The Quiet Girl for the Elite

“Why did you stay?” “I have an offer,” Yegor grabs my chin and forces me to look up. “Look at me. Open your eyes and meet my gaze.” He tilts his head slightly as if studying me, and then says the one thing I least expected to hear. “Do you want to get married?” “To whom?” I ask stupidly. “And you want to marry Artem?” I’m silent. I pretend I don’t understand what he’s talking about and gather the courage to look somewhere past him. “Look me in the eye,” he orders. “You have a choice: me, or Artem. But I’m not going to back down either way. If you choose Artem, you’ll be a wife for two—if me…” He pauses and squints a little. “I’ll think about whether to share you with your brother and then continue.”