Page 79 of Forgotten Vows

I smiled. “I don’t need anything fancy.”

“Oh, you’ll get fancy. You’d make a gorgeous bride. But I wondered why you couldn’t just do what Luka and I did. He said he’d marry me when he found out I was pregnant. Then I learned that our marriage was like a seal on him making me part of this family. Not the family butthefamily.”

“I know what you mean. But he’s Luka. He’s the Boss. Ivan isn’t as high up in rank as he is, so having the council accept Lev as his son is a big deal. Yes, us marrying—legally and for real—would further make that claim stick, especially with my father contesting it all.”

He can try whatever he wants, but his deathwillbe coming soon.

It was past time for me to do my part in securing my family.

Gabriella was prevented from gossiping any further. The door opened, and the men returned.

“Daddy!” Lev yelled as he ran through the room to reach Ivan.

“Daddy!” Misha called out as a runner-up, dashing for Alexsei, who caught him.

“What about me?” Emil joked. He stopped and turned to Luka, holding his arms out. “Daddy?”

Luka rolled his eyes and shoved him to the side. I caught the smile he tried to hide.

“Okay, y’all seem too chill to come here with bad news…” Gabriella said as Luka hugged her.

“Lev?” Ivan asked as he held him and carried him toward me.

“What, Daddy?”

“How would you feel about changing your name to Lev Dubinin?”

He grinned, but stopped quickly to pout. “Only if Mama gets to, too.”

Oh, thank God.

The council voted to accept Lev as a Dubinin heir. It was a clear mark against anything my father could try next.

“You want me to be named Lev Dubinin too?” I teased.

“No, Mama!” He laughed as Ivan hugged me, making it a group hug.

“You need to be Raisa Dubinin,” he declared, not really getting the meaning of what Ivan and his family were telling us.

“Really?” I asked, keeping my tone playfully skeptical.

“Yes, Mama!” He grinned.

“Yeah,” Ivan said, smiling at me like he’d just won the world’s greatest reward.

He leaned lower to kiss me, sealing this kind-of proposal even further. I sighed, reveling in the perfection of his lips on mine.

When we parted, Lev wiggled to get down. “You are always kissing,” he whined mildly, making everyone else laugh.

“They do that before a baby comes,” Misha stated.

We all froze, then burst into laughter.

“Alexsei,” Gabriella scolded. “What kind of education are you letting that boy have?”

“Hey,” he shot back from the kitchen. “Don’t look at me.’ He pointed at her and Luka together. “This is your fault.” Then he spotted Ivan still hugging me, keeping his arms loosely around me. “And yours now, too.”

“Um, excuse me.” I set my hand on my hip since both boys had run off to play in the other room. “No one here has seen me pregnant. I’m an exception to this idea of being a live demonstration of what comes before a baby.”