Page 21

At the meeting, I found myself on a couch next to Nik, with a veritable sea of stern faces staring at us. We were at his eldest brother, Aleks’s house, another massive mansion on a perfectly landscaped plot of land not too far from Nik’s place. This place was much more homey and inviting, even with all the crystal chandeliers and velvet furniture.

I had hardly stayed upright during the introductions and could barely distinguish who was who as they all seemed to glare at me from across a wide glass coffee table. The men all looked similar enough to know they were related, handsome as hell, with a couple being blond like Nik and some dark. There seemed to be a lot more than five of them.

The wives had been as friendly and welcoming as Nik promised, but the introductions were so brief I couldn’t have remembered any of their names, let alone who was whose wife. Aleks had interrupted their attempts at chatty small talk by ordering the meeting underway, and the wives were now seated off to the side, like a jury collecting all the evidence.

It turned out that Ivan was the only one of them who knew about Nik basically abducting me and forcing me into a marriage for my protection. While they all overwhelmingly agreed that Arkadi Mikhailov was a monster of the highest order, they still didn’t agree about the marriage.

“There’s nothing anyone can say that will make me back down,” Nik said, starting off strong. “We’re staying married. You all know Arkadi will stop at nothing if he thinks Emerson is an easy target.”

His need to protect me was sweet, and hearing Arkadi’s name reminded me why I was in this mess. Aleks agreed about Arkadi, but actually suggested an annulment, and then sending me to a safehouse until they got things under control.

The annulment part should have had my heart soaring, but the way the wives all gasped at the suggestion of a safehouse had me nearly doubling over to put my head between my knees. Sounded much more like a prison cell than anything else.

However, this might have been the shot I was looking for to gain my freedom. All I had to do was speak up. Surely, the wives would be on my side. They had to think this was beyond comprehension that I’d been forced into this marriage.

I gathered my courage and tried to decide the best words to use in the midst of all those intimidating men. Just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and blurt out how I felt about all of this, there was a commotion in the hall, and none other than Mila blew in like a whirlwind.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she apologized.

She gave Nik a long, warm smile as she made her way into the room. Maybe she gave me a smile as well, but I turned away before I saw it.

She wore a similar outfit to mine, a simple white top and jeans, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Nik had chosen the clothes in my side of the closet to mimic his mistress’s style. Did he wish I was more like her? Not that I could ever hold a candle to her. She filled out her clothes in a way that I could never dream of doing unless I was completely reborn into another, less scrawny body.

I had seen Mila two more times since Nik first brought her into my sanctuary under the guise of temporarily filling in until he hired a new accountant. She had looked impeccable each time and had the audacity to seek me out and ask if there was anything Nik could do for me, or buy for me, that might help me settle in better. She seemed totally aware that I wasn’t speaking to him.

It was humiliating to have him share that with his girlfriend, as if my feelings and reasons for icing Nik out were a joke. While Mila acted kind and genuine to my face, I could all too easily imagine her and Nik laughing at me while they were alone together.

She sat down next to Ivan, not with the other wives, but somewhere in between. And no one called her out for being there at all during a family meeting, so they all clearly accepted her. Outrage welled up in me that she was there at all, and then she used her brass balls to speak up on my behalf.

“Has anyone asked Emerson how she feels about all of this yet?”

I gaped at her; the last thing I wanted was to have to be beholden to her. But why did I care if it helped me gain my freedom? Because she wanted to get me out of the picture and have Nik all to herself again? I scowled at her and looked down at the floor, just about ready to throw out my carefully crafted argument for my freedom to instead declare I wanted to stay with Nik, just to spite Miss Perfection.

“That’s not really relevant right now,” Aleks said.

My hands curled into fists, and my eyes shot up, ready at last to speak up for myself. But Mila beat me to it. “You know damn well that Papa would disagree with you. Has anyone informed him or Mama they have a new daughter-in-law yet, or are you waiting until you bring down your decree?”

“Why don’t you break it to him?” Nik suggested with a grin that made my head swirl. “You’ve always been his favorite.”

“Comes from being the only daughter,” Daria piped up from the wives’ section.

The pieces of a very unpleasant puzzle dropped into place and nearly knocked me off the couch. Oh my God, I’d been an absolute idiot. Mila was one of the siblings? Was she Nik’s sister? She was much closer to my age than Nik’s, and he was the youngest of the whole lot, or so I’d thought. Mila must have come along much later, the baby of the family. Oh my God, that explained the damn emoji. She was his freaking baby sister, and I’d been having a meltdown of epic proportions for over a week about it.

Stupid, stupid jealousy that I had no reason to feel had gotten the better of me. It was crazy to begin with, but what really bugged me was that I’d slipped back into the old familiar pattern of never feeling like I was good enough. I was always such a disappointment to my parents that I couldn’t help but feel like everyone else in the world sometimes felt the same way. No matter how hard I worked to overcome it, I still ended up believing I was inadequate.

I wanted to put my head in my hands and sink through the floor to get away from the burning shame that gripped me. I realized the others had fallen silent, possibly waiting for me to have a say. The most confusing thing about the jealousy was that it almost had me blurting out that I wanted to stay with Nik. Was that because of some kind of emotional drunkenness, or was that the truth somewhere deep down?

I shook my head and stayed quiet, not knowing what to say while I was still reeling. There was no hope those men would side with me anyway, even if I did say I wanted out. I’d be bundled off to some safehouse and kept under lock and key until they deemed it was okay for me to come out. They were the same as Nik, but at least Nik let me continue to work in the restaurant, and I had free range at his house.

I couldn’t just stroll down past the gates, but it had to be better than whatever place had made the wives seem so upset. For better or for worse, it seemed like I was staying married to Nik.

And I couldn’t, in complete honesty, admit to myself that it was totally for the worst.

“Then we’ll need to have a real wedding,” Aleks said.

“What?” I yelped, finally finding my voice.

“What do you mean by real?” Nik growled. “Everything’s perfectly legit. We’re married.”

Aleks rolled his eyes, and his wife, who I seemed to remember as Katie, took over. “Aleks is right, Nik. It’s better if we put on a big show. We all believe you and agree your marriage is real, but the point of a public wedding is so that we make sure Arkadi knows it.”

“And it’ll be fun,” Mila said, pulling out her phone and beginning to text. “I bet Nat will fly back from Italy and help me plan it.” She glanced up and smiled at me. “I mean, help you plan it, Emerson. We won’t leave you out of your big day.”

What kind of fever dream was I trapped in? Now we were planning a wedding?

Aleks nodded approvingly while Katie said it would be nice to see Nat again. Nik leaned close to my ear. “Nataliye is Aleks’s daughter from his first marriage. She studies art in Italy, but she’ll definitely prioritize a family wedding and come back.”

Good, I guess? I had no idea, but I also didn’t have much interest in helping plan a big public wedding that would definitely seal my fate. I needed a breather and some time to think. I was an only child with parents who mostly ignored me, so this raucous family was overwhelming, to say the least.

After a few minutes of everyone talking at once about the wedding— my wedding, things settled down again. There was no way this was how this meeting ended.

“I don’t really think it’s necessary to have a whole big ceremony and reception,” I said. “It seems like a waste of time when we’re already married.”

“Damn straight we are,” Nik agreed forcefully.

“And it sounds so expensive.” I continued. That got a laugh out of everyone. Right, I had momentarily forgotten who I was surrounded by.

“I’m not concerned about the money,” Nik scoffed. “But it’ll take up Emerson’s time, and she’s needed at Khoroshiy. And we’re already married, so I don’t see the point.” He looked at me. “Unless it’s what you want?” he asked quietly.

He would have backed down even in all that chaos if I said the word. I shook my head. No, it wasn’t what I wanted. At all. His eyes narrowed, but he looked back at his brothers. “Then we’re not doing it.”

“Look, Nik,” another of his brothers spoke up. Dima was somewhere in the middle in age order but had a serious, commanding presence. Nik actually turned to him attentively as he laid it on the line.

Apparently, he was still somewhat in contact with Arkadi since the peace treaty between the families had utterly disintegrated somehow. I suspected it was at least partly to do with me, but the way Dima spoke, some kind of deal had fallen through as well.

“The bottom line is, Arkadi doesn’t believe your marriage is real,” Dima said. “That means he considers her fair game.”

Nik shrugged, then put his arm around me, pulling me close. “He can fuck right off because he’s been made aware.”

“A public wedding will make him more aware,” Aleks said with finality. “It’s happening. None of us are willing to burn everything we have to the ground over this when a simple ceremony will take care of it once and for all.”

“Um, except it’s not going to be simple,” Mila said, filled with glee.

It looked like she was the only one actually looking forward to it, except possibly for Katie, who was just excited to see her step-daughter Nat again. If not exactly delighted, everyone seemed relieved that the wedding would solve their problems with Arkadi.

It solved nothing for me, but as Katie and Daria beckoned me over and started showing me pictures of their adorable kids, and the brothers started laughing and joking amongst themselves, I couldn’t say I was too unhappy about it, either.