Page 54 of Brutal Union (Ruthless Mafia Kings #8)

Nadia

A YEAR LATER

“Who the fuck puts baby’s breath in a winter wedding bouquet with red and black as the main colors?!” Gwen screeches into her phone, pacing the width of the bridal suite like she’s planning a hit, not a ceremony.

“Language!” Lily snaps, scandalized, as she gently covers Ashley’s ears. The little girl sits between her thighs, head tilted back, curls tumbling like dark silk down her back while Lily attempts—futilely—to tame her hair into something wedding-appropriate.

Mia, lounging nearby with one leg kicked over the arm of a plush chair, giggles. “Mommy says bad words all the time.”

Gwen spins, eyeing her daughter like she’s just committed high treason. “One—Mia, you are a traitor. And two—both of those children are mine! ”

Lily gasps, clutching a hairbrush like it’s a dagger. “That doesn’t mean you get to curse like a sailor in front of them! Have some decorum, Gwendolyn!”

“Oh, please,” Gwen scoffs, flipping her off with the same hand holding her phone, manicured nails catching the light. “They’ve heard worse from you in traffic.”

Lily glares but doesn’t argue. Instead, she sighs and turns back to the girls, wiggling in her hair station. “Don’t listen to your mother,” she murmurs, parting Ashley’s curls with practiced ease. “You two are angels. And today, we’re going to make you look like princesses.”

Ashley beams and leans back into Lily’s touch, and Mia wiggles closer, looping her pinky with her like they share some sacred, unspoken promise.

They’ve been inseparable ever since the rescue.

Mia wouldn’t let go of Ashley—not for the doctors, not for Gwen, not even when offered the safest, warmest home imaginable. Her little arms wrapped around Ashley’s waist like armor, and when Nikolai suggested rehoming her to a “loving family,” Mia cried until Gwen agreed to adopt her.

“Don’t mess with the curls,” Mia warns Lily, leaning over. “She likes them wild.”

Ashley nods solemnly. “Like a lion. Rawr!”

“Great,” Gwen mutters, still half on the phone. “We’ve got two mini lions and a florist who thinks baby’s breath is a good idea in this color scheme. I swear to God if someone messes up one more thing for this ceremony, I’m lighting the whole chapel on fire.”

Lily snorts, brushing hair off Ashley’s shoulder and I yell across the room. “You mean my ceremony!

Gwen scoffs. “Sure that’s what I mean.”

“Alright girls, go meet the boys downstairs,” Lily smiles, kissing Ashley’s head before she scurries out of her seat and across the room Mia in hand.

Mia stops by the door and scowls. “Aunty Nadi, do we have to walk with the boys?”

“They’re smelly!” Ashley adds, pinching her nose tight.

I turn in my seat, facing away from the mirror just as Aoi wraps another section of hair around the iron. She sighs sharply, her teeth clicking.

“Stop moving,” she says, her voice calm but with that warning edge I’ve come to recognize.

“Yes, but if you want to scare them down the aisle, I think that would be fun,” I murmur, keeping my voice low as I glance at Gwen. Her fingers fly across her phone screen, face tight with concentration. “I’m thinking… flower zombies.”

“Ooo, flower zombies,” Mia giggles, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “We can drag our feet and make gross noises. Like this—” she tilts her head and lets out a dramatic groan.

Lily joins in immediately, flinging her arms forward. “And you could drop the petals like they’re pieces of our rotting hands.”

Gwen still doesn’t look up. “If you little monsters ruin my aisle walk with a horror movie tribute, I swear I will cancel the reception and make you eat leftover pizza in the parking lot.”

“We like pizza,” Mia says brightly.

Ashley nods. “Especially cold pizza. ”

Lily snorts, trying and failing to hide her laugh as she adjusts the bow on Ashley’s dress. “They’re not scared of you.”

“Of course they aren’t,” Gwen mutters, finally lifting her head with a sound of pride in her tone.

Mia and Ashley make zombie noises out the room, grabbing the baby’s breath Gwen just yelled about. Lily starts to fling her stuff around and murmurs under her breath.

She skids past me, the red silk dress billowing around her like a runaway bride as she tears the bridal suite apart. “Nadia, did you see my hair pins? They have little gold leaves with pearls? ”

I raise one brow slowly. “I didn’t touch your glittering nonsense.”

“They’re vintage!” she wails, clutching her heart like I stabbed it. “Gwen will murder me if she walks down the aisle without them. Not like… regular murder, but, like, Gwen-murder. With icy looks and that voice. You know the one.”

“Oh, I know,” I mutter, glancing at Gwen mid-rant, her hand slicing through the air like she’s about to summon a lightning bolt and smite the florist herself. “That voice could freeze vodka.”

“Lily!” Gwen barks suddenly, still on the phone. “Where are the back up wedding bouquets?"

Lily fumbles with her clipboard, mouth opening and closing as she skims through the list.“In the lobby!”

“Go get them because I swear if I see another baby’s breath plant I will scream!”

Aoi pauses behind me, curling iron in one hand, and leans in. “If I had friends like this,” she says quietly, “I would’ve eloped. ”

Gwen doesn’t even turn. “I heard that.”

Aoi straightens like she’s been caught doing something illegal. “I’m a trained killer,” she says, shaking her head. “But she’s scary. You’d think it was her wedding.”

“It kind of is,” I reply. “She’s been micromanaging it since the moment Sho proposed to me six months ago. The only thing she let me pick was the dress and the colors.”

And even then, she fought me tooth and nail on them. Gwen hated the black, gold, and red palette—said it was too aggressive. I told her to get used to it, because if I had to stand around all day smiling in white I was going to be looking at my favorite colors.

Aoi whistles as she keeps working through the next section of my hair. “Still this wedding is like…weird.”

I glance at my reflection but let my eyes drift lower, away from the bold smokey eye Lily spent months practicing to look bold but also natural with limited glitter for my sake, down to my hands. My thumb grazes the ring, turning it slightly.

I never imagined myself here.

Not in a bridal suite. Not surrounded by dresses and perfume and women screaming about flowers like it’s life or death. Not sitting still long enough to be pampered, dressed, styled like I belong to something soft.

Marriage wasn’t a thing I pictured for myself—not once. I used to tell people love was a distraction. A weak point. A liability that gets you killed or worse, owned.

But then I woke up with a ring on my finger.

Not just any ring—a heavy 18k yellow gold band, thick and warm against my skin.

At the center, a flawless 4-carat marquise diamond, so clear it looked like a drop of frozen fire.

Wrapped around it, instead of standard white pavé, were blood-red rubies set in a perfect halo.

The contrast was brutal. Beautiful. Like something meant for me.

Accompanied with an Italian sunrise, fresh black coffee and Sho in a full suit as he waited for me to wake up felt right.

I mean I never corrected him when he called me his wife.

I knew just as well as he continuously told me that we were inevitable.

All this fanfare is just for show. Sho is mine, and I am his. We bled, cried and killed for this.

Aoi gives one final spritz of something floral and expensive, that makes me want to cough. “All done.”

She gently pulls the pins free, and the curls cascade down my back—thick, glossy waves that look too elegant to belong to someone like me.

Aoi truly is a master of beauty. Not the fake, polished kind.

The kind that makes you look exactly like who you are, just sharper.

Watching her now, I’m reminded of how far we’ve come.

We started out as enemies. Circling each other. Testing limits. Waiting for the other to strike first.

Then somewhere between the betrayals, near-deaths, and watching her quietly love Bhon with everything she doesn’t say out loud… she became something else. Not just an ally. Not quite a sister. A friend—at least, as close as Aoi will let herself have outside of Bhon.

She doesn’t trust people. Not really. I don’t either, but she trusts Sho, and Sho trusts me. For now, I think that is enough for her to stop threatening to kill me.

“You look... terrifyingly beautiful,” she says, stepping back with a grin. “Sho’s going to combust. ”

I stand slowly and walk to the full-length mirror by the window. For a second, I don’t recognize the woman staring back. Not because she looks soft, but because she looks like she is seconds from conquering a part of herself I never thought she would conquer.

I drag my finger across the stone again.

He’s still an arrogant asshole. Still impossible. Still taunts me every time I pretend I’m not in love with him. But he keeps showing up. Keeps holding my hand when the world burns. And somehow, that’s enough.

“Thinking about backing out?” Aoi asks, watching me in the mirror.

“No,” I say quietly. “Just thinking.”

“Dangerous,” Aoi clicks her tongue as she points the curling rod at me. “I just want you to know I am on strict orders to get you down that aisle, by any means necessary.”

In the background, Gwen is yelling again—this time at the caterer for missing the vegan quiches. Lily’s running through the hallway in heels that don’t fit. Someone drops a tray of champagne flutes.

“I promise,” I snort. “I will make it down the aisle, now let's see if my bridesmaids do as well.”

Aoi looks over her shoulder at both of them maniacally working in the hallway. “My wedding gift to you will be getting them to stop freaking.”

I giggle, as she clicks off the curler and places it on the table. “Hey, I still want those his and hers katana!”

“That’s Bhon’s present,” she sticks her tongue out at me clapping, her hands together as she pleasantly says ladies .