Marisha stopped and turned to look at me, her eyes filled with affection. “Because it’s the same way Alexander and I look at each other.”
I was stunned into silence as I realized what she was saying. As I let her words settle into my skin and soak beneath the surface. “But all we do is fight… that’s all you’ve seen between us. Bickering and childish games.”
Marisha opened her mouth to respond, but my mother’s voice sounded first.
“Ladies, come along,” my mother snapped from upfront. I glanced over, noticing that she’d stopped and was staring at me. “Now, Katya.”
I looked back at Marisha, my words finally coming loose. “I love him.”
Marisha nodded. “Yes, you do.”
“I love him, and he loves me.” I put a hand to my mouth to try and stop them from escaping. As if I could change the truth from fact and make it fiction. Because this couldn’t be. It didn’t make sense.
This was Nikolai and me. How could we love each other?
We hated one another.
We wereenemies.
We werelovers.
We wereforbidden.
“Katya!” my mother shouted my name and both Marisha and I flinched and then started to laugh. Tears were in my eyes, disbelief in my heart and dread was rapidly settling into my soul
We followed her quickly back to the condos and I realized that we weren’t going towards my suite.
“Where are we going?” I asked with a frown.
My mother turned to scowl at me. “Did you really think that you would be allowed to share a condo with him after the stunt you both just pulled?”
“Well, I…no, I guess not.” I hated the sick feeling in my stomach, the way it was already aching for him. Missing him. Worrying for him. Needing him. The tenderness between my legs yearning for him. I glanced back towards the dock noting that he wasn’t back with Alex or my father yet. “Will he be okay?”
My mother’s gaze softened, a slight puzzlement pulling between her perfect shaped eyebrows. “He’s in a lot of trouble, Katya. You both are.”
“But will he be okay?” I asked again, my words more forceful this time. My mother's frown deepened.
“Not that it’s any of your concern, but he’ll be fine. He’s being sent home tomorrow.”
“No,” I blurted out, the word escaping sharply before I could stop it. “He can’t go home.”
“Katya, calm yourself.”
“Please let him stay, mother.” My mother tsked and turned away, but I gripped her forearm and swung her back. “I don’t want him to leave, please.”
“It’s not up to me,” she said, her tone hard but her features confused.
“But could you speak to father for me?” I begged.
“I certainly will not. You have made a fool of both of us for the last time. You will do as you’re told until your wedding tomorrow and then you will do as your husband tells you after that. No more drinking and dressing like a...like this,” she waved her hand up and down me, “no more cavorting with every man you can sink your claws into. You will become the lady which your father requires you to be and you will make us both proud.”
Tears spilled from my eyes as her words cut away every part of my personality until I was nothing more than a carbon copy of a Stepford Wife.
“Katya, whatever has gotten into you recently?” she shook her head, annoyed. “Viktor is a good man. A powerful man. He will bring pride and respect to the family. He will make us stronger. And he will be able to give you the life which you are used to. He’s a handsome man and he’ll treat you well.”
“But I don’t love him,” I wailed, suddenly unable to contain my misery any longer. “I don’t love him and I don’t want him. Please don’t make me do this.”
Silence fell between us as she took in my words and my distraughtness, until finally she shook it off. “You will marry Viktor. It is your duty to the family. To your father, and to me.” And then she turned and walked away.
