Page 55 of Baby Daughters for the Russian Bratva Boss

I think, reflexively, of my mother. After the shootout at the compound, I was able to recover her body and have a proper funeral for her. We had her cremated, and when the girls are old enough, we’ll take her ashes to Canada and spread them where she would have wanted. We’ll wait until after a snowstorm, maybe, and let her rest in the snow.

Life is full of unfairness. Evil. Suffering. But Alexei waking is proof that good things do happen to good people. That sometimes, justice does prevail. Alexei’s suffering, in a way, paid for my father’s death. He gave me the opportunity, and I did the right thing.

Maybe I do deserve all the happiness I’ve found. Maybe it really is time to let go of the past, and look to the future.

I touch my belly. I was afraid of being pregnant again—afraid of losing everything like I did once. But I’m not so afraid anymore. Or, I suppose, I’m choosing not to be.

Hope, I think, watching my family laugh. That’s what I have for the future. I am a new person, after all.

And to all of the Annikas I have been:do svidaniya.

THE END