With everything.
The reward of earning this woman’s trust was the greatest gift she ever could’ve given me.
Her trust and love—both of which I’d never take for granted so long as I lived.
38
KALINA
Two months later…
I waited at the mirror for Raisa to adjust the clip in my hair. Raising my brows high, I caught her reflection. She also had thatholy shitkind of expression as we both listened to Gabriella downright scolding the wedding director. Or one of them. After this rush of an experience that was supposed to be called “wedding planning”, I was certain that my lovely friend wasthedirector.
“If we orderedwhiteribbons, then that is what I should be looking at with these bouquets. Does this look likewhiteto you?” Gabriella sassed.
“Jesus,” Raisa muttered, out of earshot from her as I stood at the mirror to make the final touches on my wedding outfit.
“I’ve heard that once you get on the wedding train, there’s no getting off it,” I whispered back conspiratorially, “but, damn.”
“She was like this at my wedding too,” Raisa said.
Sadie paused in helping me adjust my dress. I knew it wasn’t going to end well when I tried gowns on after I had recovered from giving birth to Nikolai. Trying on dresses with boobs the size of footballs in the height of cluster feeding would definitely throw off a bust measurement. I must have tried this dress onafterI’d fed my son because this fabric would not stretch over me now.
“She was bridezilla for you?” Sadie asked Raisa.
At the sound of Nikolai slightly fussing in the bassinet we’d brought to this room at the church, so he could be near his dairy cow—I mean, me—Sadie stopped short and went to check on him. He settled well, to her cooing at him to be a good Nicky. Josephine babbled in a play pen next to him, since she was becoming a Velcro baby to Sadie too.
Niko had been overjoyed when Alexsei and I told the soldier that we wanted to honor him with our son’s name. We’d had so many name ideas, but that seemed most fitting. The quiet and loyal guard had been with us all, as the one who’d come with Alexsei to get me from Central Park, then the only one left standing to defend the cabin. He’d since been promoted to Alexsei’s former position, as the security expert in the field, while Alexsei supervised from his home office more often than not.
“Well, I was the bride, obviously,” Raisa said. “But I let her have full control over it all. Free rein. I told her to do whatever she wanted, just so long as Ivan was the one I’d be walking down the aisle to meet.”
“I told her the same thing,” I admitted.
Two months seemed like a short time to plan a huge, fancy wedding, but Gabriella clearly came with experience.
“When Alexsei proposed, I figured we’d just do something simple. Sign papers, have dinner. Easy and quick with Nicky.”
Raisa huffed a laugh. Sadie smiled.
“That was her reaction too. Like I was insane to think of dismissing ‘the most important day of my life’.” I cringed as she raised her voice at the wedding planner’s assistant behind us.
I had many important days to mark as milestones. The day I planned to escape my brother. The day I woke up in the Dubinin mansion. The day I dared to kiss Alexsei. The day Misha told me he loved me and wanted me to be his mommy. The day Alexsei proposed, doubly sweet because it was when I gave birth to Nicky.
But that wasn’t all.
The day I passed my first GED course. The day I was officially “hired” at the women’s foundation offices. The day I got my driver’s license. Normal real-world adult stuff that I was behind on.
I was catching up, though.
I was a normal woman now, settled in the very real world so bright with love and hope. Danger would always lurk in the background, but I was working out and training with my gun that Luka gifted me to be safe and smart. Just yesterday, Simon updated us about an old negotiation Erik had attempted to plan for me to be sold off to someone in a Greek Mafia family.
Since I killed Erik and Yusef, the cyber expert backtracked through their phones and all records to ensure that no other standing orders were going to cause trouble. In case Erik andYusef had tried to pawn me off to multiple buyers and screw them all over just to get the most money.
A couple of things popped up, and Luka’s idea was similar to mine, for Alexsei and me to marry quickly, immediately, so no one could ever make a claim on me.
But Gabriella protested. She wanted me to have this huge, fancy wedding. And Luka would always bend over backward to give his wife whatever she wanted.
For the first two months of Nicky’s life, security was high. It was as though until I was Mrs. Alexsei Dubinin, officially and legally and permanently married, the potential for a proposed sale could pop up as a problem.
