealth than a stranger telling the crowd hanging off their every word she was married, was a flag of bright red color. She shot him an annoyed glance. “Seriously, that’s your question?”

“Well clearly the marriage thing is a lie because you would have to know if you married someone. I’ve known you half a year now and I know for a fact you’re the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I’ve ever met,” he shoved off the hand of the guard and rose, “so there’s no way in hell you’re cheating on anyone. You don’t have it in you. Anyone who knows you, knows this.”

“Then you don’t know her, because she is married and she did cheat, multiple times.” Vadim pretended he didn’t hear the stunned murmurs at how boldly he was making his accusations. “Essence, I’m not repeating myself. Get your purse.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I am not asking.” He leaned and spoke into her ear, “You will get your s**t together Essence or so help me god I will ruin every single one of the people you love and admire from this shitty-ass lover who thinks his tech company is the next big thing to the boss sitting here thinking he saved you on behalf of your college professor and don’t even get me started on what I will do to her. Imagine what will happen to her career when it’s leaked, she used Cambridge funds to secure coveted positions for her students and arranged to hide women and children from the courts. She’ll never get a job anywhere again. Seven f*****g years of trying to find you. You’re in trouble, Essence and I’m going to exact your punishment.”

Her spine was rigid. “Whatever you choose to do to others because you don’t get your own way is on your head, not mine.”

“Is this what you told yourself to keep yourself from feeling guilty when you knew your grandfather was going to destroy your sisters?”

She flicked a nervous glance to his cold gaze.

“You called his bluff, Essence. What do you think he did?”

“Nothing.” She lifted her chin, “and if he did do something it’s his problem, not mine. I am not responsible for his bullshit.”

“Take her,” he motioned to security team.

“You can’t take her,” Monty protested angrily struggling with the guards. “She’s a human being not a possession.”

Vadim lifted his cell phone from his pocket and sent a text message. He stood there for a few moments silently regarding Monty who stared back at him furiously. Monty was bigger, broader across the shoulders and an inch taller yet, somehow Vadim seemed to be the one sucking the air out of the room. She stared at him furiously aware this was the first time in her life she ever dared look him straight in the eyes so boldly. Younger Essence would have pissed her pants out of sheer terror being around this man. Perhaps when her adrenaline wasn’t rushing through her veins at such an alarming rate, she would be more fearful but, in this moment, she felt only rage.

How dare he embarrass her like this in front of people she respected and who respected her?

As she looked around, she noted the entire ballroom was empty, even her boss was gone. When did they all disperse? She realized the power the man in front of her wielded, with nothing more than a handful of men at his disposal, hadn’t waned in the last seven years.

Monty’s phone started to ring. He declined the call, and it rang again almost instantly. He furiously answered it on speaker, “Jake, I’m in the middle of something here.”

“Yeah well, I got word in the last minute three of our five investors are pulling out their investments and they’re all specifically saying they don’t want to work with you. Nope,” a tinging in the background caught their ear, “all five. We’ve just lost everything. What the f**k did you do? Who did you piss off?”

“This time tomorrow he won’t have enough cash to buy bog roll to wipe his arse let alone pay his mortgage on his pricy condo.” Vadim spoke calmly looking at his fingernails, “oh, wait, the condo. His mortgage needs foreclosure. I mean, surely the man who f****d my wife deserves nothing less than utter degradation.”

“You bastard,” she gasped as Vadim cruelly smirked and sent another text message.

“Not as pretty when you have to watch it close up and personal is it?” he shot back furiously. “To the car now or my next call is to Cambridge and then to Japan.”

Her eyes flashed in horror. Aisha.

“I hate you.”

“The feeling is greatly mutual.”