Page 47 of The Bratva’s Arranged Virgin Bride (Fokin Bratva #8)

I should have been brimming over with happiness, and I mostly was.

All thoughts of revenge were truly gone, and I had forgiven Kolya.

It was easy to do now that I had my painting back, and it made my heart extra full that he had treasured it all this time, honestly believing it was a good piece of work.

I understood his little petty need to keep it from me when I first accused him of taking all the paintings in the gallery. I was being petty myself at the time, plotting his downfall.

By the time he returned from taking care of Vissarion, I was too worked up about the meeting with Mila to ask him about it.

I trusted him now. He told me no one would ever hurt me again, and I believed him.

But I worried that he and his brother would never come to terms with their problems, and that would leave my relationship with Mila under strain.

I was still angry with her, but was willing to hear her out and see what she had to say.

I spent half the night reorganizing the kitchen, not so much that I cared where the pots and pans went, but to keep my mind off the meeting. Kolya finally ordered me to bed at about midnight. Of course, I ignored him until he cajoled me into it with kisses. As usual, I couldn’t resist him.

The next day, I waffled about what to wear, again not caring, but feeling a sense of dread about what was going to happen at lunch.

Kolya put on one of his suits without a second thought, dropped me off at the restaurant, and said he’d be back in an hour.

If he was nervous, he was doing a better job of hiding it than I was.

The restaurant was one of Mila’s and my favorites, with a shady outdoor terrace and gourmet sandwiches that rivaled the ones Kolya whipped up. My aunt was already waiting for me, seated under one of the lively yellow and white-striped umbrellas, sipping lemonade.

“Is that spiked?” I asked, just joking and trying to break the ice. There shouldn’t have been any ice. We were best friends, family. There was never a moment in my life when I didn’t remember her being part of it.

“What?” she asked, shocked. “Oh, no, just plain old lemonade. You go ahead, though.”

I decided not to order wine or a cocktail.

If she could get through this without liquid courage, so could I.

A chipper waitress came around, and I knew the place’s menu by heart, so I ordered my favorite grilled chicken and pomegranate salad, while Mila ordered steak tacos.

We congratulated each other nervously on what great choices we made, then wondered if we shouldn’t have gotten the daily special instead.

Then Mila finally set her glass down a little too hard, her cheeks red. “I know you’re pissed off at me,” she said.

Good, we weren’t going to beat around the bush anymore.

“I was,” I admitted, then admitted it all. “I still am, I guess. I just don’t—”

“You don’t know why I hid the fact that Kolya is Arkadi’s brother,” she finished for me. “I hated every minute of it, but I’m not trying to weasel out of the responsibility, either.”

“Then why?” I asked, feeling all the old embarrassment of spilling my guts to her, begging for help to find the man who swindled me. “All that time, and Arkadi only had to make one phone call and—”

“And you’d have gotten your revenge,” she said.

She looked at me for a long time. Did she know I didn’t want it anymore, that I got what I wanted.

“We were keeping it from you, because Arkadi wanted to find him first. To keep him away from you. And despite what you might think, it wasn’t as easy as one phone call.

Those two brothers know how to stay hidden if they don’t want someone to find them. ”

“I get it,” I said begrudgingly, because I did. But it still hurt.

Mila pushed aside our bread basket and grabbed my hand, squeezing it. “I could explain all day, but what I really want to say is I’m sorry. I should have told you the truth and let you be pissed at me for not helping you find him. I really am sorry, Nat.”

The simple apology wiped the slate clean, and I squeezed her hand back. “I guess this way worked out better.”

She sucked in a breath, leaning back and shaking her head. “I still can’t believe you did that. I heard it all from Katie, she’s the only one still talking to me, and not very much.”

“What? None of the other wives?” I knew my uncles were being stubborn, but it seemed like everyone had completely cut her off.

“They’re just trying to keep the peace.” She shrugged, but I could see how it broke her heart.

“I get it,” I said. I did. No one was talking to me, either. I had been messaging my uncles and Mat for a meeting, but their only response was to wait until my father came home from Russia.

“That’s also why we wanted to find Kolya first and take care of him ourselves,” she said earnestly. “I can’t stand being cut off, and we thought that might happen to you if you took matters into your own hands.”

I felt tears prickle the backs of my eyes. “You were right about that.” I blinked back the tears and sighed. “Do you think they’ll ever come around and forgive us for marrying their enemies?”

She nodded, leaning close like she had a secret, then frowned fiercely at me. “I do. But tell me first, are you honestly happy with Kolya? You trust him not to leave you high and dry this time around?”

Did I? It didn’t take much soul searching to have the answer spilling out of my mouth.

“I am happy with him, and I do trust him. He’s been proving himself to me.

But what does that have to do with getting everyone to start talking to us again?

They see how happy you are with Arkadi, and that hasn’t stopped them from being buttheads. ”

“I’m pregnant,” she said, her smile lighting up her face.

My mouth fell open, but how didn’t I see it right away? She was positively glowing. I jumped up, scampering around the table to give her a hug.

“They’ll never be able to ignore a new baby in the family,” she said smugly. “Even if it’s half Mikhailov.”

“It’s still half Fokin,” I said, tearing up again.

She laughed, telling me she was the one who was supposed to be emotional. We dug into our meals with light hearts, making a pact to stick together no matter what happened with our husbands.

Then they arrived. Arkadi came in first, barely in his chair next to Mila, when Kolya arrived.

“Late, as usual,” he muttered.

I kept silent, but Mila swatted him, hissing for him to chill out. I liked her husband and wanted to keep liking him, but he was making it difficult. As soon as Kolya sat down, the waitress reappeared to take their drink order.

“Vodka,” they said in unison, and with such force, the perky girl jumped back a step.

Nat and I rolled our eyes at each other, but the shots arrived, with Arkadi saying the waitress better bring the bottle next time she walked past. After a stiff and awkward toast, the two men, who looked so much alike but couldn’t have been more different, squared off.

“No more secret plots,” Arkadi snapped at once.

“Agreed, and done,” Kolya said. I couldn’t help but beam at him proudly. But then Kolya had to say something snide about Arkadi and their father, and within three minutes, they were about to come to blows.

Mila leaned over and grabbed her midsection, where there was soon to be a baby bump. Arkadi clamped his mouth shut on whatever insult he was about to hurl at Kolya and turned to her.

“Are you all right?” he asked, concern radiating from every pore.

“I think we’re stressing her out,” Kolya said.

“Then stop it,” he answered.

“He said ‘we,’” Mila said, straightening up with effort. “You’re both upsetting me, acting like children.”

“We haven’t really talked since we were children,” Kolya said.

“Not since you left with your mother.”

Kolya flapped his hands. “Our mother. And we’ve been over this. I was ten. She won me in the divorce. I never wanted to tell you this, but Papa only wanted me to hold the monetary settlement over her head. She agreed to leave with nothing so I wouldn’t be raised by that tyrant.”

“But it was fine for me,” Arkadi said bitterly.

“She offered to let you stay every time you visited, but then you just stopped—” Kolya stopped midsentence. “Papa wouldn’t let you come anymore.”

“He was a tyrant,” Arkadi agreed. “But the only parent I had. And you had…”

To my shock, and Mila’s too, by the look of it, they both started laughing, sharing stories about their mother. Arkadi didn’t seem impressed with some of the ones Kolya told, and Kolya seemed offended by some of Arkadi’s interpretations of his memories.

It sounded to me like their mother was a hoot.

Free-spirited, maybe a bit flighty, and it seemed like she was also somewhat greedy and vain, but if Kolya was right, she loved them.

She sounded like the kind of woman who’d take you to the best nightclub in town rather than cooking you a hot meal, but had done what she could for the son she could save.

And still wanted to be in the other son’s life, if Kolya was to be believed.

Arkadi clearly didn’t believe it.

“It sounds like you were both being used as pawns,” Mila said when there was a long silence between remembering and bickering.

“I can see that,” he agreed. “But—”

“No more excuses, Arkadi,” Kolya broke in. “Despite all her faults, Mama loves you. She has a whole network of gossipy spies to make sure you’re all right and happy. She was thrilled and broken-hearted when you got married, and she never got to meet Mila.”

“I want to meet her,” Mila said stubbornly.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Arkadi begrudgingly agreed.

Kolya gave him a long look, but left it at that.

Instead of the torture of trying to make awkward small talk now that there was a tentative peace between them, Mila and I both insisted we were too full for dessert and that coffee was off limits for my newly health-conscious aunt.

On the way back, Kolya turned to me and told me not to get my hopes up too high. “He won’t end up meeting with our mother. He’s too bitter. But at least he’s talking to me.”

“You’re wrong,” I said with certainty. “Once that baby’s born, there’s no way Mila will let him keep her from her only grandchild. And he’ll finally cave.”

“Hmph. We’ll see, but don’t look at me like that. I want you to be right.”

Back at our new home, I was bursting with happiness and energy to explore all the grand rooms I was going to decorate.

The place was huge, rivaling my father’s mansion, and like Kolya had said, hardly furnished.

I couldn’t decide what theme I wanted to go with, or if I just wanted to go in a different direction in every room, but I knew every single wall was going to have at least one of my paintings.

The fire to create had returned. My depression was lifted, and my confidence was sure to come creeping back the more I worked. I was just about to head to my new studio to see what was up there, when Kolya had to sour my mood with a worried look he wasn’t quick enough to hide.

“What?” I asked. Everything went so well at lunch, but he seemed determined to stay under a cloud of negativity. “What now?”

“Nothing,” he said, too fast. “Go paint. I’ll join you and set up an easel after I make some calls.”

“Liar,” I accused. “Don’t you dare start. You’re worried about something. No more secrets, right?”

He took me in his arms, resting his chin on the top of my head. “Right. Okay, I was thinking about your father returning home soon. Not worried, just thinking about it.”

I wilted against him. There was no denying I was worried about it. My father might have agreed to the arranged marriage under duress, and when he thought it was strictly business, but now? When it was real, and I’d never leave Kolya? I was his now, and he’d never let me go.

He loosened his grip on me, and I tipped my head back to look into his eyes.

“He’s not going to be happy, is he?” he said, giving me no time to give a fake, reassuring answer. “What will you do if he remains opposed to us?”

I dropped my gaze, keeping my hands pressed against his chest as I thought about it.

I saw what Mila had been going through since she refused to leave Arkadi, and what she was still going through after months of him trying to prove he wasn’t a threat or an enemy.

She had to sneak around to meet my uncles’ wives in secret, and then was completely cut off at the first sign of a problem.

That problem being Kolya.

But still, as awful as that had to be, Mila made her choice, and it was clear she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Could I be that strong? Could I give up my beloved father?

As tough and strict, and overbearing as he could be, he was my Papa, and he adored me.

Even if I could give him up, could I bear to break his heart?

I wasn’t sure my own heart could withstand the pain of losing him.

Or Katie, or my uncles, or their wives, or my cousins. I might lose them all if I chose Kolya.

I looked up again, and the look of concern on his handsome face told me all I needed to know.

He would never let that happen. He’d never give up showing them how right he was for me, and I’d never give up fighting if Papa did decide to dig in his heels.

I reached up and traced the lines furrowing Kolya’s brow and then wrapped my arms around his neck.

“It doesn’t matter what my father says,” I told him. “I warned you once before that our marriage won’t end in divorce. Now that’s a promise.” I took a deep breath, ready to dive in with all my heart and soul. “I love you. There’s nothing I wouldn’t give up to be with you.”

Kolya’s hands slid around my waist, tugging me close, his dark eyes blazing with his own promises. “I’ll make sure you never have to give anything up,” he said.

Just like I knew he would.