Page 95 of Forgotten Vows

“Can you take me home?” she asked quietly.

“I’ve been waiting to do just that for a long time.”

She faced me, sighing and closing her eyes.

“You want him to take you home and meet the parents?” Luka joked, breaking the tension.

She opened her eyes and almost smiled. “Been there, done that.”

“Yeah, and you’ve already had my approval.” He came to us and guided us out of the room. “Welcome to the family, Raisa.” He kissed the top of her head as I steered her with my arm wrapped around her back.

“But… speaking of parents,” she said, leaving Emil in the room to start calling in for the cleanup, “I don’t want Lev to see me like this.”

“He won’t.” I understood what she meant, wanting to shelter him from this gruesome sight.

We wanted Lev to see us as his parents, a loving mother and father, not killers. His childhood wouldn’t be the same as other children’s, but we would balance it out.

“Gabriella, too,” she added. “I don’t want her to see me and think I’m a cold-hearted… whatever.”

Luka patted her back. “She won’t,” he replied with a light laugh, proving we were all on the same page of familiarity with this violent world.

“Even if she were to view me differently, it is what it is.”

“Nah. Don’t worry about that. She’s too obsessed with this wedding to even think about anything else. She’ll see you as a bride and a friend. One I am glad to see in her life.”

She nodded, still so numb but breaking through the shock as we led her to the car.

“And one I will never let go of. Ever again.” Leaning her against me, I felt like peace was finally within reach. She sagged against me like she knew I was the pillar she could count on, the anchor to keep her floating in the stormy seas of life.

“I love you, Ivan.”

I kissed her at the car, keeping it light and sweet but promising my whole heart in the gesture. She needed to be checked over and cleaned up. Comforted and cared for—by me.

“I love you, too.”

And I always would. This strong Mafia queen was mine to cherish until the end of our days. I would never forget the vows I’d made to her. Instead, I would spend every minute of my life making sure she was happy and content, at my side as we embraced our love that even her father couldn’t break.

38

RAISA

Ivan drove me to one of Emil’s bachelor pad locations. It was the closest secure place that I could shower and clean up.

All three of the men came with me, but they understood and respected that I needed to absorb what happened.

I killed my father.

Konstantin Petrov was dead. I made sure of it. Three times, I gave him a fatal shot.

It was no longer a rumor, but a fact.

I killed him, and while it wasn’t the first time I’d taken a life, it was close to when I’d last killed someone. More than the frequency of it, it weighed on my soul that I’d killedhim.

Every day of Lev’s life, even before he was born, I carried the memory of what my father had said and done to me. How he’d found me that same day when I learned of Ivan supposedly cheating on me and leaving me for Serena. My father had come to me and aimed his gun at my stomach with the threat that I had to abort any baby I could’ve gotten from being with Ivan.

He hadn’t even known that I was pregnant. He intended to shoot me there to cover his bases because that was how much he hated Luka Dubinin.

But I ran. That time, I ran. And I hid. Only to come back stronger and more confident, more practiced and prepared to kill him and never worry about my son being targeted like that.