I avoided leaving the room. To be fair, I was exhausted from having the twins, and we were still adjusting to our mommy and baby routine. But in reality, I was trying to avoid Dimitri. After about a week of hiding, Olena had enough and she made me get out of bed and go down stairs to eat with the family, and wanted me to start going on walks with the twins so we could go get some sunshine and fresh air. This time, I couldn't ignore her, because she was adamant about being obeyed.

So, I was coming down to breakfast the next morning. My short hair was messy, and I paid no attention to my appearance. I was lucky if I remembered to shower and wear deodorant, and if my clothes matched. Everywhere I went, I usually had a baby attached to my boob, or I was changing diapers or carefully bathing tiny bodies. After I fed the twins and put them down for their morning nap. I helped to set the table, stretching my legs. I nearly collided with Dimitri as he came in from his run. I froze and stared at him for a long moment, my face deadpan as we studied each other. I noticed his fingers twitch and start to reach for me, but I quickly backed up several steps, and dodged around him, giving him a very wide berth as we moved around the Belikovas' little house. The more Dimitri tried to approach me, the more I avoided him.

Viktoria and Karolina apparently noticed this trend, because they went out of their way to make sure Dimitri sat right next to me at breakfast. I was tense and uncomfortable as I tried to sit as far away from him as I could, given our cramped sitting space, being careful to not touch him or brush up against him in anyway. Every time I looked at him, I remembered the moment that resulted in my children, and I felt dirty and used. He'd played on my weakness for him and took advantage of my feelings for him so that he could manipulate me. I would never trade my children for anything in the world, but I hated the circumstances that brought them into this world. It wasn't fair. My children should have been created with love… not with lies…

And that was all I could see when I looked at Dimitri now. I no longer saw a man I loved more deeply than I could fathom… I saw a lie that I had been burned terribly by. And I vowed I would never let him close enough to hurt me or my children again.

I could tell he was watching me out of the corner of his eye, trying to engage me in any sort of conversation, but I pretended he didn't exist, and focused on chewing my food thoroughly and swallowing. I felt his knee brush up against mine, and though I felt completely ridiculous afterwards, I startled and jumped up out of my chair as if a snake had just slithered across my lap, and in my haste to remove myself from the situation, I'd knocked the chair over with a loud clatter, lost my balance and fell. For a split second, I was prepared to land painfully on the chair, but instead, I landed in Dimitri's lap, because he'd caught me and held onto me tightly. I hissed, and struggled, trying to wriggle out of his arms, the breakfast table suddenly turning into the ring of our wrestling match as everyone shouted and tried to be heard over the clamor, but I would have none of it, and apparently, neither would Dimitri. He'd been sitting next to me this whole time like a Venus Fly Trap, and when I'd accidentally fallen into his lap, he trapped me there and refused to let go. I snarled and struggled, and even felt him stand up and carry me away from the tables, my feet lifted on the floor, and my arms pinned to my chest as he carried me outside to prevent further damage.

I was spitting like a wet feline by the time we crossed the threshold into the morning sun, screeching and kicking with anger. But after giving birth to twins, I was not any kind of match for Dimitri's strength. I wasn't strong enough to overpower him anyway, and with the vantage he had, I was helpless. I couldn't even strike at him, because he had my arms held firmly against my torso. I tried to kick in his kneecaps, but he anticipated that, too, and managed just to stay out of my reach.

"Let me go, you lousy, rotten son of a bitch!" I yowled, struggling with every ounce of strength and energy I had in my system. "Put me down!" I screamed so loud, I could feel my face turning purple with the way my blood pressure skyrocketed.

"Roza, be quiet or you'll upset the neighbors," Dimitri said in that infuriatingly calm voice, patronizing me. I wanted to claw his eyes out and shove them up his butthole.

"I'll give them something to be upset about if you don't put me down right now! I'll cut off your penis and make a f*cking door decoration for them! Let go!" I shrieked. Dimitri sighed.

"Suit yourself, Roza," he said, and then he let go...

And dropped me flat on my ass.

I hit the ground so hard, the wind was knocked out of me. Gasping for breath, I just gazed up at the sky for a long moment, a little mystified as I tried to puzzle out exactly how I had gotten here and how the wind left my lungs. When it all started to come back to me, I spit on the ground and slowly started to pick myself up out of the ungainly heap I had landed in...

And then I promptly charged Dimitri at top-speed. He expected an upper body attack, like my hands in a chokehold around his neck... But I dropped my head last minute, and headbutted him in the groin, and knocked him to the ground, wheezing and crumpled in a heap as he clutched at his crotch in pain, tears leaking from his eyes. He even started dry heaving and threw up.

I almost felt bad... Almost.

I snarled at him before turning on my heel and stalking back into the house. The Belikovas all looked between Dimitri and I, a little horrified at our altercation. I paid no attention to them, a deep scowl on my face as I went upstairs to go put my children back to sleep, considering the ruckus I'd made had woken them up.

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"You know, Dimka, I think that went rather well... Given the circumstances," Karolina said cheerfully, as she handed him another pack of frozen peas for his groin. Dimitri looked up at his older sister, laying on the couch in his boxers, clearly unamused as he a carefully adjusted the make-shift ice pack against his tender, throbbing scrotum, wincing in tremendous pain. If he was ever able to have children again after this, it would be rather surprising.

"What part of that went 'well,' exactly?" he grumbled. Karolina was a bit too chipper at his expense.

"It could have been worse. She could have disemboweled you and pulled out your testicles from the inside and turned them into earrings for Natasha Ozera like she vowed she would do while she was in the middle of pushing two watermelons out of a small hole between her legs. You know how childbirth is. And she has a set of lungs on her. You could hear her all the way to the end of the road. Instead, she just decided your family jewels were a bullfighter, and she was the bull. You're still alive and in one piece, and to be fair, you were a horrible ass. Your display and then dropping her unceremoniously on the ground afterwards didn't exactly win you any points or help your cause. In fact, you're lucky she hasn't murdered you in your sleep yet, if not worse," Karolina explained gaily as she dabbed at his fevered, sweaty skin with a wet washcloth to keep his temperature down. The injury had made him physically sick because of the pain. Dimitri groaned.

"I can't even get her to let me within a ten meter radius of her so I can talk to her and work things out. What else am I supposed to do? Last time I tried to talk over the distance anyway, she covered her ears and sang American nursery rhymes at the top of her lungs and ran away!" he complained. Karolina shrugged.

"Well, you could try not physically removing her from the house and dropping her gracelessly on the ground. She's still very sore. Childbirth hurts. I would know. She had every reason to return the favor, Dimka. Just be grateful you're still a man," she tutted in that patronizing, older sister way. Dimitri glared at her, and she just laughed. "Dimitri, give it time. She feels very betrayed and hurt over everything that has happened. It is unrealistic to expect her jump back into your arms just because you smiled at her again. What's gotten into that head of yours? It's awfully cocky of you, and I've never known you to be such a dick," she chided, before forcing a bit of ice water down his throat. "You just think about that for a while and figure out how to repent for your abhorrent behavior towards her, and then do it. In the mean time, mladshiy brät, try not to screw everything up and piss her off even more," she told him, before gathering her things, and carrying them out of the room. "Get some rest," she called behind her.

Dimitri sighed, wiping his hand over his face. He had become a master at screwing everything up with Rose. This time, literally.