“I know.”
“If you are asking this woman what she wants and actually listening to the answer, you’ve already become a better man than Sergei.” She pauses. “That is both a compliment and a wound, and I mean them equally.”
My mother has compared me to my father before, usually as a warning. The comparison has shifted, and the shift matters to her in a way she rarely shows.
“Thank you, Mama.”
“Don’t thank me. Show me.” She picks up her teacup. I can hear the porcelain against the saucer. “Now, you didn’t call me to tell me about a girlfriend. You could have texted that. What else?”
I look at the ultrasound image propped against the lamp. “Aurora is pregnant. We found out two days ago, and we had the first ultrasound today.”
The teacup hits the saucer hard; I hear it from here. “Adrian, you’re serious?”
“We’re having twins.”
The silence lasts longer than any pause I’ve heard from my mother. When she speaks again, her voice is thick. “Twins. You’re giving me grandbabies.” She takes a shaking breath. “Two pudgy little grandchildren who will cling to me and call meBabushka.”
I grin, remembering when I had that thought about her, based on comments she’s made over the years. “They might not be pudgy, but they are dichorionic diamniotic, so far healthy, and measuring appropriately.”
“I don’t care about the medical terminology or if they’re pudgy.” She laughs, and the sound is wet and nothing like her usual composure. “I’ve been dreaming about this since you were twenty, and I’d given up because you were too busy building your father’s empire to build a family.”
Those words sting. “I’m building both now.”
“Then build the family first.” Her voice steadies, but the emotion underneath it doesn’t. “The empire will survive without you. Children won’t raise themselves, and Aurora deserves a partner who’s present, not someone disappearing into a study with encrypted phones every night.”
I close my eyelids for a second, letting them land. “She already told me that in different words, but basically the same message.”
“Good. I like her already.” Mama takes another breath and composes herself. “I want to meet her soon. Not when it’s convenient or when the timing is perfect.”
“When it’s safe, I’ll arrange it.”
“You’d better.” She pauses. “Twins. Your father would have been terrified and paranoid about their safety.” She clears her throat.“You sound terrified too, but you also sound happy. I haven’t heard that from you in years.”
I don’t argue with her read. I tell her what else I can about Aurora, the horseback riding, the shopping trip where Aurora bought practical clothes instead of designer labels, and how she audited one of my nightclubs and impressed the manager within five minutes. I don’t tell her about Dominic’s death, Eric’s pursuit, or the war I’m planning to keep Aurora alive. Mama doesn’t need those details. She needs confirmation I’m becoming what she raised me to be despite every example Sergei gave me, and she’s earned it.
After the call, Viktor arrives for his evening briefing. I tell him about the twins, and he takes the news with a single nod and a pause that lasts slightly longer than he usually takes. That’s almost like Viktor opening a bottle of champagne. He skips congratulations and goes straight to logistics, which is his version of the same thing. “We’ll need to revise the security protocols for two, not one.”
I nod before saying, “I’m no longer planning just for protection though. I’m planning for Aurora’s future, these children, and the version of myself that deserves all three.”
Viktor looks at me for a long moment. “What does that mean, Adrian?”
I hesitate, feeling my way as the words come out. “I’m…restructuring…separating the legitimate businesses from the criminal infrastructure and building a firewall between them that can’t be breached. The hotels, the clubs, and the real estate sustain themselves. The shipping network, the offshore accounts, and everything connected to Karpov’s world gets dismantled or transferred.”
He frowns fiercely. “That’s not a small project, and it could be dangerous.”
“I know, but I’m already living with danger. Start the assessment. I want a full inventory of which operations can be closed, sold, or need to be handed off to people I trust. The timeline is twelve months.”
Viktor clicks his tongue, clearly skeptical about the timeline, but makes a note on his tablet. “What about Karpov?”
“Karpov gets handled first. I can’t dismantle anything while he’s still active.” I look toward the porch where Aurora is reading with one hand on her stomach. It’s probably an unconscious gesture but reminds me again what’s at stake. “After Karpov, the restructuring begins. I want my children born into a life that doesn’t require armed guards and encrypted phones.”
He grunts. “That’s ambitious.”
“Yes, but it’s also necessary.”
Viktor nods and leaves without further commentary. The absence of argument is his endorsement.
I stand at the window later that night after Aurora has gone to bed. The bay is dark except for dock lights and the distant glow of a fishing boat near the reef. She is asleep down the hall, carrying two lives that didn’t exist nine weeks ago that have now reorganized every priority I have.
