“And these two young men are his sons, Pavel and Dimitri,” my father continues, pulling me from my inner thoughts.
Pavel looks to be my age, young and scrawny with dark brown hair, matching eyes and a timid look on his face. He glances at me, smiling shyly before looking away, barely sparing me any attention.
But when I turn to look at his brother, I realize this is the boy I saw in the driveway earlier. Dimitri is the polar opposite of Pavel. He’s a little older, taller and formidable with a look on his face like he could eat me in one bite or kill me with a snap of his fingers. He shares the same black hair as his father, but his eyes are stone cold blue. I hadn’t been able to tell the color of them before because of the distance between us. Up close now; however, they look peculiar and hypnotic; like two icy pools that I could fall deep into and maybe never surface again. Suddenly, his eyes lock onto mine, and I shudder in response to the hostility I find in them.
Tearing my gaze away from Dimitri, I close my eyes, desperately trying to block out his presence. If my instincts are right about him, he’s trouble. Everything about him screamsdanger. Even the way he holds himself is a warning, and every inch of him dares me to ignore it.
Papà clears his throat before taking a swig of liquor, draining the short glass. He sets it down on the desk with a resoundingthud. “Savina, we’ve been discussing our family’s future.Yourfuture.”
My eyes snap open, and I stare at my father.My future?I have been fearing this moment for several years now. My mother had warned me that someday I might be bartered away like prized cattle in an arranged marriage, just like she was. And my parent’s marriage was anything but normal and loving. Even though I was veryyoung, I still remember overhearing their heated arguments late into the night and my mother crying for hours afterwards.
And then, one fateful day, a few days after my fifth birthday, I found my mother lying in a pool of blood. She had taken her own life on the floor of their luxurious bathroom upstairs. Her left wrist lay split open and slowly bleeding; a butcher knife still clutched in her other hand as if she was making sure the job was done before she could finally rest.
I refuse to end up like my mother. I want to decide my own fate, but now I know my father has already written it for me. I’ve always known this might happen; but still, I clung to the foolish hope that somewhere along the way, something might change.
“The Sokolov family just moved here from Romania,” my father continues. “Our families are going into business together. And as a sign of trust and loyalty, we have drafted a marriage contract between you and one of Mr. Sokolov’s sons,” he explains.
“W-w-which son?” I stammer, desperately needing to know.Please say Pavel, I think in my head. He looks shy and innocent, whereas his older brother looks like a bona fide serial killer.
“Dimitri,” my father answers, popping my imaginary bubble of hope.
“No,” I blurt out. Quickly, I put a hand over my mouth when I realize I said it out loud.
Pavel shifts uneasily on his feet as he stares at the floor. And when I risk a glance at Dimitri, he is glaring at me with those icy blue eyes, like he’s looking right through me down to my very soul and ready to rip it out of my body with his bare hands.
“The deal has already been made,” my father tells me with finality. And then he’s scribbling his signature on the bottom of the contract before sliding it over to Anton, who also signs.
And then Mr. Sokolov slides the piece of paper across the desk to me. Handing me a pen, I take it from him in my trembling hand. I try to read the small, printed words on the paper, but they blur together as a headache pounds behind my eyes.
“P-P-Papà,” I begin to protest.
“Sign the paper, Savina,” he says with an exasperated sigh.
The pen shakes in my hand as I bring it down on the paper, hesitating once more.
“Sign it!” my father yells, slamming his fist down on his desk.
I jump, and then I’m scrawling my name on the dotted line, effectively sealing my fate. My entire body goes numb as the shock begins to set in as to what exactly just happened.I just signed my entire future away.
Breathing shallowly, I can feel his presence before I see him. Dimitri snatches the pen out of my hand. Our skin touches briefly, and I feel what can only be described as an electric shock. I quickly pull back from him like I was just burned. He watches my reaction, and then I see the corner of his mouth slowly lift. He’s smirking.Smirking!Clearly, my fear excites him, and that definitely doesn’t bode well for me considering he’s going to be my husband someday.
Dimitri stares down at the contract. He hesitates only for a moment before he signs right beside my name. Our signatures couldn’t look any more different. Mine is all flowy and girly, and his is bold with sharp edges. We are complete opposites in real life too, and I have no doubt this marriage will only end in violence and heartbreak.
It feels like Dimitri is consuming all the air around me, so I take a step back to get away from him. And only then, when there’s distance between us, can I breathe again.
“The marriage will happen when you are twenty-three and Dimitri is twenty-five,” my father announces to the room.
Twenty-three.That’s in ten years. A whole decade of waiting to be married tohim. A lot can change in that amount of time, however. Maybe our story won’t unfold the way it’s been written. Maybe I won’t have to marry him. I might have a chance to stop all of this, and I find myself holding onto that hope like a life preserver. It’s the only thing that will keep me from drowning in all of this misery.
“You can go now Savina,” my father says quietly, dismissingme.
I risk one last glance at Dimitri. His blue eyes bore into mine as he whispers with a thick accent, “See you soon, Savina.”
I trip over my own feet on the way out, barely catching myself in time to keep from falling. Tears fill my eyes as the weight of what just happened feels like it’s going to crush me with every step. As I slowly walk back to my bedroom, Dimitri’s last and only words to me loop endlessly through my mind. What he said didn’t sound like a normal goodbye. It sounded like a threat.
Dimitri Sokolov
LATER THAT NIGHT, I sneak out of my father’s compound and make my way back to the Cipriano’s mansion. We hadn’t been there long when they shoved that absurd marriage contract at me and myfuture wife, but it was enough time for me to scope out the house, cataloging every potential weakness. My father once told me that it’s my God-given talent — finding vulnerabilities in people and places and then breaking them quickly and efficiently. I’ve been doing it since I was a child, and it just comes naturally to me now.
