She eyed me speculatively. “It hasn’t been cheap or easy to keep you. Most of the time I’ve found you quite entitled and demanding.”
My hands remained folded in my lap while I swallowed down my reaction. “I understand.”
“Your uncle and I decided that it’s time you earn your keep. You need to do your part to help out our family.”
“Of course.”
“We need to send someone to Canada to support our business ventures there.”
I swallowed the hope and excitement in my chest, careful not to look excited. “Uncle Grisha has business in Canada?”
I knew my uncle had some nefarious dealings here in Russia. That was evident from his four family homes, his countless servants and his army of intimidating guards that openly carried weapons. My uncle was notorious for working through the night and sleeping most of the day. No one told me what was happening, but I had put enough pieces together to know that most of it probably wasn’t legal.
Whatever he did, it created a mountain of wealth that had my aunt swimming in designer clothing and attending an endless swirl of galas and formal events. But it had never occurred to me that their business dealings would extend so far.
“What we do or don’t do in Canada is none of your concern. But we need to get Sergei moved to Canada as quickly as possible.”
Sergei. He was a fixer who worked closely with my uncle, and although I had never talked to him, I often saw him coming and going, at all times of the night, for hushed meetings with my uncle.
He exuded more danger than most of my uncle’s men but possessed none of the charm. He was short and stocky with thick, ugly hands and thin hair. The worst was his cold, unblinking stare. His face was flat, unreadable, and there was no amusement in his eyes, no flicker of warmth, no sign of curiosity or desire. Just a big vacant void, like whatever part of him that was supposed to feel things had been switched off a long time ago.
“What does that have to do with me?” I asked, dreading her answer. Anything to do with Sergei wasn’t going to be good for me.
“In order to get him to permanent residency, which will keep him immune from suspicion, we want you to sponsor him through the spousal sponsorship program.”
I blinked, hearing but not processing her words. “Spousal? As in marriage?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s in name only, and it’s the least you could do for us.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but instead the most unhinged laughter spilled out of me. I covered my mouth with my hand and managed to stop, but the second I thought about trying to speak, the laughter rumbled up again. The harder I tried to suppress it, the more impossible it was to stop. I knew I sounded like a lunatic, but even with my hands covering my mouth, my entire body shook. I gasped for air, trying to contain it, but awkward snorts escaped me while my eyes streamed with tears.
My aunt swung her Hermès bag and hit my chest. “Oh, for god’s sake.”
That only made me laugh harder. I literally had to tuck my head and wrap my arms around my body just to control myself.
“You’re a disgrace,” my aunt hissed.
“Please… don’t… talk,” I managed to gasp, before breaking into more shaking, tearful laughter. At this point I wasn’t even sure why I was laughing, but my body was doing its own thing while my mind refused to even consider the words she had spoken to me.
My stomach hurt. I was sure my makeup was running wild down my cheeks. Still I held myself on the razor’s edge of losing it again completely. I tried to clear my mind, ignore the tickle in my gut, ignore Lena’s indignant anger beside me, but I could feel another wave of hysterics coming over me.
At the next red light, I caught sight of the driver’s gray eyes studying me in the rearview mirror.
His gaze sobered me up like nothing else.
All the tension, emotion and laughter that I had tried to contain suddenly released, and my body deflated. It’s not that I saw sympathy or amusement or any kind of judgement. No, it was much worse than that.
For some reason, his focus felt like a silent witness.
I didn’t even know in that moment why I had started laughing, but it didn’t matter anymore.
Without breaking eye contact with him, I spoke in a tone that was so cold I didn’t recognize my own voice. “I won’t marry him.”
“We’ll see about that,” she huffed beside me, as the car pulled in front of the restaurant.
I don’t know what possessed me, but I picked up her Hermès bag and threw it back onto her lap. Hard. “It’ll never happen.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t speak.
