It was amazing what could be done via cell phone now.He remembered a time they could only text or call, which was a miracle when that happened.They were also a lot smaller than back in the day.
The smells of dinner were intoxicating as he entered the main cabin.He closed and locked the door.Anastasia greeted him with a smile, asked if he was okay, then put a pot of food in the center of the small table.
Anastasia loved to cook, and it reminded him that he needed to stop by a bookstore and grab a brand-new cookbook for her.
“You’re late,” Anastasia said.She handed him a knife and fork, and then leaned over the table to serve him a large bowlful of spaghetti and meatballs.
He had come to realize that Anastasia’s favorite food was pasta of any kind, and she loved meatballs as well.
Dmitriy didn’t need to look at the clock to know it was nearing seven.This was a big improvement on what happened the first month he had brought her here.Every night, she would be ready to attack him.Sometimes she would have a knife or a fork and attempt to stab him.On one occasion the prongs had indeed entered his flesh, which had sucked.Thankfully, they had been clean and not soaked in any kind of poison.It was not the worst feeling in the world, however, Anastasia had felt incredibly guilty afterward.He refused to tell her it didn’t sting.
That was when food had started to be made for him.Dmitriy couldn’t remember a time he had a home-cooked meal.His own parents hadn’t exactly been loving or comforting.
“It has been a long day.”
She never broached the subject of his work.
“Did your parents ever talk to you about ...the Bratva?”he asked.
Anastasia looked up, and he saw the surprise in her eyes.
She shook her head.“Not really.They spoke about how Gnesin had made something out of nothing, and that one of his points was to remember where he came from.”She shrugged.“But then, he stopped arriving at parties, and there was a messenger or something.I don’t know.Rumors were he got paranoid and was afraid of dying.You know him, though, right?You’ve seen him?”
Dmitriy nodded.What he didn’t tell her was it had been a long time since he had—over six months.
“When did he stop coming to parties?”Dmitriy asked.
She blew out a breath.“At least four years ago, that had to be when it started, but I don’t know about everything in between.I left, remember?”
“I remember.You refused to marry.”
“The guy was a pig, and he was gross.”
“You didn’t want to be with the guy because he was fat?”Dmitriy asked.
“No, what?No.It had nothing to do with his weight.He was ...horrible.He would grab women’s asses, and just, he thought everyone owed him something, and he was not a very nice man.I’m not shallow.”
“So, you’re saying if he had been a nice and kind man, you would have married him?”
“Yes,” Anastasia said.“Don’t look at me like that.I know people think looks are everything, but trust me on this, looks fade, okay?I used to hear my grandparents talk about it all the time.The ones that died before you killed my family.”
He was not going to feel guilty for following an order.Only now, six months later, he was a little doubtful as to the reason the Babkin family had to be removed.
“What did your grandparents say?”he asked.He loved to hear her speak.
“It was my grandma, actually.She would look at movie stars or whatever actor and actress was on television, and she would say, ‘looks are not everything.’”She laughed.“She would then say, ‘This is not because I’m an ugly person.I’m seventy years old, and my Ivan was a king, a hunk, and now his looks are gone, they are faded, but that love stays.’”She had a smile on her face.“Ivan and Lottie Babkin.They had met when she was sixteen, and he was twenty years old.She refused him, and he continued to chase her.They married when my grandma was eighteen, and it was a love match.That love never diminished.She would always tell me, ‘fall for a man who makes you happy, makes you laugh, makes you angry.Fall for the man who makes you feel so many different things, and even if he is ugly as sin, marry him, because he’s the one for you.’”
Dmitriy watched as she wiped a tear away.
He had not killed those grandparents, but he had known they had been killed in a car accident.At the funeral, he had attended, because from the moment he had seen Anastasia, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
He always found a means to be close to her, even if she didn’t know it.She had sobbed at her grandparents’ funeral, and if it hadn’t been for her father and brothers consoling her, he would have stolen her away, right there and then.
****
It had been a longtime since Anastasia had thought about Grandma Lottie.They had died when she was eighteen and a half years old.The news had been devastating.It had broken her heart to know her grandparents had died.
She had known true heartache, and through it all, she kept reminding herself of all the advice and wisdom her Grandma Lottie would bestow onto her.
