“Huh. That doesn’t sound super complicated to me. I think he just wants you back.”
“Without an apology? Without a single word of an explanation?”
Lily shrugs and dips a fork into her pasta salad.
“He bought a hospital for you, Nina.” She points her pasta-laden fork at where he’s still playing with Ava, chasing her around the playpen. “He made sure Ava could be here for you during the day. Most of us would see that as an apology. Even if it’s a weird one.”
12
ARTYOM
“Doesn’t that bother you? She had another man’s child.”
My cousin is getting on my nerves today. He’s sitting in our Babushka’s kitchen for what he’s decided is an informal strategy meeting. In his head, that means he gets to give me advice about my life choices, apparently.
I scratch the back of my neck. This is difficult to explain to Valentin, given how purity-obsessed the Bratva is. I can’t think of anyone in my family who’s married someone who’s not a blushing virgin. Or at least pretending to be.
“I can’t resent anything that brings her so much happiness. It felt right to see her as a mother,” I explain to him. That’s all I’ve wanted, all I’ve worked to ensure, in the years since Nina left me. That she’s safe and happy.
Now I want the same for her child.
I thought it would pain me to meet Ava. I’ll never be glad that Nina slept with another man. But I am glad that Ava has brought so much joy into her life. Meeting Ava was like meeting a part of her. She has Nina’s freckles, Nina’s nose, and the dimple in the center of Nina’s chin.
“Vanya won’t like it,” Valentin cautions. “You know she made Mariana and Grigory do the whole bedsheet thing?”
Add that to the list of reasons I’m pretty sure our babushka has just announced marriage as a requirement to fuck with us.
I shudder. “A horrifying thought. She knows that every bedsheet she’s been shown has chicken blood on it, I’m pretty sure. That’s a time-honored tradition in our family at this point.”
“That tradition doesn’t exactly work when the bride has already had a child,” Valentin points out. “Even the chicken blood can’t save you at that point, Tyoma.”
I shrug. “Vanya will get over the whole virgin thing. I’m still the favorite grandchild.”
“Except me,” my cousin butts in, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face.
He’s right. Vanya loves him, because he’s more of a suck-up than I am. He was named after her own father, and she’s always treasured the connection to her side of the family.
“Fine. I amend my statement: I am the favorite grandchild with leadership aspirations.” Valentin enjoys his lifestyle too much to want to be involved in the council. He’ll never settle down. He can’t spend half the year spending the family money in Paris if he has awife and family in New York. “If there’s one member of the family who’s going to sit out the wedding frenzy, it’s you.”
Valentin nods and rubs his chin, deep in thought. “I just don’t think Vanya is going to approve. Even if you are the golden child, for now.”
“She didn’t set any requirements other than marriage. I could marry someone off the street and she’d have to accept it.”
“You’ll need to make another heir.”
“There’s no limit,” I huff. “Just because Nina’s had one child doesn’t mean she can’t have more.”
“Step-families. That’s messy stuff, take it from me, cousin.” Valentin’s father has had a string of wives a mile long, none of them older than 25. His mother was the first.
I gesture around us. If these walls could talk… “I’m used to messy families.”
“Vanya will have some bloody metaphor about a tree or something for you, cousin. By bringing Nina into the family, you’re also bringing in the father of her child. And you don’t even know who that is.”
The thought hits me like a bucket of ice, as it does every time my thoughts turn to the bastard who abandoned Nina and Ava, leaving them alone.
Every muscle in my body tenses at the suggestion of a broader family than just myself, Nina and Ava. I don’t like the thought of sharing with anyone. Something about Valentin’s words makes me picture a reality I hadn’t considered — one where we have to arrange goddamned drop-offs and pick-ups with thedropkick who abandoned Ava, if he decides his child matters enough to be a part of their lives.
One thing I know for sure: he doesn’t deserve Ava. And he sure as hell didn’t deserve Nina.
