I sat before Bianca in a crowded restaurant as she just looked at me with her eyes wide open and a hint of judgment in them. She then looked around to see Nikolai's soldiers standing all around the restaurant. Her lips pressed into a thin line as if she was disappointed in me or something.

I shifted in my seat, clearly uneasy by the way she was looking at me and the way she was reacting like I had committed a crime.

"Say something!" I snapped at her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Um... wow."

I rolled my eyes. "Really? That's all you got to say?"

"You're not Evangeline anymore, you're Mrs. Nikolai Costello," she moved her finger around the restaurant, gesturing toward Nikolai's men. "I can clearly see that!"

I cringed at the way she uttered that sentence, she said it like I'm not a normal human being anymore. "I'm still Evangeline, B."

"No, you're not. In our world that makes you my queen. I don't know what our friendship status is anymore. What I can say or cannot say to you," she said, looking pissed off.

"It doesn't mean I'm not the same person anymore, B. It's still me, and I'm still your friend. Me being married to Nikolai doesn't have to change things between us. You know I wouldn't involve Nikolai in our friendship," I explained to her.

She reached over the table and held my hand that was resting over it. "Is Nikolai abusing you, blackmailing you with something?"

My eyes widened at her words. "Abusing me? No! What the hell, B?"

"What did he do to you?"

My frown deepened. "What do you mean?"

She heaved a sigh. "What does he have against you? How did he manage all this? I know he must have done it to get out of his marriage to Grace. So, did he blackmail you, forced you, abused you in any way?"

I rolled my eyes at the absurdity of her words. "Do I look like a girl that had been forced into anything?"

A crinkle appeared between her brows. "Are you saying that you got married to him willingly?"

I nodded. "Yes..."

"Why? Why would you marry Niko, Evangeline? Do you have any idea what you got yourself into? He probably manipulated you into getting married to him just so he doesn't have to marry Grace. He never liked her and you were probably his way out. What? He said two sweet words to you and you fell right into his trap? You are too innocent for someone like him."

Something about her words rubbed me the wrong way. She was clearly insinuating that Nikolai only married me as a way out. I'm surprised how it didn't even cross her mind that we could actually have feelings for one another.

"It was not a trap, he didn't manipulate me. We did this because we wanted to, Bianca. Why is it so hard for you to believe that Nikolai married me because he wanted me? He didn't have any hidden agenda or whatever. Nikolai wanted me, not Grace," I snapped as I looked around the crowded café, making sure to keep my voice low.

A look of incredulity crossed her face. "He wanted you? Sweetie, it's Nikolai Costello we are talking about!"

I lifted a shoulder, taking a sip of my bitter coffee. "I know you're concerned for me but I'm fine, B. We are fine. I married him because I... I love him."

She snorted as if it was something unbelievable. "Has he told you that he loves you?"

I was about to say something but then I closed my mouth as I thought about it. I furrowed my eyebrows as I realized that Nikolai has never told me anything of that sort. He didn't even tell me if he liked me. But Nikolai also wasn't a very expressive person when it came to feelings.

A smile stretched over Bianca's lips. "He never told you that he loves you, did he?"

"Nikolai isn't the one to talk about his feelings, you and I both know that, Bianca!"

She laughed, she actually laughed at me, shaking her head, she added. "Wake up, sweetie. Niko used you, and you fell right into his trap."

I shook my head, "No, he didn't. You have no idea about our relationship, how can you say such things?"

"I'm saying all that because I know who Niko is and I also know who you are. I love Niko but I also care about you deeply, Evangeline. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Who's getting hurt?"

Nikolai's deep voice resonated from behind me. An instant sense of relief washed over me just by listening to his voice. My nerves calmed down and an involuntary smile across my face.

Nikolai pulled out a chair for himself beside me but before sitting down, he dipped his head and kissed me. He pulled back, his eyes trailing all over my face. "Good morning, gorgeous."

I beamed up at him. "Good morning."

He turned to Bianca. "Morning, cousin."

Bianca smiled uneasily as her eyes darted between me and Nikolai. "Morning, Niko."

"Marco told me you were here, I thought that we'll have breakfast together but I see that you have started without me," Nikolai said as he ordered breakfast and coffee for himself.

I gave my head a gentle shake. "I didn't know you were coming, I would have waited."

He leaned in again, placing another short and sweet kiss on my lips. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you, wife."

He sat back in his chair with a smug look on his face, he was dressed up neatly in a suit, his outrageously expensive watch peeking through his sleeve, and his hair was combed but still a little tousled. He was looking like a sharp businessman. For a second, I couldn't believe that this man belonged to me. He was my husband, my Nikolai.

The waiter came back with his food and he ate like he had no worries in the world, his posture leaned back, relaxed while his eating etiquettes were immaculate.

An awkward silence fell on the table as Bianca's lips were sealed shut now. She was afraid of Nikolai, she had always been since the day I met them.

Nikolai took a sip of his coffee and then his attention turned back to us. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Um, nothing, I was just surprised by whatever happened yesterday and wanted to talk to Evangeline... to see if she was alright," Bianca explained quite politely as if she said anything wrong, Nikolai would shoot her.

Nikolai just laughed at her words and then shook his head as if finding our conversation completely absurd.

I felt a warm, big, strong hand creeping up my thigh from under the table. I glanced at Nikolai but his expressions were completely normal as he talked to Bianca.

I shifted in my seat as his hand went up inside my dress. I slowly and discreetly placed my hand over his, we were sitting in a crowded restaurant and I don't want to be thrown out for public indecency. Even though, I don't think anyone here will try to touch Nikolai Costello.

Bianca's stiff posture loosened up a bit as she realized that Nikolai was in a good mood. She even cracked a joke about the two of us getting married. It was weird how quickly she changed her tone after Nikolai came here.

Nikolai kept caressing and kneading my inner thigh, my whole body trembled and shuddered multiple times under his touch. But I kept it in, I didn't want to be too obvious. I'm glad he didn't touch me anywhere other than my thigh even though he did try to touch me through my underwear once in a while.

"Come on, let's go home," Nikolai stood up, and Bianca and I did as well.

Nikolai placed a hand on the small of my back as he walked us out of the restaurant. He made me stand by his car as he went to Bianca's car along with her. I glanced at them to see Nikolai saying something to her while she just hung her head and nodded to everything. Bianca looked as if she was about to cry any minute now while Nikolai's face was set in stone nothing like the laidback, friendly Nikolai that was talking to her in the restaurant.

He opened her car door and grabbed her by the arm before shoving her inside, he talked to her some more as she was seated in the car. He then slammed the door shut and made his way back to me.

"What were you guys talking about?" I asked.

"Nothing, just family stuff."

"You can tell me."

He tsked in mock disappointment. "Na, wouldn't want to scare you away."

I smiled, waving my ring in his face. "It's a little too late for that now, don't you think?"

He made a hmm sound that came deep from his chest. "I keep forgetting that you're a Costello now, you just don't look like one..."

I mockingly frowned. "Is there a signature Costello look that I need to put on?"

He raised his hand and traced his finger along the curve of my cheekbone. "Yes, none of us have gentle eyes but you do."

I blushed involuntarily. "Well, I'm sorry I can't do anything about the way my eyes are."

"I wouldn't want you to change them," he stood before me with a faint smile on his face. "I had to be somewhere that's why I left early this morning," he told me out of the blue but it warmed my heart that he cared enough to let me know.

"It's fine but let me know beforehand next time you decide to leave your wife alone in the bed."

He breathed out a laugh. "Are you really my wife?"

With a frown on my forehead, I looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"I don't remember you performing any wifely duties for me."

"Wifely duties?" I asked, confused out of my mind.

"Instead you slept through the night," he added.

My cheeks heated up as I realized what he was talking about. I tucked my hair behind my ear and decided to play along. "So, you expect me to cook, clean, and launder your clothes for you?"

He laughed, shaking his head. "Baby girl, if I wanted that I would have married one of my maids," he took a step closer to me and I took a step back, pressing myself into the car door in the busy street of New York City, "I'm talking about your other wifely duties, something that involves chores like fucking, sucking, and licking."

I swear my face turned forty shades of red in a matter of seconds. I have been living with Nikolai for months now and I still wasn't used to him saying such explicit things this candidly.

"I think you took Grace's bits of advice quite seriously," I answered, suppressing a smile that threatened to spread across my face.

He chuckled, running his thumb across his lower lip. "Angel, I think you have cockblocked me enough, don't you think it's time to give in now?"

I bit my lower lip. "I'll think about it."

That made him annoyed, "You suck at being a wife."

I couldn't hold the amusement in anymore as I laughed out loud. "Look at you, contradicting your own self. You said I'll be a good wife."

He lifted a shoulder. "Yeah, well, the grass is always greener on the other side and all that shit."

Before I could say something else, pain surged through my body radiating from my arm. My breath whooshed out of me as I staggered to my side. It felt as if I’d been stabbed with a branding iron.

Everyone started yelling and shouting all around me, my mind buzzed with voices as I saw Nikolai, a wave of shock went over his face, and then his eyes filled with desperation. Suddenly, I was thrown to the ground with Nikolai's body covering mine.

I stared down at where the bullet had carved a hole into my arm. Nikolai held my wound as he tried to stop the blood but it didn't as it seeped through his fingers.

"Fuck! FUCK!" he shouted, desperation and anger radiating off him.

I could hear his men firing bullets into the air all the while Nikolai's body stayed over mine. Waves of pain echoed and surged throughout my body. I felt the life being sucked out of me and my eyes were beginning to close.

"No, no, no, Evangeline, stay with me, fucking open your eyes. Don't you dare fucking close them!" his voice echoed around me, my vision swirled, and his face became distorted as I lost more and more blood.

"Niko..." I whispered through the pain, my eyes filled with tears as they spilled down the side of my face. The pain was too much for me to handle.

"Shh... It's gonna be fine, alright, you're gonna be fine," his voice turned heavier and heavier before I closed my eyes and let the pain take over.

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