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“It’s lovely to meet you,” Morgan said.

The Tsarina breathed deeply. “We will see how lovely it is in a moment when my daughter explains the reason she is so desperately trying to denigrate herself in front of the world.”

“That isn’t what—” Morgan stopped speaking when Alex shook her head.

“Alexandra could speak from the age of twenty months, a child genius they called her. So, I think she can manage to speak for herself now, don’t you, Dr Kelly?” She turned back to Alex. “Do you want to explain why our family is being dragged through the mire, Sasha?”

Francine poked Morgan, then nodded her head towards the door. Morgan silently shook her head. “No,” she mouthed. Francine widened her eyes and pressed her lips together, the nod of her head to the door much more pronounced. Morgan’s eyes narrowed, her mouth screwing up in annoyance. But Alex smiling and nodding at her meant she followed when Francine left the room.

Alex walked across the room to the bar, lifted the bottle of vodka from the shelf and poured two glasses over ice. She handed one to her mother, who raised a brow.

“Ice?”

“I like it cold,” she answered. “We’re not in Moscow, it’s not minus fifteen outside, and I don’t think now is the time to shake it and make cocktails.”

Her mother smiled and then swallowed the glassful in one mouthful. “Not bad,” she said, placing the glass down and then taking a seat on the couch, one leg crossing the other. “Sit, talk.”

“I have a stalker,” Alex said, taking a seat opposite her mother, “and if she was just bothering me, I’d handle it, but she’s not. She went after Morgan, and that’s not something I am prepared to let slide.”

“This Morgan, she means that much to you? You barely know her.”

“I know what I need to know, and I know that I want to know more,” she said firmly. “Why are you here, Mama?”

“I can’t visit my daughter, come to her recital and show my support when she’s being dragged through the mud by an upstart trying to unsettle her when she needs to focus?” The Tsarina stood up, walked over to the bar, picked up the vodka,and brought it back to the table. “Goran won’t wait forever. We cannot afford to allow this…Laurel? To create an issue.”

“If my protecting Morgan is an issue for Goran, then so be it. I don’t care about that. I won’t risk the best thing that’s happened to me in order to further my career.”

“And are you now a criminal?”

Alex sighed and sat back. “Morgan wasn’t charged. I, on the other hand, have been charged with common assault. I have to wait to see if the CPS will take it forward or not. Philip thinks the evidence is sound so, most likely, I will go to court and have to defend my name. Worst case is six months in prison—” Her mother gasped audibly. “But the likelihood is, as she wasn’t injured and I didn’t hit her with a fist, it will be a fine.”

“So, a criminal.” Her mother smirked, and Alex studied her.

“You don’t seem to be bothered. I thought you’d be upset.”

“You are more my daughter than you think you are.”

“Am I? I always thought I was a disappointment.”

Her mother chuckled. “Never. If I am hard on you, it’s because I see so much potential, to be so much more.” She poured another vodka. “I gave it all up for love, Sasha, and I never regretted a day of it. You, your brothers, your father, you all became my purpose. And how do you think that happened? That the authorities just shrugged and said, oh yes, you go elsewhere and be happy? No, I had to fight. I had to break the law, become a criminal, to get what I wanted.”

Alex reached for the vodka she’d originally poured; she’d never heard her mother speak like this.

“If she brings you passion, and lights up your life then you must choose that path. But you must understand, it will come with a cost, Sasha.”

“Doesn’t everything? My life is an endless transaction.”

“Greatness is often a lonely place. When I danced, there would be a room filled with all the best people, but on stage, it was just me. I chose not to be lonely. But I think sometimes lonely is where you are most comfortable, never letting any of us in.”

Alex scoffed. “What? You push and push and push, my entire life, expectations, and other people’s dreams. The only time I found my own path, people died.”

“You blame yourself for the accident? No, you must never…this is not your fault. I pushed you, yes, of course. I gave you life, but God gave you the talent. Why waste it?” She shifted in her seat until she perched on the very edge, and then she reached out with her hands and took Alex’s. “I pushed you to be the woman who could live in this world of men, and demand more from it. To become a great woman, who wouldn’t shy away when her passion is so vigorous. You love your Morgan enough to risk prison, to risk Goran. That, my child, is passion.” She looked at her watch. “And now, you go, and you put all of that into your music. You show the world what it means to Sasha to be in love.”

Chapter Sixty

Ely

Ely, not ee-lie, but ee-lee, as Alex had had to tell Francine every time she said the word out loud.