by Stella Gray
The Choice
Arranged Book Three
Stella Gray
Contents
About This Book
Also by Stella Gray
1. Stefan
2. Stefan
3. Tori
4. Tori
5. Tori
6. Stefan
7. Stefan
8. Tori
9. Tori
10. Stefan
11. Stefan
12. Tori
13. Stefan
14. Stefan
15. Tori
16. Stefan
17. Tori
18. Stefan
19. Stefan
20. Tori
21. Stefan
22. Tori
23. Tori
24. Tori
25. Stefan
26. Stefan
27. Stefan
28. Tori
29. Stefan
30. Tori
Also by Stella Gray
About Stella Gray
About This Book
On the day my husband and I committed to each other, I didn't wear a white dress.
We didn't exchange rings.
There was no audience or minister to witness our union.
Only the two of us.
We swore to put each other first, to take on the evils our families had perpetuated together. Side by side.
But that was before the past returned to haunt us.
Now everything has changed.
Stefan can't have both his past and my future.
I can't ask him to choose.
And neither of us can do what has to be done without the other. It's an impossible choice, but we've run out of time.
Also by Stella Gray
Arranged Series
The Deal
The Secret
The Choice
Convenience Series
The Sham - June 2020
The Contract - July 2020
The Ruin - August 2020
Stefan
Chapter 1
“He’s yours,” Anja said, her eyes locked on mine. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Your son.”
I felt like I’d been shot in the gut, like the whole world had gone still around me.
I heard Tori gasp at my side, and instinctively tightened my grip on her hand. My gaze shifted to the dark-haired boy on the couch. This was…my son?
The shock was visceral. My whole body was cold, my pulse pounding in my ears, as if I’d just plunged under the surface of an iced-over Lake Michigan.
How was this possible?
Anja, the first woman I’d ever loved, the woman I’d lost, the woman I’d tried so desperately to find for almost a decade—I’d spent all this time searching for her, and this was the moment she chose to reappear? Right when things with my wife were finally coming together, when my plans to tear down my father and take over KZ Modeling were starting to coalesce?
Memories flooded back to me as I took in Anja’s waterfall of black hair, her long legs, the wide eyes and sharp arch of her brows. Eight years later, and she hadn’t changed a bit. It was almost like she was taunting me, the way she was suddenly sitting right here in front of me in my father’s library. Looking at me with tears in her eyes and a hopeful smile. As if this was merely a reunion. As if no time or trauma had passed between us. With a child beside her that I was supposed to believe was mine. Was this the reason she’d disappeared all those years ago?
Eyeing the boy more closely, I could see that the kid had the same full lips as most of the men in my family, and similarly dark hair—but Anja had dark hair, too. With lips fuller than mine. I couldn’t say with certainty that he was my offspring. But could I honestly say he wasn’t?
The timeline made sense. Her disappearance made sense. Yet I still couldn’t process it.
As something exploded in a bright flash on the kid’s screen, he glanced up from the game he’d been absorbed in and our eyes met. It was only for a split second, but it was enough to hit me like another gut shot. His eyes were green. More of a blue-tinged green than my own pale olive color, yes, but maybe that was owing to Anja’s mix of colors. Who could say for sure? But if it was true—if I did have a son—what did it mean for the boy, for Anja, for me and Tori?
I was numb, speechless, my mind blown. It was all so unreal.
My chest constricted and I sank into a chair, my brain reeling with all the questions I’d bottled up inside over the years. Even if I could form the words, they all felt irrelevant given the situation. Like pebbles to a mountain. Because the fact of this child sitting here—changed everything.
Looking up at Tori, our hands still locked together, I realized she still hadn’t spoken either. And she refused to look at me. God, why did this have to happen now? As much as I wanted her here, I wished she had never come with me to my father’s tonight. Because despite the fact that I loved her and needed her at my side, I knew this bombshell could destroy us, could destroy our marriage, could destroy everything we’d built. It was all crumbling in the wake of this impossible revelation.
And I couldn’t lose her. Not after everything we’d been through. Everything that was still to come.
I needed to talk with Anja, but there was no way I could rehash my personal history with her in front of my wife. I would never subject Tori to that. But how could I just walk out the door now and leave Anja here? Especially with her son—our son—at her side? Even now, I could see my former love eyeing the huge diamond ring on Tori’s finger, probably noticing the way my wife and I were holding hands so tightly. As much as I deserved an explanation, Anja probably had some questions of her own. And the boy—did he know anything about me? Did he want to?
There was no way out of this. No easy solution. I was trapped.
I looked back across the room at my father, taking in the familiar smirk on his face, and that’s when I realized: he’d done this all on purpose.
Konstantin Zoric, ever the conniving, manipulative puppeteer. He’d arranged all of this—Anja, the boy, inviting me and Tori over for dinner just so he could pull off this surprise meeting—to cause maximum pain for everyone involved. The sadist. He’d stop at nothing to maintain his power over me, his control of the family business…even if that meant destroying my life and the lives of everyone around me.
“Look, son,” he was saying now, his smug voice dripping with self-satisfaction, “Anja’s finally returned. Now you two can build a real family together, once and for all. Just like you always dreamed of.”
I stood, my fists clenching. It was all I could do to keep myself from lunging at my father. My first instinct was to punch him in the face, but I couldn’t. There was a child in the room. My child. But I was enraged in the face of my father’s gloating, and even more disgusted by the way he was acting as though Tori—my wife—wasn’t even here. Like she meant nothing, wasn’t even worth a passing thought to him. But her grip on my hand only grew tighter, and she finally looked at me, offering a tight smile that I couldn’t read.
Then she turned toward my father, and though I was grateful she’d interfered before I could engage in a full-out assault, I braced myself for what my wife was about to say.
“Konstantin, why don’t we give Stefan and Anja a chance to speak alone?” she suggested, keeping her voice calm and neutral.
“What?” I blurted. I had no idea what I’d expected from Tori, but it wasn’t that. Judging by my father’s expression, he was just as surprised as I was.
“An excellent idea,” my father said, quickly recovering his cool demeanor. “I’m sure they have a lot of…catching up to do.”
Anja was looking at me expectantly, but I shook my head. “No. The
last thing anybody needs right now is to—”
“Stefan,” Tori interjected, cutting me off before smiling apologetically at Anja and my father. “If you’ll excuse us for just a moment?”
“Of course,” Anja said, her Romanian accent now just a hint of what it once was.
Then Tori gently led me out of the room and into the hallway, closing the library door shut behind us. I slumped against the wall, grateful for the dim lighting, and rubbed a hand over my face.
“Tori. I don’t know what to say. This is all happening so fast. I never—”
“Shh. Just listen,” she started, looking me determinedly in the eye.
“No, you listen,” I shot back, suddenly energized by my panic and grabbing her by the shoulders. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on in there, but my father is obviously amusing himself by playing God—”
“It. Doesn’t. Matter,” Tori said, her voice soothing. “Your father doesn’t matter. Okay? This isn’t about him. It’s about you and Anja and that little boy in there. Regardless of your dad’s role in making this happen, it is happening. And now you have to move forward.”
I took a deep breath, squeezing her shoulders softly. Then I nodded.
“You’re right. I just don’t know how any of this fits together. How you and I…”
My voice trailed off as I fought to find the right words. Because there weren’t any.
“We can talk about all of this later,” she said. “For now, you need to focus on Anja. I’ll take a car back to the condo, and we’ll catch up when you get home. This is important.”
“I don’t know what to say.” I laughed at the absurdity of it all. “I don’t even know how I feel. I mean, if this is true…where do I even start?”
She smiled. “You’ll figure it out, Stefan. I know how long you’ve been trying to find her, and obviously you two have a lot to discuss. Just take it one step at a time. You don’t have to decide anything right now. Talk first, decisions later.”
I wrapped her in my arms, pressing my face against her hair.
“I love you.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“Everything will be okay,” she replied, pulling away and smoothing her hair back down.
My wife was so fucking understanding, it killed me. It also made me desperate to keep her from walking out that door. She was the only solid thing I could count on right now.
“Stay,” I said. “You don’t have to run back to the condo. This isn’t just about me.”
“It’s better if I go,” she said, shaking her head. “Whatever history you two have between you, it’s got nothing to do with me. And I need a little time for myself, too. Okay?”
“Okay.”
I searched her eyes. Her expression was guarded but resolute. My wife, the rock. Stronger than anyone ever gave her credit for. As she tilted her head back to look up at me, her diamond earrings caught the light. I’d given them to her on the way to my father’s place, to represent how we were a pair, how we belonged together. I hoped she’d still give me a chance to prove that.
Leaning forward, I dropped a soft kiss on her lips, trying to communicate how I felt. Letting her walk away didn’t feel like the right move. Not by a long shot. But I had to let her go. Give her some space. And I knew she was right about me needing to stay here and talk to Anja.
After walking Tori out of the building and seeing her safely into the backseat of my private car, I headed back up to my father’s penthouse, lost in thought.
In spite of all the years that had passed, or perhaps because of them, my heart had ached seeing Anja’s face again. She reminded me of so many things, but mostly of the person I had been when I was seventeen and in love for the first time. Far from innocent, yet innocent about the world. Maybe that’s what my heart ached for. For the person I was back then. I’d had my whole life ahead of me, full of possibilities.
I’d been optimistic. Happy.
Instead of angry and jaded, obsessed with revenge and with my plan to take down my father and his vile corporation. A plan that I still had every intention of following through with. No matter what happened with Anja and the boy, I would not be stopped. I just wished Tori hadn’t been dragged into it. Into all of this. My father was a monster.
Tori had put on a brave face, but I knew she had to be hurting. I had no idea if I’d be able to repair what my father had just broken.
I stormed out of the elevator and back toward the door of the penthouse. When I walked inside, though, I slowed my stride. It was true that I was dying for answers, but I was also battling the urge to kick down the library door and throttle the man responsible for all of this.
He’d told me he had arranged Anja’s disappearance the first time around—deporting her right when it would hurt me the most. Now it seemed he’d brought her back just when he knew it would hurt me again. When he knew my marriage to Tori had been on the rocks. The bastard.
But he’d underestimated me. I might have chased Anja for years, but she was now more a fond memory to me than anything else. I cared about her, and I’d do right by my child, but my relationship with Tori was solid. I wasn’t going to walk away and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her go. I’d never stop fighting for her.
As I walked up to the library door, I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the conversation ahead. After years of dead ends and cold trails, the mystery surrounding Anja’s disappearance was about to come to light. I could hardly believe it. Even if my father’s intentions had been malignant, I was grateful I’d be getting the truth.
Anja had a shitload of explaining to do, and I was finally going to get my answers.
Stefan
Chapter 2
When I was seventeen, Anja and I had been in love. Or at least, that’s what I’d believed. I had trusted her with my hopes and fears for the future, and shared stories about my past—my mother and how much I missed her, the difficult childhood I’d had after she’d died and left us Zoric children to be raised by a series of nannies and the occasional bit of attention from our emotionally closed-off, workaholic father. Anja always listened. Always cared. She was almost maternal at times, nothing like any woman I’d ever dated. Mature beyond her twenty-three years.
I had thought every time we had sex it was like making a promise to one another.
I was young back then. Naïve enough to think we were perfectly matched, that we were equals, that we’d be together forever and that nothing would ever come between us. It was almost laughable now, how little I’d understood her position—caught between her modeling career dreams, the sex work my father had been forcing on her, her desperation for US citizenship, how heavy the familial responsibilities on her shoulders were, and the way she’d had to send almost every cent she made back to Romania to care for her family there.
I’d believed that marrying her would solve each and every one of those problems. Instead, my hasty marriage proposal had made things worse. But if my father had admittedly gotten Anja deported, where had she gone? None of my investigations in Romania had turned up anything. How had she kept herself in hiding all these years—with a child? And why? All this time I had assumed she’d been hiding from my father, but now that she was here, I couldn’t help thinking: what if the person she’d been hiding from was me?
None of it made sense. She had to have known I would have raised the child with her. Stood by her. Would have cared for her and protected her no matter what.
I didn’t know what to think. My heart and my life were with Tori now. I had no regrets, and our marriage—our partnership—had made me realize how undeveloped my relationship with Anja had truly been. But I still had so many questions. And no matter what, I had to find a way forward. If not for Anja and me, for the child we had created—because I’d never turn my back on him the way my own father had turned his back on me and my siblings.
But when I turned the knob and went back into the library, Anja was gone. And so was the boy.
Instead, only my father
stood there, a dark and looming presence in his typical ensemble of head-to-toe charcoal, lighting one of his disgusting cigars. He looked up as I entered, the expression on his face just as smug as it had been when Tori and I had first walked into the room, into his clusterfuck of a trap.
“What the fuck is going on here?” I demanded. “What kind of game are you trying to play?”
I was sick and tired of his machinations. As far as I was concerned, they ended now.
“No game,” he said, pausing to puff the cigar.
“Bullshit,” I ground out, narrowing my eyes at him.
He lifted his hands as if in surrender. “I just want what’s best for you, Stefan.”
I scoffed. He used to say this same thing when doling out punishment to us as children.
“I want what’s best for the whole Zoric family,” he went on. “I always have.”
That I could believe. As far as my father was concerned, the family—his legacy—was what needed to be protected at all costs. But his motives in this were murky.
“You honestly think it’s ‘best for the family’ to suddenly bring back my ex-girlfriend and her kid—our kid—out of nowhere?” I yelled. “How exactly is that ‘best’ for anyone?”
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